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Speaker 1: M did theoria that's a disease, and I'm Robert Evans,

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Speaker 1: and this is Behind the Bastards, a podcast that's not

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Speaker 1: about diseases. It's about the worst people in all the

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Speaker 1: history who are kind of a disease on the human condition.

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Speaker 1: I couldn't think of anything else to shout at the

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Speaker 1: start of the episode, so I went with diphtheria. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: the show has begun. My guests today are one of

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Speaker 1: our very best guests, the wonderful, the incomparable Lazy Mobery.

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Speaker 1: I'm so happy to be here. I haven't seen you

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Speaker 1: in so long, Robert, yet it has been a minute.

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Speaker 1: It has been a minute. How have How are you

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Speaker 1: doing in in this year of plague and also general

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Speaker 1: uprisings and also a political election and also an economic collapse.

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Speaker 1: Um I was in the beginning, in the beginning of this,

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Speaker 1: I know when you say it all together, when you

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Speaker 1: talk about what's been happening, it sounds very bad because

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Speaker 1: the new cycle is so crazy. Like that the one

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Speaker 1: week where Malaia was like, Chris, I can't do her voice,

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Speaker 1: but she's like and then taxes came out the same week.

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Speaker 1: Also he got COVID. It was like so many things happened,

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Speaker 1: and we were like, oh, this is just Tuesday. Okay,

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Speaker 1: I'm doing a lot better. In the beginning. I'm a

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Speaker 1: like an introvert. People don't know that about me because

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Speaker 1: I do a lot of this ship, but like, I

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Speaker 1: am alone a lot and I like it. So I

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Speaker 1: was like, oh, putting up on TV's Netflix movies, honey.

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Speaker 1: And then when we got into June, it was like, okay,

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Speaker 1: Black Liberation and that kind of kept me busy. And

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Speaker 1: then I took a real dump like after that of

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Speaker 1: like closing my blackout curtains. Like I was like a shutting,

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Speaker 1: bedridden pregnant woman in the eighteen hundreds and just like

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Speaker 1: laying in the dark for a few days. But now

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Speaker 1: I'm back, I'm going working out every day and you know,

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Speaker 1: I just trying to keep myself safe. You know how

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Speaker 1: they used to be like Google, gott I had a

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Speaker 1: king's baby, so get your aunts in bed and closed

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Speaker 1: these curtains. Yes, So that was me except for no baby,

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Speaker 1: no quarantine baby. Thank god, I have not had a

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Speaker 1: quarantine baby either. Um. I did adopt a riot son,

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Speaker 1: but but but no quarantine baby. Um lazy, How do

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Speaker 1: you feel about but I do. I really love them.

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Speaker 1: It's a complicated relationship though, because I don't love when

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Speaker 1: people are victimized. I hate to see it happened. Actually

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Speaker 1: this morning, my little sister got scammed. Oh no, what

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Speaker 1: kind of scam I was doing with the family crisis

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Speaker 1: before nine am? Chair because they two hours ahead of me.

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Speaker 1: And so basically, my sister met this girl and they've

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Speaker 1: been hanging out through a mutual friend for three months.

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Speaker 1: And the girl was like talking about how she needed

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Speaker 1: to move out from her parents house and how during

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Speaker 1: quarantine things have just got so bad, you know, side story,

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Speaker 1: side story, honey. So she's like, I'm selling my art

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Speaker 1: online and I don't want to put the money in

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Speaker 1: my bank account because I don't want my parents to

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Speaker 1: know that I'm saving up to leave. So she asked

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Speaker 1: my little sister, is she could put the money in

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Speaker 1: her bank account cut to some man named Clad or

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Speaker 1: some ship emailing my sister four checks for eight hundred dollars.

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Speaker 1: Why my sister didn't think? I was like you, I

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Speaker 1: literally the first thing I text, because she was like,

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Speaker 1: don't tell my mom dad. I was like, first of all,

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Speaker 1: I have to Second of all, I know this is petty,

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Speaker 1: but I was like, I run a show called scam Guys.

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Speaker 1: I was like, y'all support your sister and listen to

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Speaker 1: her show, because girl, i'n't talked about this scam like

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Speaker 1: eleven times. I'm trying to help you seventeen so all

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Speaker 1: enough to know about her. It's like it's like if

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Speaker 1: your job was to give out flu vaccines and then like,

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Speaker 1: your sister gets the flu and she's like, well I

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Speaker 1: didn't know there was a vaccine, Like what the funk

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Speaker 1: are you? Like? Right, I'm like, I spent a whole

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Speaker 1: section of my life just talking about scams. You ain't

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Speaker 1: think nothing, thought like let me text my older sister

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Speaker 1: before I make a devilas and nothing. So she said,

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Speaker 1: up the hundred dollars because they cleared it automatically, which

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Speaker 1: is there, so we're dealing with them. But it was

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Speaker 1: total and so the bank of course did a charge

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Speaker 1: back and then that coin flew right out of her

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Speaker 1: account and she was like, well, my friend didn't know.

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Speaker 1: I was like, your friend did no, Okay, she scammed

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Speaker 1: and she got your friend and don't talk to her again.

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Speaker 1: And also I will pull up to whatever slide whatever

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Speaker 1: swing set. I need to to be her ass uh.

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Speaker 1: I will fight children. Um yeah, if you're five one,

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Speaker 1: you can fight kids. Mostly I will fight children. Have one.

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Speaker 1: It's a fair fight. Okay? He is her friends seventeen two? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think they're around the same A. Yeah, but a

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Speaker 1: surprise bastard. Yeah, surprise. I didn't expect to talk about

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Speaker 1: this one. Sorry, it was on my heart. You know

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Speaker 1: who else would fight children? Probably probably the subject of

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Speaker 1: today's podcast, I assume based on everything else he did so, Lacy,

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Speaker 1: you and I are both are both connoisseurs of con men.

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Speaker 1: You know, we love we love us some connors right,

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Speaker 1: like it's it's there's something just you gotta you love

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Speaker 1: a grifter like they're they're monsters, but they're fascinating. And

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Speaker 1: most of the grifters, at least that I talk about,

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Speaker 1: I know, you cover kind of a different branch of them.

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Speaker 1: Most of the ones I talk about are either like

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Speaker 1: hawking some sort of miracle medical treatment, or like a

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Speaker 1: path to easy riches. I guess that that's basically all

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Speaker 1: of them, right. Um. There are like, you know, a

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Speaker 1: couple though, who rise above the rest. There's people like

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Speaker 1: oh Ron Hubbard, right, who like drifted a whole religion

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Speaker 1: and it's like, you know, and today's grifter is that

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Speaker 1: level of grifter. Um, he didn't make a religion. But

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Speaker 1: the guy we're talking about today, Sir Gregor McGregor, count

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Speaker 1: people into believing he had a whole country. And that's

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Speaker 1: pretty ambitious. It is good, you know travel. He's like, no,

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Speaker 1: you don't have to come, just no, oh no, he

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Speaker 1: he convinced them to come. Now, this was a different

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Speaker 1: era we're talking about. Out the eighteen hundreds, um, and spoiler,

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Speaker 1: a lot of them died. Um. This is a high

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Speaker 1: body count scammer. Um. But our first episode is going

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Speaker 1: to be about the rest of his back because like

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Speaker 1: every grifter, he had to like build up, you know,

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Speaker 1: just start by faking a country, right, Like you gotta

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Speaker 1: that's like, that's like the marathon of grift ing and

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Speaker 1: like you gotta do some tin ks, some twenty k's

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Speaker 1: like before you can you know, before you can get

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Speaker 1: that ship. So. Gregor McGregor was born in Sterlingshire, Scotland,

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Speaker 1: on Christmas Eve, seventeen eight six. His family were somewhat

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Speaker 1: famous among the contentious peoples of Scotland. One of his

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Speaker 1: ancestors was a guy named rob Roy McGregor, a cattle

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Speaker 1: wrestler and a bandit who basically charged people not to

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Speaker 1: steal their ship. He was a gangster Um. He controlled

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Speaker 1: a large group of raiders who would like steal cows

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Speaker 1: and then ransom them back to their customers or just

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Speaker 1: like get money from them not to steal their cows

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Speaker 1: in the first place. The origin, yeah, yeah, he was.

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Speaker 1: He was kind of like a towing company, but an

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Speaker 1: a legal towing company. Um, we're like some guy with

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Speaker 1: a gun comes out and said, oh, you want your

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Speaker 1: fucking car back, Like, yeah, I have definitely had my

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Speaker 1: car toad, but it was unfortunately legal, although I felt

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Speaker 1: as if it was not, and if it were a

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Speaker 1: bandit perhaps that would have been nicer. Um because there

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Speaker 1: were cops involved anyway, So he piste off a local

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Speaker 1: noble by stealing stealing his cows eventually, and that got

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Speaker 1: the McGregor clan kicked off. There's like a roster of

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Speaker 1: official Scottish clans. It's like a it's like a whole deal.

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Speaker 1: And so the McGregor family got kicked off for like

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Speaker 1: decades um and rob Roy's family got like tossed out

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Speaker 1: of their home in the dead of winter. Um, and

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Speaker 1: he was he was really it seems like just a criminal,

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Speaker 1: like just like not a good criminal either, Like you know,

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Speaker 1: I'm not judgmental of criminals, but he's just like stealing

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Speaker 1: people's ship. But because of like for whatever reason, it's complicated.

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Speaker 1: He's still he turned into a folk hero in Scotland

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Speaker 1: and he's kind of you now is the Scottish Robin Hood.

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Speaker 1: So this is Gregor McGregor's like famous ancestor, and he's

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Speaker 1: he's only born like sixty years before Gregor's birth, but

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Speaker 1: like you know, back in the seventeen hundreds, that's like

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Speaker 1: a billion years, you know. Yeah. So by the time

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Speaker 1: Gregor McGregor comes into the world, his family, his clan

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Speaker 1: had been re estate and stated to the roles, and

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Speaker 1: he's got like this famous tradition of like we're we're

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Speaker 1: we're we're both warriors and and freedom fighters, YadA, YadA, YadA.

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Speaker 1: His family weren't rich, but they were really very comfortable

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Speaker 1: local aristocrats, like upper middle class. They were eating every day,

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Speaker 1: yeah yeah, yeah, and they were eating well. Um, he

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Speaker 1: would have grown up hearing tales of like his ancestors glory,

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Speaker 1: YadA YadA. Uh. We don't know any details about Gregor's

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Speaker 1: education or his early life because people didn't keep great

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Speaker 1: notes in the seventeen hundreds about folks who weren't like

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Speaker 1: super rich. But we know that his father worked for

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Speaker 1: the British East India Company and would have been absent

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Speaker 1: all the time doing you know, genocides and stuff. Uh.

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Speaker 1: It's likely that Gregor was raised by his mom and

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Speaker 1: his aunts and showered with attention because he was the

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Speaker 1: only boy in the family and I think most people

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Speaker 1: know what that kind of does to you. He was

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Speaker 1: like the original influencer of the seventeen hundred. It sounds

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Speaker 1: like he would have had like, maybe like eighty four

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Speaker 1: Instagram followers. Yeah, it's weird how quickly you've picked up

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Speaker 1: on where this story is going lazy. Um so. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: His His modern biographer, a guy named David Sinclair, posits,

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Speaker 1: based on his later life he was probably showered with

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Speaker 1: attention and grew used to getting whatever he wanted, like

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Speaker 1: he was he was the special boy of the family, right.

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Speaker 1: Um So, he probably left school at about age fifteen

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Speaker 1: because that's when Scottish boys became adults, which is interesting

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Speaker 1: to me because like pretty much everywhere else in Urope,

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Speaker 1: it was like age fourteen. So I guess the Scots

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Speaker 1: you get an extra year of being a kid. That's nice. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: they're progressive. Uh. The next year, at age sixteen, he

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Speaker 1: enlisted in the British Army. Uh. Sixteen was the earliest

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Speaker 1: age at which this was allowed. And before you get

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Speaker 1: all judge, you should know that seventeen year olds joined

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Speaker 1: the U s Army all the time, so things aren't

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Speaker 1: changed all that much. Like we added a year. We're

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Speaker 1: the Scotsman of the modern era. So um, yeah, Gregor

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Speaker 1: joins the army and uh. He would claim later that

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Speaker 1: he spent the year between graduation and joining the university

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Speaker 1: and joining the army at the University of Edinburgh, But

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Speaker 1: everything he ever said was a lie, so don't put

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Speaker 1: too much stock in that. There's no evidence that he

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Speaker 1: ever attended college. Now. Back in those days, as a

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Speaker 1: result of changes made by King Charles the Second, young

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Speaker 1: men with money could buy their way into the British Army,

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Speaker 1: and it's almost certain that Gregor's father paid for him

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Speaker 1: to be commissioned as an incident, which was like the

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Speaker 1: lowest officer rank at the period and cost about four

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty pounds, which was equivalent to around twenty

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Speaker 1: five dollars in modern money. So like this was expensive,

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Speaker 1: it was also the normal way that officers got promoted, right,

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Speaker 1: you could either wait years to earn a promotion or

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Speaker 1: you could pay for it. Um. Poorman had to settle

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Speaker 1: for being promoted the old fashioned way through like hard

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Speaker 1: work and courage, and so the you know that took

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Speaker 1: a long time. Um. Until fairly late in the eighteen hundreds,

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Speaker 1: every officer rank in the British Army worked this way

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Speaker 1: up to the rank of lieutenant colonel. UM. So the

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Speaker 1: people who are at least qualified. It's interesting because it

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Speaker 1: did work very badly a lot of the time, and

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Speaker 1: that's why it was eventually stopped. UM. And obviously, like

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Speaker 1: the thing that you'd imagine did happen, a bunch of

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Speaker 1: idiots got to command the lives of thousands thanks to

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Speaker 1: their rich dad's UM. And you can look at ship

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Speaker 1: like the famous charge of the Light Brigade during the

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Speaker 1: Crimean War, and even the I mean they'd stopped that process,

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Speaker 1: but still a lot of the officers in charge during

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Speaker 1: that war had paid to become officers Um, and even

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Speaker 1: the British loss of North America is like maybe partial

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Speaker 1: consequences of the fact that the system work this way. Um,

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Speaker 1: but it wasn't like it wasn't all bad actually, And

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Speaker 1: this is the I found like a really interesting letter

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Speaker 1: to the editor in an eighteen sixty issue of The

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Speaker 1: New York Times, Um, We're like a British military veteran

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Speaker 1: explained why the system wasn't quite as as simple as

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Speaker 1: people thought it was. And one of the points he

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Speaker 1: made is that it allowed people who were good leaders

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Speaker 1: to speed up their rise to through the ranks and

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Speaker 1: then thus spend more time commanding armies in the prime

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Speaker 1: of their lives. And there's actually at least one really

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Speaker 1: good example of this. The Duke of Wellington paid for

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Speaker 1: all of the seven biable promotions he could possibly have paid.

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Speaker 1: And like, by the time he was a lieutenant colonel,

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Speaker 1: he'd never seen combat, had no functional experience, and he

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Speaker 1: went on to beat Napoleon at Waterloo. So like, sometimes

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Speaker 1: it worked sometimes, Yeah, he was a strategist, he was Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he was good at what he like. Sometimes this worked out, um,

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Speaker 1: And like one of the one of the famous defenses

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Speaker 1: when people would talk about canceling this system in the

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Speaker 1: late eighteen hundreds, was that, like, well then we'd have

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Speaker 1: to pay all these officers back for the money they

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Speaker 1: paid to like get their promotions, and that would cost

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Speaker 1: way too much money. Um, so let's just let's just

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Speaker 1: keep having idiots and charity. It was a very silly

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Speaker 1: thing for the most part. Now. The unit Gregor's dad

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Speaker 1: bought his son into was the fifty seventh Foot, a

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Speaker 1: Scottish regiment famous for the fact that almost everyone in

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Speaker 1: it was a criminal. Their name their nickname was the

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Speaker 1: Steelbacks because were flogged with whips so many times for

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Speaker 1: their disobedience. So it said that like you had to

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Speaker 1: have a strong back to survive because they'd regularly get

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Speaker 1: like nine lashes and ship for like all of the

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Speaker 1: crimes they committed. Now, is that pre army or during

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Speaker 1: the army? That's during the army. I feel like they

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Speaker 1: shouldn't beating all people that you need to fight. The

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Speaker 1: British Army did that all the time. There was in fact,

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Speaker 1: there was like a saying that like the British Navy

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Speaker 1: was kept in order by rum, sodomy and the lash. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so like they're drunk, they get to funk each other

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Speaker 1: and we beat them when they step out of line.

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Speaker 1: And that's why there's the there's also a great Pogues

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Speaker 1: album called Rum Sodomy and the Lash wonderful. That's a

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Speaker 1: good time. Some people would like it, like there are

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Speaker 1: some stores I've been to in San Francisco that specifically

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Speaker 1: catered to that set of things. But these were not

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Speaker 1: fun lashes, you know, like these would do real damage

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Speaker 1: to you. Um. The commander of the fifty seven foot

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Speaker 1: once nicknamed them the fighting Villains, um, because again, they're

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Speaker 1: all criminals. So McGregor did well there at first. He

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Speaker 1: actually earned a promotion from instant to lieutenant without having

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Speaker 1: to pay for it. Um. So he had like promise

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Speaker 1: he there was a chance he could have lived a

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Speaker 1: legitimate life at one point. Is what I want you

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Speaker 1: to keep. They're always there. Yeah. Yeah. There was that

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Speaker 1: moment where John McAfee had to choose to murder a

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Speaker 1: bunch of people in the jungle, and when he chose Crack,

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Speaker 1: his choice was paid for him to do. The Crack

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Speaker 1: stepped into the Crack entered the chat and it's like

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Speaker 1: one of those Jesus take the wheel posters, but Crack

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Speaker 1: John McAfee closed his eyes and let crack take the wheel.

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Speaker 1: Do take the wheel, y'all. Ever, so at this point

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Speaker 1: in history, the British were real scared about Napoleon because

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Speaker 1: Napoleon was, you know, be pretty good at war. Uh

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Speaker 1: And yeah, Gregor spent the bulk of his military career

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Speaker 1: being sent around a different islands as forts and forts

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Speaker 1: is part of like a big chess game between the

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Speaker 1: Empire and Napoleon. The British were terrified the French were

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Speaker 1: going to invade you know, England, so like they were

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Speaker 1: just always moving soldiers and fleets around. It was so

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Speaker 1: he spends he doesn't actually fight, He spends all of

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Speaker 1: his time like moving from post to post. And his

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Speaker 1: favorite part of life in the military was all the

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Speaker 1: fancy parties because all of these fortresses and posts are

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Speaker 1: near like towns and cities, and they all of these

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Speaker 1: big social lives, and of course the visiting young officers

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Speaker 1: are the you know, the biggest thing in town whenever

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Speaker 1: they come in. And he was a very handsome guy.

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Speaker 1: He was meticulous about his uniform. He wore every decoration

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Speaker 1: he possibly good on it um and he he you know,

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Speaker 1: he stood out at these parties, and as a result

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Speaker 1: of standing out when he was still like a teenager,

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Speaker 1: he met a lady. Her name was Maria bowater Um

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Speaker 1: and her father had been an admiral, and so their

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Speaker 1: family had fuck you money. They get married and yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, and in those days, you get married to

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Speaker 1: a girl and she comes with money, right, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you get like yeah, said handsome question mark. I just

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Speaker 1: google searched. The standards were lower in those days. Everybody.

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Speaker 1: Everybody's got the typhoid he has, he has, I just

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Speaker 1: farted face. Yeah, but he didn't. He's not actively shifting

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Speaker 1: himself to death. So like that's that's kind of the

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Speaker 1: standard is like, oh, you're not You're not having fatal diarrhea.

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Speaker 1: What a handsome man. You don't have both ears. It

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Speaker 1: was a rough time, so uh yeah. They get married

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Speaker 1: and her dowry is like huge. So Gregor has fuck

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Speaker 1: you money too, at least for a while. Um. And

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Speaker 1: unfortunately this has a bad effect on him. Number one,

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Speaker 1: it swells his head because immediately he's like, oh, now

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Speaker 1: I'm like a fucking rich officer guy. But also like

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Speaker 1: he marries into this family that has this tradition of

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Speaker 1: like being very powerful people and he's just a lieutenant

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Speaker 1: and they don't. That does not impress them. So to

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Speaker 1: earn their respect, he uses some of the money that

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Speaker 1: he their money that he got to buy himself a

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Speaker 1: promotion to captain. He's got douche face. I'm looking at

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Speaker 1: his face, but he's it was good looking for the day. No,

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Speaker 1: it's not. You know, I could see him being a

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Speaker 1: baddie back in the day. I'm just saying he's got

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Speaker 1: that douchey face of like everything I want. Like, it's

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Speaker 1: just he's no, No, he would have. He would have

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Speaker 1: been in a fraternity and he would have been one

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Speaker 1: of those guys that there were unfortunate stories about because yeah, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's this guy. Um, not that he actually does anything

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Speaker 1: like that, I'm just assuming because of other things he does.

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Speaker 1: So I'm gonna quote next from David Sinclair's The Land

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Speaker 1: That Never Was, which is a biography of Gregor McGregor. Quote,

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Speaker 1: the young captain's progress should have been assured. Using his

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Speaker 1: newfound wealth, McGregor could have bought himself the rank of

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Speaker 1: regimental major, which could take anything between six and seventeen years,

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Speaker 1: on the basis of promotion, and then with war with certainty,

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Speaker 1: could have either counted on distinguishing himself sufficiently to move

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Speaker 1: up to lieutenant colonel, or else paid again for the

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Speaker 1: highest purchasable rank in the army. There appeared to be

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Speaker 1: no reason why, in due course he should not become

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Speaker 1: a general, as his wife's uncle had and as her

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Speaker 1: brother subsequently would. By this time, however, certain traits in

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Speaker 1: the young man's character were beginning to turn him into

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Speaker 1: his own worst enemy. One of his later military comrades,

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Speaker 1: if that is the right term for a man who

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Speaker 1: disliked him intensely, observed McGregor was spoiled by prosperity, and

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Speaker 1: his versatility and haughtiness of disposition soon overturned his flattering prospects.

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Speaker 1: So he gets a big ass head. That's a fancy

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Speaker 1: way of saying he gets a big head. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: this guy's a hater. Whoever this comrade is is definitely

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Speaker 1: a hater. He's probably like had to work his way up.

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Speaker 1: Yeah exactly. Yeah, he's like he's he's actually gotta do ship.

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Speaker 1: Um so. One of his other comrades later noted that

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Speaker 1: he began to show a growing fascination with extreme affectation

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Speaker 1: of dress and fashion and an overpowering fondness for the

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Speaker 1: nicest distinctions of rank and the over or in the

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Speaker 1: imposing spectacle of honorary badges and tangible tokens of merit.

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Speaker 1: And this means like he would. You know, there's all

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Speaker 1: sorts of bullshit awards you get in the military for

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Speaker 1: like showing up and not doing anything, and most like

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Speaker 1: most like grunts, the people who actually fight, like don't

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Speaker 1: don't wear that ship. And he like he would, he

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Speaker 1: would wear that ship because, like he always he wanted

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Speaker 1: to have everything he possibly could on him. It was

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Speaker 1: about like looking good. Right, he's like a rapper. He's

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Speaker 1: showing up to these cities like he's Travis Scott and

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Speaker 1: you know, showing off for the bitches. He said, there's

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Speaker 1: a party in every town, and I gotta have my

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Speaker 1: gold chains. And his health chains were purple hearts and

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Speaker 1: medals of freedom. Yeah exactly. Yeah, that's why the like,

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Speaker 1: that's the fucking you know. I grew up like really conservative.

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Speaker 1: I talked about this a lot, and like the discourse

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Speaker 1: around rappers when I was a kid was like, oh,

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Speaker 1: look at how like look at how look at how

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Speaker 1: like shameful This culture is because of like these men

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Speaker 1: with their like big golden chains bragging about like you

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Speaker 1: know what, like the stuff that rappers brag about, and

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Speaker 1: it's like money, car, fucking Yeah, it's the same thing

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Speaker 1: rich white people brag about. It's just different money, different cars,

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Speaker 1: different women. Like there's nothing different about it. It's just

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Speaker 1: what men do, like grossmen do at least, like it's

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Speaker 1: just a thing. Yeah, So I don't see, but I

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Speaker 1: get it that it's like if you're really doing work

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Speaker 1: and you're in the military and you're looking at this

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Speaker 1: guy and people are dying all around you, and you're

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Speaker 1: on the battlefield and you have phone boy who doesn't

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Speaker 1: even have to touch the soil, and he's like dripped

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Speaker 1: down with every medal and accomplishment, and I were talking

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Speaker 1: cash it at all these functions and being a douche Yeah,

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Speaker 1: because at least, like you know, it's like like if

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Speaker 1: you've got a fucking gold chain or whatever, you probably

400
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Speaker 1: had to earn that gold chain. You had to fucking hustle,

401
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Speaker 1: Like he just married some lady and then took her money, uh,

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Speaker 1: and then bought a promotion. I'm looking at a picture

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Speaker 1: of him pose with a sword like he is my sword,

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Speaker 1: and I'm like, has he ever had to swing the

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Speaker 1: sword on anybody? Or is he just posted up like

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Speaker 1: this is how rappers pose with guns and music videos.

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Speaker 1: He does eventually swing his sword, not at this point. Not.

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Speaker 1: And at this point he's never done anything. He's wearing

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Speaker 1: all the medals and he's he's forcing all of the

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Speaker 1: men under his command to never show up outside of

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Speaker 1: their rooms unless they're wearing a full dress uniform with

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Speaker 1: a handsome walking cane. Okay, so he was swaggy, he

413
00:21:16,200 --> 00:21:19,320
Speaker 1: was had the Swag Brigade. Yeah, he wanted, he wanted,

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Speaker 1: and yeah, and that that frustrates the men around him. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So and like these guys don't want to be the

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Speaker 1: Swag Battalion, their criminals like they want to they want

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Speaker 1: to get drunk and fight. Um, they don't want to

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Speaker 1: wear walk around with canes. So in the winter of

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Speaker 1: eighteen oh seven, France invades Portugal. In Spain, the British

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Speaker 1: counter invade, and although Gregor and his unit were nearby,

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Speaker 1: they didn't take any part in the fighting until like

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Speaker 1: eighteen o nine, when they're sent to Portugal to fight

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Speaker 1: under the Duke of Wellington. After deploying to Portugal. The

424
00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:53,480
Speaker 1: fifty seven fought heroically at the Battle of Albuera, which

425
00:21:53,480 --> 00:21:57,000
Speaker 1: was this horribly bloody, grinding affair that killed like ten

426
00:21:57,080 --> 00:22:00,280
Speaker 1: thousand people and was like a hugely famous battle of time.

427
00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:02,520
Speaker 1: And it has now been forgotten by everybody but war nerds,

428
00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:05,720
Speaker 1: because that's what happens when you sacrifice yourself in hugely

429
00:22:05,760 --> 00:22:09,520
Speaker 1: famous battles, is everybody but nerds forgets you. Um, And

430
00:22:09,560 --> 00:22:12,800
Speaker 1: I wish that that wasn't the case, because yeah, absolutely,

431
00:22:12,840 --> 00:22:15,120
Speaker 1: now we should remember all the battles. Obviously we're still

432
00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:17,320
Speaker 1: in Afghanistan, like we should remember all the ship that's

433
00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:20,960
Speaker 1: still going on. But it's more interesting to me sometimes

434
00:22:20,960 --> 00:22:23,520
Speaker 1: the olden time battles because he's just gotta be in

435
00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:26,360
Speaker 1: good shape. I gotta be out here stabbing you. That's

436
00:22:26,400 --> 00:22:29,159
Speaker 1: a lot of work. And I have that multiple people,

437
00:22:29,400 --> 00:22:31,000
Speaker 1: like I gotta be out here. How long are you?

438
00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:33,880
Speaker 1: How many hours are you outside stabbing? I know, everybody's

439
00:22:33,920 --> 00:22:38,280
Speaker 1: gotta be out of breath, just like and they're all

440
00:22:38,320 --> 00:22:42,000
Speaker 1: wearing like these thick cotton uniforms like now ship breeds

441
00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:44,960
Speaker 1: right like right now we got breed material. They have

442
00:22:45,040 --> 00:22:46,720
Speaker 1: to dress like they're about to go to a kaya

443
00:22:46,800 --> 00:22:50,720
Speaker 1: West fans hat certain pounds, like yeah, it's it sucks,

444
00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:54,520
Speaker 1: it sounds terrible. I have to take a break. Is

445
00:22:54,520 --> 00:22:55,919
Speaker 1: there a point in the fight where we both just

446
00:22:55,960 --> 00:22:58,960
Speaker 1: like hold on, listen, just take yo. Yeah, I mean

447
00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:02,000
Speaker 1: they're actually we're so time. Everybody stretched. We don't know

448
00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:04,159
Speaker 1: we're gonna keep the battle going. We just saw me

449
00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:09,000
Speaker 1: so like yeah. They So his unit fights in this

450
00:23:09,119 --> 00:23:11,680
Speaker 1: very famous battle, um and they earned the nickname the

451
00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:14,360
Speaker 1: die Hards because like they're they're such good of fighters.

452
00:23:14,720 --> 00:23:16,840
Speaker 1: And Gregor would spend the rest of his life bragging

453
00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:18,800
Speaker 1: about the fact that he served with the die Hards

454
00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:20,959
Speaker 1: and he fought in this battle, and he didn't. It's

455
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:23,280
Speaker 1: a total lie because when it happened, he was actually

456
00:23:23,359 --> 00:23:26,560
Speaker 1: back in England, because months before the fighting happened, he

457
00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:29,200
Speaker 1: got into like what was probably a fistfight with a

458
00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:32,120
Speaker 1: superior officer and then got kicked out of his unit

459
00:23:32,119 --> 00:23:39,159
Speaker 1: and eventually the entire British Army um um. And we

460
00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:41,800
Speaker 1: don't know exactly what happened, but one of his comrades

461
00:23:41,840 --> 00:23:44,120
Speaker 1: did write that he was much addicted to the pleasures

462
00:23:44,119 --> 00:23:47,600
Speaker 1: of the table gambling and was frequently intemperate, drunk to

463
00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:50,920
Speaker 1: excess Um so he was probably got wasted and got

464
00:23:50,920 --> 00:23:53,239
Speaker 1: into a dumb fight with somebody he shouldn't have been

465
00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:56,520
Speaker 1: fucking with, and he got kicked out of the army. Wow,

466
00:23:56,640 --> 00:23:59,080
Speaker 1: I love how classy it sounds back then like he

467
00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:02,800
Speaker 1: loved the table bowl, the table. Yeah. Now it's like,

468
00:24:02,880 --> 00:24:05,200
Speaker 1: but you're sitting at a slot machine for sixteen hours.

469
00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:09,720
Speaker 1: It's called the table. It's if you smoke a cigar

470
00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:12,080
Speaker 1: and we're white gloves while you do it. It's classy

471
00:24:12,119 --> 00:24:17,000
Speaker 1: and not. It's a very depressing problem. Oh goodness, this guy.

472
00:24:17,080 --> 00:24:18,919
Speaker 1: So he just came to war for the turn up.

473
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:21,000
Speaker 1: He said, it's gonna be cute. The girls are gonna

474
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:23,600
Speaker 1: be a statue. I'm gonna give you fashion, I'm gonna

475
00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:28,240
Speaker 1: give you decoration, decorative warrior. And then he gets kicked

476
00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:32,520
Speaker 1: out before the fighting starts. But that's perfect. Yeah. And

477
00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:34,840
Speaker 1: the thing about the eighteen hundreds is like he just

478
00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:36,880
Speaker 1: went on claiming, oh no, I served with this unit

479
00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:38,639
Speaker 1: at that famous battle, like I'm one of them, like

480
00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:40,920
Speaker 1: I'm and he had like the regimental badges and there's

481
00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:44,080
Speaker 1: no internet, like nobody gets like nobody can check up

482
00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:47,040
Speaker 1: on this ship. Um so he just it's the perfect

483
00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:50,920
Speaker 1: situation for him. He's like, because of his comrades fought

484
00:24:50,920 --> 00:24:53,560
Speaker 1: and died bravely and earned a name for themselves, he

485
00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:56,080
Speaker 1: gets to use that name. But he also got to

486
00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:58,800
Speaker 1: be hanging out back in fucking Edinburgh sorry not Lyne

487
00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:01,520
Speaker 1: Edinburgh at the time. Like it's great situation for It's like,

488
00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:03,679
Speaker 1: how are we going to tweet that he got headed

489
00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:05,880
Speaker 1: out the army before the fild, Like there's no way

490
00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:09,280
Speaker 1: to do that? Yeah, exactly, yea heat it out the

491
00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:13,520
Speaker 1: r I like. So his first biographer, who was a

492
00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:17,080
Speaker 1: soldier who served with him, Colonel Rafter, And we'll talk

493
00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:20,200
Speaker 1: about this guy a little bit later. Um, who hated him,

494
00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:23,240
Speaker 1: by the way, wrote that quote. McGregor now appeared to

495
00:25:23,359 --> 00:25:26,639
Speaker 1: enjoy the free, his freedom with little foresight and less reflection.

496
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:29,600
Speaker 1: So he's very happy to be kicked out of the army.

497
00:25:30,119 --> 00:25:33,560
Speaker 1: Um yeah, I will be Yeah, fuck it. I mean

498
00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:35,080
Speaker 1: it seems like a bad thing to be in. And

499
00:25:35,160 --> 00:25:37,760
Speaker 1: he got everything he needed. He got the drip and

500
00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:40,040
Speaker 1: he got the rep and he had to go to war.

501
00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:42,679
Speaker 1: That's the perfect recipe. It is perfect. And like it

502
00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:45,360
Speaker 1: was a dumb Like there's been like three wars ever

503
00:25:45,560 --> 00:25:47,800
Speaker 1: that like we're worth it to fight in, and like

504
00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:53,879
Speaker 1: the fucking Napoleonic Wars were not one of them. Um.

505
00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:57,359
Speaker 1: So yeah, rafter goes on to write, quote, having honored

506
00:25:57,400 --> 00:25:59,760
Speaker 1: the city of Edinburgh with his residence for some time,

507
00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:02,080
Speaker 1: he there assumed the title of colonel. He was not

508
00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:03,879
Speaker 1: actually a colonel. He's just one of these guys in

509
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:05,760
Speaker 1: the eight hundreds who's like, I'm gonna call myself a

510
00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:09,880
Speaker 1: fucking colonel. Um. He decorated his heels with guilt spurs,

511
00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:12,600
Speaker 1: that's like golden spurs, and his breast with the badge

512
00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:15,040
Speaker 1: of a Portuguese Order of Knighthood, which he had not

513
00:26:15,119 --> 00:26:20,040
Speaker 1: earned either. His lady foreign contessa his footman were dressed

514
00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:22,200
Speaker 1: in a fairy, whimsical livery, and the panels of his

515
00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:25,040
Speaker 1: chariot were highly emblasmed and shown with all the blushing

516
00:26:25,119 --> 00:26:28,159
Speaker 1: honolds honors of a coronet, which as they could. So

517
00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:31,359
Speaker 1: he's he's just lying, and he's got the money to

518
00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:33,480
Speaker 1: buy all of the fancy things to claim that he's

519
00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:37,920
Speaker 1: a colonel, and like his wife is royalty. And and again,

520
00:26:38,119 --> 00:26:41,320
Speaker 1: the only way to know somebody was fancy back then

521
00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:43,680
Speaker 1: was whether or not they could afford to pretend they

522
00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:46,160
Speaker 1: had honors and nobody is able to check up on ship,

523
00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:49,080
Speaker 1: so he's got the money. So it's true. It works

524
00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:51,840
Speaker 1: out great for him. Well, actually it doesn't. It doesn't

525
00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:54,320
Speaker 1: work out great quite at this point because he's a

526
00:26:54,359 --> 00:26:56,920
Speaker 1: Scotsman and all of the people around him or Scotsman

527
00:26:57,200 --> 00:26:59,360
Speaker 1: and Scottish people don't give a shit about this because

528
00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:01,720
Speaker 1: there's scott it right, Like, they don't like, they don't

529
00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:03,679
Speaker 1: they like, oh, you're covered in golden ship, like we

530
00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:05,880
Speaker 1: all spend all of our time getting into naked fist

531
00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:09,120
Speaker 1: fight fist fights in the wood woods were fucking Scottish Like,

532
00:27:10,359 --> 00:27:12,520
Speaker 1: They're like, yeah, your your medals are cute, but we

533
00:27:12,560 --> 00:27:17,560
Speaker 1: don't care. Yeah we don't care. Yeah, they do not.

534
00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:20,679
Speaker 1: He will later figure out how to trick his native people,

535
00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:23,120
Speaker 1: but at this point his native people are like, so

536
00:27:23,160 --> 00:27:25,240
Speaker 1: what the fuck, Like, who cares if you're if you're

537
00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:27,760
Speaker 1: a colonel and you married a rich lady like go

538
00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:31,479
Speaker 1: go likes piss up a rope buddy, Um uh so

539
00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:34,679
Speaker 1: yeah they Gregor decides to leave Scotland forever and he

540
00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:36,399
Speaker 1: moves to the Isle of Wight with all of his

541
00:27:36,440 --> 00:27:38,760
Speaker 1: fancy stuff because the Isle of Wight, as you might

542
00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:40,879
Speaker 1: have guessed by the name was filled with a lot

543
00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:43,919
Speaker 1: of dumb, rich white people who through ostentatious parties, and

544
00:27:44,040 --> 00:27:46,359
Speaker 1: all of these people believe his lies as long as

545
00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:49,400
Speaker 1: he dresses well. So like this is the place for him.

546
00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:53,160
Speaker 1: I'm glad he finally found his scammera paradise. He get

547
00:27:53,200 --> 00:27:55,879
Speaker 1: his great gats beyond who's the great gass the military,

548
00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:58,280
Speaker 1: and I love it. Yeah, yeah, he's doing it. He's

549
00:27:58,280 --> 00:28:01,280
Speaker 1: doing it right. Um. As Rafter wrote, quote, he there

550
00:28:01,320 --> 00:28:03,960
Speaker 1: represented himself as an heir to the to a Highland

551
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:07,000
Speaker 1: baronet and to a castle with an estate in the Highlands.

552
00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:10,159
Speaker 1: His gay disposition, handsel and figure and good address procured

553
00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:13,119
Speaker 1: him ready admission to all circles, and the assemblies of

554
00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:16,720
Speaker 1: the isle were considered devoid of their principal attraction unless

555
00:28:16,720 --> 00:28:19,119
Speaker 1: graced by the presence of the lively Scotsman. So it

556
00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:21,600
Speaker 1: becomes like the biggest name on the island. He's like,

557
00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:24,120
Speaker 1: he's he's he does have that like thing. He would

558
00:28:24,119 --> 00:28:27,679
Speaker 1: have been a good like reality star or something at

559
00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:32,080
Speaker 1: the time. He's good at self. Yeah, yeah, and everybody

560
00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:36,399
Speaker 1: everybody on this island charismatic, specifically to rich people, like

561
00:28:36,520 --> 00:28:40,600
Speaker 1: he's really good at impressing rich people. Um, right, and

562
00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:43,400
Speaker 1: everyone's board, especially if you're rich, you actually have people

563
00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:45,160
Speaker 1: to do the day to day ship that you had

564
00:28:45,160 --> 00:28:46,640
Speaker 1: to do that Ben, if you don't have to plush

565
00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:49,120
Speaker 1: your own hand cart and make your own damn food,

566
00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 1: then you probably need some entertainment. Yeah. Why would you

567
00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:53,880
Speaker 1: care if somebody's lying through their teeth at you? As

568
00:28:53,920 --> 00:28:56,680
Speaker 1: long as they tell a good story. Like that's literally

569
00:28:56,720 --> 00:28:59,080
Speaker 1: the only thing that matters. Because you're so bored you

570
00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:01,680
Speaker 1: want to die all the time. Time. But you know

571
00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:04,200
Speaker 1: who's not so bored, they want to die all the time. Lacy,

572
00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:14,320
Speaker 1: the products and services that support this podcast we have returned.

573
00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:17,880
Speaker 1: That was a little more energy than that deserved. I

574
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:21,240
Speaker 1: was trying to be like Gregor McGregor and like and

575
00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:24,400
Speaker 1: do the hype you know. Yeah, yeah it works for me.

576
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:27,520
Speaker 1: Thank you, Lacy, thank you, thank you for keeping my

577
00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:34,720
Speaker 1: confidence high. As a confidence man, I um, maybe one day.

578
00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:38,480
Speaker 1: So yeah, he dominates the social scene in the Isle

579
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:41,080
Speaker 1: of Wight. Um, but he gets bored because like he's

580
00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:44,080
Speaker 1: he's one. Like it's kind of like he beat that

581
00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:45,800
Speaker 1: level and he's the big fish and the alo whites

582
00:29:45,840 --> 00:29:48,040
Speaker 1: kind of a small pond. So he decides he wants

583
00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:51,680
Speaker 1: to go somewhere bigger and fancier and like take yeah, exactly.

584
00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:56,280
Speaker 1: Never satisfied, so he goes to London, um, which is

585
00:29:56,320 --> 00:29:58,880
Speaker 1: the fanciest place in the world then and maybe now,

586
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:03,400
Speaker 1: I guess it's it's still pretty fancy, still pretty fancy, um.

587
00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:06,400
Speaker 1: But you know, London is kind of like a different

588
00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:08,680
Speaker 1: fucking ballpark than the Isle of White and he's gonna

589
00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:10,960
Speaker 1: need more than just like fake credentials to make a

590
00:30:11,040 --> 00:30:13,320
Speaker 1: mark there because there's a lot of colonels and fucking

591
00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:15,680
Speaker 1: barons and ship like there's kings and ship it's fucking

592
00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:19,239
Speaker 1: it's London. So thankfully for him, his dad had just

593
00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:22,160
Speaker 1: died um. And even though his dad wasn't the clan chieftain,

594
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:24,520
Speaker 1: Gregor was able to start lying and pretend that he'd

595
00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:27,520
Speaker 1: inherited the position as the chief of Clan McGregor. So

596
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:30,760
Speaker 1: he starts calling himself Sir Gregor McGregor. And again, no Internet,

597
00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:32,840
Speaker 1: so nobody gets to check this ship. And for a

598
00:30:32,840 --> 00:30:36,120
Speaker 1: while it worked, largely because Gregor burned through his wife's

599
00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:39,040
Speaker 1: dowry at an extraordinary pace, bribing his way into high

600
00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:42,000
Speaker 1: society and buying all the expensive uniforms and a kouchrama

601
00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:43,600
Speaker 1: that he needed to look like the man he was

602
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:46,200
Speaker 1: pretending to beat all of this eight through you know,

603
00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:48,560
Speaker 1: the money that he had. And then in eighteen eleven,

604
00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:51,880
Speaker 1: tragedy struck. His wife Maria died. Now, this was not

605
00:30:52,160 --> 00:30:54,640
Speaker 1: a tragedy because he cared anything about her. This was

606
00:30:54,680 --> 00:30:57,800
Speaker 1: a you know fucker. Um, this was a tragedy because

607
00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:00,040
Speaker 1: it severs his ties with her rich family, and he

608
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:01,920
Speaker 1: was starting to run low on cash and he didn't

609
00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:06,120
Speaker 1: make no babies with her. Come on, oh, scam a McGregor.

610
00:31:06,320 --> 00:31:08,800
Speaker 1: You didn't make you about one seed with Honestly, you

611
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:12,040
Speaker 1: have a little connection. He's not taking a hit. I

612
00:31:12,080 --> 00:31:14,520
Speaker 1: love how angry that you are with him that he

613
00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:18,960
Speaker 1: did not pregnant impregnate his wife before she died tragically. Um,

614
00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:22,280
Speaker 1: because it's bad, it's bad. Uh, it's bad craft. You

615
00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:25,600
Speaker 1: know you gotta make a baby right? Also, like if

616
00:31:25,600 --> 00:31:27,840
Speaker 1: you're gonna run through your coins, like are you just

617
00:31:27,960 --> 00:31:31,320
Speaker 1: looking for affirmation, sweetheart? Like you gotta be trying to

618
00:31:31,360 --> 00:31:32,719
Speaker 1: have Like there has to be some kind of en goal.

619
00:31:32,720 --> 00:31:34,360
Speaker 1: Are you trying to make more money? Are you gonna

620
00:31:34,440 --> 00:31:38,840
Speaker 1: rope people into your new pyramid scheme? McGregor McGregor LLC

621
00:31:39,160 --> 00:31:42,480
Speaker 1: co of Riches, Like, what's the end goal here? Yeah,

622
00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:44,400
Speaker 1: that's the thing about at this point he doesn't really

623
00:31:44,400 --> 00:31:46,479
Speaker 1: have an end goal. He's just kind of he just

624
00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:50,080
Speaker 1: kind of wants to feel fancy. Um. He doesn't seem

625
00:31:50,160 --> 00:31:52,280
Speaker 1: to have a plan in this period that will come later.

626
00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:56,520
Speaker 1: He grows. He this is a growth story, lazy um.

627
00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:58,960
Speaker 1: But at this point, yeah, he's so. I'm actually gonna

628
00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:02,680
Speaker 1: quote from it right up in the Rothchild archive about him. Quote.

629
00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:05,400
Speaker 1: McGregor could not face the prospect of returning to his

630
00:32:05,440 --> 00:32:09,080
Speaker 1: family farm in Scotland. His only real experience was military,

631
00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:11,640
Speaker 1: and his interest was aroused by the colonial revolts against

632
00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:16,160
Speaker 1: Spanish rule in Latin America, particularly Venezuela. The Venezuelan revolutionary

633
00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:19,160
Speaker 1: general Francisco de Miranda had been fedted in London during

634
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:21,880
Speaker 1: a recent visit, and McGregor had formed the idea that

635
00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:25,000
Speaker 1: exotic adventures in the New World might earn him similar celebrity.

636
00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:27,560
Speaker 1: He sold the small Scottish estate he had inherited and

637
00:32:27,600 --> 00:32:32,040
Speaker 1: sailed for South America via Jamaica in the early eighteen twelve. Now,

638
00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:35,040
Speaker 1: this guy, General Francisco de Miranda, is is a really

639
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:37,880
Speaker 1: interesting dude. So like this period. We'll talk about this

640
00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:41,080
Speaker 1: a little later, but like everybody's fucking the South. America

641
00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:43,600
Speaker 1: is full of revolutions, and this guy, Francisco de Miranda

642
00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:47,600
Speaker 1: is like a revolutionary, like a very successful general who's

643
00:32:47,640 --> 00:32:50,760
Speaker 1: won a bunch of battles and like he just travels

644
00:32:50,760 --> 00:32:54,480
Speaker 1: around Europe when he's not fighting and fox absolutely everybody.

645
00:32:54,600 --> 00:32:57,120
Speaker 1: Um So, he rules. He's like, he's like he's like

646
00:32:57,120 --> 00:32:59,880
Speaker 1: a cool figure, like he's the soldier of fortune, this

647
00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:02,920
Speaker 1: like fighter for liberty. And he's also just like he's

648
00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:05,480
Speaker 1: like James Bond, just like sleeping with everybody in every

649
00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:08,840
Speaker 1: city he can. Um So, he's like McGregor sees this

650
00:33:08,880 --> 00:33:13,480
Speaker 1: guy and he's like, that's the fucking life I warrant um. Yeah,

651
00:33:13,640 --> 00:33:16,920
Speaker 1: he goes to Jamaica. It's supposed to just be a stopover,

652
00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:18,840
Speaker 1: but he falls in love with Jamaica as soon as

653
00:33:18,840 --> 00:33:21,480
Speaker 1: he lands there, and he tries briefly to make a life.

654
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:24,720
Speaker 1: But for McGregor, making a life somewhere meant hanging out

655
00:33:24,720 --> 00:33:26,960
Speaker 1: at rich people's parties and pretending to be a war hero.

656
00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:29,959
Speaker 1: And in those days, traveling dandies had to carry letters

657
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:32,080
Speaker 1: from other rich and famous people who knew the rich

658
00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:34,200
Speaker 1: and famous people in the area they'd travel to and

659
00:33:34,200 --> 00:33:36,479
Speaker 1: that was how you'd get introduced to high society. And

660
00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:38,520
Speaker 1: he didn't have any of that, so nobody would let

661
00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:41,479
Speaker 1: him into their parties. Dang, he didn't think he just

662
00:33:41,560 --> 00:33:44,800
Speaker 1: makes some letters up. Yeah, that's what's surprising to me,

663
00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:46,680
Speaker 1: because he's not above it. I guess he just didn't

664
00:33:46,720 --> 00:33:48,880
Speaker 1: He wasn't confident that he could. Maybe he didn't know

665
00:33:48,920 --> 00:33:51,320
Speaker 1: who to fake the letter from. Right right, right right.

666
00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:53,280
Speaker 1: You do need that information, you need to you need

667
00:33:53,280 --> 00:33:55,320
Speaker 1: to have a name, and he probably didn't have that.

668
00:33:55,760 --> 00:33:58,600
Speaker 1: And again he's he's he's a baby scammer at this point,

669
00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:01,240
Speaker 1: you know, he's he's he's not good yet. So he

670
00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:03,600
Speaker 1: was waiting outside the club and he couldn't get in. Yeah,

671
00:34:03,640 --> 00:34:06,040
Speaker 1: he could not get in. Nobody's letting him through the rope.

672
00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:09,200
Speaker 1: So in spring of eighteen twelve, he continues on to

673
00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:12,040
Speaker 1: Venezuela and he lands in Caracas two weeks after much

674
00:34:12,040 --> 00:34:14,080
Speaker 1: of the city had been destroyed by an earthquake that

675
00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:19,200
Speaker 1: killed like thirty people. Um horrible, horrible earthquake. So he

676
00:34:19,280 --> 00:34:22,239
Speaker 1: introduces himself as Sir Gregor to anyone who'd listened, and

677
00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:25,440
Speaker 1: he starts talking to representatives of the Republican Army uh

678
00:34:25,480 --> 00:34:27,239
Speaker 1: and claiming that he's a colonel and a knight in

679
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:29,120
Speaker 1: the Portuguese or Order of Christ and all of his

680
00:34:29,160 --> 00:34:31,799
Speaker 1: old lives. Now at that point, Venezuela's in the middle

681
00:34:31,800 --> 00:34:34,279
Speaker 1: of a revolution against Spanish authority. And this was part

682
00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:37,200
Speaker 1: of a broad trend across South America, like all like

683
00:34:37,280 --> 00:34:39,520
Speaker 1: all of these places in South America are erupting into

684
00:34:39,560 --> 00:34:43,560
Speaker 1: like liberation struggles, um and as times of chaos and

685
00:34:43,560 --> 00:34:46,120
Speaker 1: political change tend to do. This period opened up the

686
00:34:46,160 --> 00:34:49,080
Speaker 1: door to Charlottean's and Conman. It's real easy to like

687
00:34:49,400 --> 00:34:51,120
Speaker 1: work on a grift in a in a in a

688
00:34:51,200 --> 00:34:53,720
Speaker 1: situation like I mean, look at COVID. You know many COVID,

689
00:34:53,880 --> 00:34:59,799
Speaker 1: Yes there all right, and we haven't even had our

690
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:04,320
Speaker 1: evolution yet, like like thirty days away or so. Literally

691
00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:07,480
Speaker 1: it's like a few days away from the revolution, not far. Yeah,

692
00:35:08,160 --> 00:35:10,360
Speaker 1: I need to get my revolution scams together. What am

693
00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:12,200
Speaker 1: I going to be selling out here on the streets.

694
00:35:13,040 --> 00:35:16,160
Speaker 1: I think Colonel Moseley has actually a nice ring to it.

695
00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:19,319
Speaker 1: Could be a colonel, yeah, I think so. Yeah, you

696
00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:22,040
Speaker 1: just gotta pick a militia that's not actually going to

697
00:35:22,200 --> 00:35:24,239
Speaker 1: fight to be a colonel of because you don't want to.

698
00:35:24,239 --> 00:35:27,399
Speaker 1: You don't want to get tested on that ship. Right, No,

699
00:35:27,640 --> 00:35:29,880
Speaker 1: I gotta go somewhere on people like Tooth, like like

700
00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:34,839
Speaker 1: New Guinea, like very small. Yeah. So all these con

701
00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:37,440
Speaker 1: men and stuff start popping up in Venezuela, and not

702
00:35:37,560 --> 00:35:40,840
Speaker 1: just conmon but all of these Like it's just like

703
00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:43,719
Speaker 1: there's a big vacuum of power and a bunch of

704
00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:47,719
Speaker 1: dudes who want power kind of flooded. Yeah. I'm gonna

705
00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:49,759
Speaker 1: quote from a write up by the Bulletin of Latin

706
00:35:49,760 --> 00:35:53,400
Speaker 1: American Research to kind of discuss this period. Quote. The

707
00:35:53,480 --> 00:35:55,759
Speaker 1: end of Spanish rule in the Americas is generally seen

708
00:35:55,760 --> 00:35:58,040
Speaker 1: by scholars as a period in which a power vacuum

709
00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:01,280
Speaker 1: came to be filled by Cardillos. These were popular leaders,

710
00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:04,000
Speaker 1: strongmen competing on the basis of their charisma. There's strong

711
00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:07,400
Speaker 1: social constituencies i e. Them in from their land economic

712
00:36:07,440 --> 00:36:10,200
Speaker 1: basis and political projects, and the absence of a state

713
00:36:10,239 --> 00:36:13,640
Speaker 1: monopoly of violence. Physical force was rarely irrelevant to explanations

714
00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:16,279
Speaker 1: of their rise to power on these criteria. Despite his

715
00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:19,480
Speaker 1: foreignness and Scottish birth, but Gregor certainly had the capacity

716
00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:22,440
Speaker 1: to become a successful cutty Low, even though the quintessential

717
00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:24,840
Speaker 1: cutty Low was a local figure whose ability to function

718
00:36:24,880 --> 00:36:27,719
Speaker 1: as a leader rested primarily on local support and resources.

719
00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:31,200
Speaker 1: So this is like, these kinds of guys are are

720
00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:34,440
Speaker 1: writing into this gap and gaining power for themselves, and

721
00:36:34,520 --> 00:36:36,520
Speaker 1: he's got the potential to be one of them. Right.

722
00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:39,680
Speaker 1: He has the skills, um, which is that he's charismatic

723
00:36:39,719 --> 00:36:44,120
Speaker 1: and good at getting people to to follow him. So yeah,

724
00:36:44,200 --> 00:36:46,480
Speaker 1: and if people have no leadership, then that's when you

725
00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:51,279
Speaker 1: pull up with the leadership when everything Yeah, hey, look

726
00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:53,719
Speaker 1: I just happened to be here and you do now

727
00:36:53,880 --> 00:36:57,799
Speaker 1: I'm a leader. Does he speaks Spanish? Are you all

728
00:36:57,800 --> 00:37:00,840
Speaker 1: willing to die for me? Oh? Yeah? It's been taken

729
00:37:00,880 --> 00:37:04,399
Speaker 1: over by Spade yet yeah no, no, no no, yeah,

730
00:37:04,520 --> 00:37:07,920
Speaker 1: they're they're fighting for freedom from Spain. But like so

731
00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:10,680
Speaker 1: they're fighting a war like as He lands and Caracas

732
00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:13,560
Speaker 1: has liberated, but like there's Spanish troops all over the place,

733
00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:17,359
Speaker 1: like there's a and the war is not going very well. Um,

734
00:37:17,400 --> 00:37:19,680
Speaker 1: and yeah he has to he learns at some point,

735
00:37:19,920 --> 00:37:21,840
Speaker 1: you know, he started he grew up speaking Gaelic, I

736
00:37:21,920 --> 00:37:23,719
Speaker 1: think so he had to learn English, like he's good

737
00:37:23,719 --> 00:37:26,799
Speaker 1: at acquiring languages, as a lot of people tended to

738
00:37:26,800 --> 00:37:29,880
Speaker 1: be in that era. So the Venezuelan Republicans were desperate

739
00:37:29,880 --> 00:37:34,319
Speaker 1: for men, and they were desperate particularly for seasoned military leaders. Um.

740
00:37:34,360 --> 00:37:36,360
Speaker 1: And the British armies like the most powerful army in

741
00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:38,280
Speaker 1: the world at the time. They're the guys who beat Napoleon.

742
00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:40,960
Speaker 1: So like, if you come in saying like, oh, I

743
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:43,719
Speaker 1: I was a British military officer to like this group

744
00:37:43,719 --> 00:37:46,279
Speaker 1: of people trying to raise an army from nothing, like

745
00:37:46,320 --> 00:37:48,080
Speaker 1: they're gonna be like, oh, ship, can you can you

746
00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:50,160
Speaker 1: help us out? Like we really we could use some

747
00:37:50,239 --> 00:37:53,840
Speaker 1: help here. So obviously he inflates his record. He lies

748
00:37:53,880 --> 00:37:57,120
Speaker 1: and says that he's that he commanded the infamous fifty

749
00:37:57,120 --> 00:37:59,560
Speaker 1: seven foot regiment the die Hards and turned them into

750
00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:02,000
Speaker 1: the elite unit that held the Lion at the Battle

751
00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:06,759
Speaker 1: of Albuera that he had not been at. But he yeah,

752
00:38:06,800 --> 00:38:11,920
Speaker 1: I fought Napoleon. Yeah yeah. The Venezuelans had no way

753
00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:14,239
Speaker 1: to know that he was lying because he was far

754
00:38:14,280 --> 00:38:16,719
Speaker 1: away then, uh, and he owned a nice uniform, so

755
00:38:16,719 --> 00:38:19,239
Speaker 1: they assumed he was telling the truth. Um, and he's

756
00:38:19,280 --> 00:38:21,880
Speaker 1: you know, a convincing guy. So Gregor also made a

757
00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:25,000
Speaker 1: good call by going directly to the commander in chief

758
00:38:25,040 --> 00:38:27,680
Speaker 1: of the nascent Venezuelan state, General Miranda. That guy was

759
00:38:27,719 --> 00:38:30,280
Speaker 1: just talking about at this point, he's basically the dictator

760
00:38:30,280 --> 00:38:32,319
Speaker 1: of Venezuela because like they're trying to win a war

761
00:38:32,640 --> 00:38:34,120
Speaker 1: and they do this thing that you see a lot

762
00:38:34,160 --> 00:38:37,320
Speaker 1: of republics do in times of strife, where they're like, here,

763
00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:40,000
Speaker 1: have all the power for a limited time, if you can,

764
00:38:40,080 --> 00:38:44,040
Speaker 1: like if you can win this thing for us and all.

765
00:38:45,239 --> 00:38:51,239
Speaker 1: But what's what's crazier is what's crazy isn't that like

766
00:38:51,520 --> 00:38:54,279
Speaker 1: that happened and people usually wound up living under a

767
00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:56,160
Speaker 1: dictator for the rest of the lives. What's crazy, Like

768
00:38:56,239 --> 00:38:59,640
Speaker 1: sometimes those dictators actually did give back the power. It's

769
00:38:59,640 --> 00:39:01,880
Speaker 1: the weird story. Yeah, yeah, it happened in Rome a

770
00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:05,120
Speaker 1: couple of times. That's where you know Cincinnati, like the

771
00:39:05,120 --> 00:39:08,200
Speaker 1: city of Cincinnati. It's named after a Roman leader named

772
00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:11,279
Speaker 1: Cincinnatis who was this He was like a military leader

773
00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:14,040
Speaker 1: who became the dictator of Rome during like this horrible

774
00:39:14,160 --> 00:39:17,040
Speaker 1: like war that like threatened the life of the republic

775
00:39:17,239 --> 00:39:19,520
Speaker 1: and they made him a dictator for like a temporary

776
00:39:19,600 --> 00:39:22,080
Speaker 1: period of time, and he won the war and then

777
00:39:22,120 --> 00:39:25,239
Speaker 1: he like gave up everything, all of his power and

778
00:39:25,239 --> 00:39:28,560
Speaker 1: went back to being a farmer. And he was he

779
00:39:28,600 --> 00:39:31,400
Speaker 1: was a chill dude. Yeah. Um yeah, that's why Cincinnati

780
00:39:31,480 --> 00:39:34,560
Speaker 1: is called Cincinnati. Um. There there you go a little

781
00:39:34,560 --> 00:39:37,120
Speaker 1: bit of extra history for you. So uh yeah, back

782
00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:40,080
Speaker 1: to back to Gregor McGregor. So yeah, he goes straight

783
00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:44,080
Speaker 1: to General Miranda, and David Sinclair's biographer notes that Miranda

784
00:39:44,160 --> 00:39:47,320
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, the man that Gregor dreams of being. Um.

785
00:39:47,360 --> 00:39:51,360
Speaker 1: But I also think that maybe because Gregor idolized this

786
00:39:51,400 --> 00:39:53,719
Speaker 1: guy and had studied him so much he had he

787
00:39:53,760 --> 00:39:57,120
Speaker 1: gained a really deep understanding of like what Miranda needed

788
00:39:57,120 --> 00:40:01,040
Speaker 1: and wanted. Because he basically turns himself into the person

789
00:40:01,239 --> 00:40:04,680
Speaker 1: that this guy needs and becomes his right hand man. Um,

790
00:40:04,719 --> 00:40:07,719
Speaker 1: because like the war is not going well, Miranda needs

791
00:40:07,719 --> 00:40:09,960
Speaker 1: a guy that he can trust to like train a

792
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:12,200
Speaker 1: lot of his troops and like he needs like a

793
00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:14,319
Speaker 1: because Miranda is an old guy too, he needs a

794
00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:17,279
Speaker 1: strong right hand and Gregor kind of becomes that. He

795
00:40:17,280 --> 00:40:20,200
Speaker 1: gets immediately made a colonel for real this time. So

796
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:22,800
Speaker 1: he's actually he faked his way into being a colonel.

797
00:40:22,880 --> 00:40:24,960
Speaker 1: So that's nice. Uh, And he gets a unit of

798
00:40:25,040 --> 00:40:28,399
Speaker 1: cavalry um and he's sent straight into battle, this time

799
00:40:28,480 --> 00:40:30,760
Speaker 1: near a town called mary Kay that was under deadly

800
00:40:30,840 --> 00:40:33,200
Speaker 1: siege by the Spanish forces who were attempting to retake

801
00:40:33,239 --> 00:40:36,840
Speaker 1: Venezuela for their king. For weeks, Venezuelan and Spanish soldiers

802
00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:40,360
Speaker 1: clashed at various points along along front line. Gregor finally

803
00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:43,600
Speaker 1: saw combat, and, as David Sinclair writes, he actually was

804
00:40:43,680 --> 00:40:48,120
Speaker 1: really good at fighting. Like he he does the thing finally. Yeah,

805
00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:49,840
Speaker 1: he was a liar at first, but like when it

806
00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:52,799
Speaker 1: comes down to actually going into battle, he's good at it.

807
00:40:52,880 --> 00:40:54,360
Speaker 1: We love to see a good fake it till you

808
00:40:54,360 --> 00:40:56,719
Speaker 1: make it story. Yeah, he faked his way into being

809
00:40:56,760 --> 00:40:59,399
Speaker 1: a war hero until he made his way into being

810
00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:01,680
Speaker 1: a war hero. I'm gonna quote from David Sinclair here.

811
00:41:02,680 --> 00:41:05,840
Speaker 1: Colonel McGregor stirred Republican spirits when he led his cavalry

812
00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:08,040
Speaker 1: into the route of a of a royal force near

813
00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:10,759
Speaker 1: Sarah Gordo between mary Kay and Valencia. But it was

814
00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:13,080
Speaker 1: something of a peripheral action and could not be developed

815
00:41:13,080 --> 00:41:16,240
Speaker 1: into a general offensive by Miranda's troops. So he earns

816
00:41:16,280 --> 00:41:19,000
Speaker 1: a promotion through his heroics, but they don't really affect

817
00:41:19,080 --> 00:41:21,239
Speaker 1: the battle, and the fact that he gets a lot

818
00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:23,640
Speaker 1: of attention for being brave spurs him on to do

819
00:41:23,719 --> 00:41:27,760
Speaker 1: another like super brave dangerous cavalry charged during another battle

820
00:41:27,760 --> 00:41:30,040
Speaker 1: at a place called Los Guios, and this time it

821
00:41:30,040 --> 00:41:32,640
Speaker 1: gets most of his men killed and horribly maimed. Um

822
00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:38,560
Speaker 1: too much your chip always yeah, yeah, but General McGregor

823
00:41:38,680 --> 00:41:42,400
Speaker 1: survives and uh, his scheme works to the extent that

824
00:41:42,520 --> 00:41:46,560
Speaker 1: his bravery again, like it impresses all of the other officers,

825
00:41:46,560 --> 00:41:48,080
Speaker 1: who of course don't care that he got a bunch

826
00:41:48,080 --> 00:41:50,560
Speaker 1: of guys killed. They care that, like he showed bravery

827
00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:54,120
Speaker 1: and stuff, um, because that's the way war was at

828
00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:57,600
Speaker 1: that point. Um, So yeah, that's that's cool. And getting

829
00:41:57,640 --> 00:42:00,680
Speaker 1: his you know, getting his men massacred convey the other

830
00:42:00,760 --> 00:42:03,719
Speaker 1: European soldiers in the serving in the Venezuelan cause that

831
00:42:03,800 --> 00:42:05,920
Speaker 1: Gregor was a real war hero. So they like they

832
00:42:05,960 --> 00:42:10,359
Speaker 1: all believe him now because he he leads this incredibly

833
00:42:10,400 --> 00:42:12,919
Speaker 1: bad idea. Well of course, then also he can tell

834
00:42:12,960 --> 00:42:15,200
Speaker 1: the story because he's the one, you know, one of

835
00:42:15,200 --> 00:42:17,359
Speaker 1: the few who lived. He can be like, yeah, yeah,

836
00:42:17,400 --> 00:42:19,759
Speaker 1: it was crazy, it's not now it's not an error

837
00:42:19,800 --> 00:42:22,960
Speaker 1: in judgment. It's like, oh, the opposing side. But I'll

838
00:42:22,960 --> 00:42:25,000
Speaker 1: tell you what, I would not be in Gregor's battalion

839
00:42:25,040 --> 00:42:27,399
Speaker 1: if they're like, oh Gregor, I'm no, no, no, no no,

840
00:42:27,600 --> 00:42:29,719
Speaker 1: because his men die for sure, they die and dye

841
00:42:29,719 --> 00:42:34,120
Speaker 1: in I want a chance in life. No, my men

842
00:42:34,160 --> 00:42:36,560
Speaker 1: absolutely weren't cursing my name as they bled to death

843
00:42:36,600 --> 00:42:38,960
Speaker 1: on the sands. You can ask them, well, you can't

844
00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:41,160
Speaker 1: because they're dead. But like I'll tell you, I was there.

845
00:42:41,320 --> 00:42:43,879
Speaker 1: They were happy about dying. They actually were like, this

846
00:42:43,960 --> 00:42:46,919
Speaker 1: is great, thanks for getting us a chance to die.

847
00:42:46,960 --> 00:42:52,280
Speaker 1: Greg It was so easy to be a military scammer

848
00:42:52,320 --> 00:42:55,040
Speaker 1: back then. So another dude who was running around in

849
00:42:55,080 --> 00:42:56,960
Speaker 1: the same circles of this period was fighting on the

850
00:42:57,000 --> 00:43:00,200
Speaker 1: same side, was a guy named Simone Boudivar, who was

851
00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:02,840
Speaker 1: at that time considered to be one of the brightest

852
00:43:02,880 --> 00:43:06,120
Speaker 1: minds in the Venezuela military. And he was a colonel. Yeah, yeah,

853
00:43:06,320 --> 00:43:09,240
Speaker 1: Simone Boulevard, very famous guy. He went on to become

854
00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:13,320
Speaker 1: the Liberator, a nickname he earned like he really really

855
00:43:13,400 --> 00:43:19,560
Speaker 1: earned by freeing modern day Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru,

856
00:43:19,680 --> 00:43:25,319
Speaker 1: and Panama from Spanish rule. So like, yeah, the girls

857
00:43:25,440 --> 00:43:28,839
Speaker 1: knew they were about to be free. Yeah yeah, so

858
00:43:29,080 --> 00:43:34,680
Speaker 1: yeah I like that. Um. And he's a fascinating dude.

859
00:43:34,920 --> 00:43:36,799
Speaker 1: And it is also like everyone who gets a bunch

860
00:43:36,840 --> 00:43:39,399
Speaker 1: of statues kind of a piece of ship too. Um.

861
00:43:39,440 --> 00:43:41,360
Speaker 1: But for our purposes today, you just need to know

862
00:43:41,400 --> 00:43:44,000
Speaker 1: that he was like a popular officer when Gregor started

863
00:43:44,040 --> 00:43:49,439
Speaker 1: fucking his young cousin. Um. And I'm gonna quote from

864
00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:54,920
Speaker 1: of course. Hell yeah, man, it goes okay, it actually

865
00:43:54,920 --> 00:43:57,080
Speaker 1: goes pretty well for Gregor. Um. The scene that he

866
00:43:57,160 --> 00:43:58,840
Speaker 1: was he seems to have actually been in love with

867
00:43:58,880 --> 00:44:01,239
Speaker 1: this woman because they stayed together for like twenty something

868
00:44:01,320 --> 00:44:04,560
Speaker 1: years until she dies. Why don't they just keep is

869
00:44:04,560 --> 00:44:09,160
Speaker 1: he killing them? They? I mean, you know she did

870
00:44:09,200 --> 00:44:12,120
Speaker 1: have kids, and like that wasn't a good idea back then,

871
00:44:12,880 --> 00:44:15,640
Speaker 1: but with what with the deaths, that's why birthdays are

872
00:44:15,680 --> 00:44:17,640
Speaker 1: a thing now, because he was like, oh, your kid

873
00:44:17,760 --> 00:44:24,000
Speaker 1: made it, your kid made it, and you made it. Yeah.

874
00:44:24,239 --> 00:44:28,200
Speaker 1: I'm gonna quote from Colonel Rafter's biography here, and this

875
00:44:28,280 --> 00:44:31,000
Speaker 1: is like after he starts fucking this girl. Um, I

876
00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:33,759
Speaker 1: think Josepha is her name. Yeah, the mother of this

877
00:44:33,880 --> 00:44:37,600
Speaker 1: lady finding that reports president, prejudicial to her daughter's reputation

878
00:44:37,600 --> 00:44:40,960
Speaker 1: had obtained circulation in consequence of McGregor's intimacy with her,

879
00:44:41,080 --> 00:44:44,360
Speaker 1: appealed to General Miranda, who, acquainting McGregor with the circumstance,

880
00:44:44,600 --> 00:44:47,440
Speaker 1: recommended him strongly to marry her, to which he answered,

881
00:44:47,480 --> 00:44:49,960
Speaker 1: with all that apathy for which she is remarkable, with

882
00:44:50,000 --> 00:44:54,320
Speaker 1: all my heart, I have no objection. So he starts

883
00:44:54,320 --> 00:44:57,560
Speaker 1: sucking this girl, but like not not in an official way,

884
00:44:57,600 --> 00:44:59,279
Speaker 1: and like you're not supposed to do that at this point.

885
00:44:59,280 --> 00:45:01,600
Speaker 1: And this girl's mom finds out and she's like, the

886
00:45:01,640 --> 00:45:03,960
Speaker 1: hell do you think you're doing? And she goes to

887
00:45:04,080 --> 00:45:07,240
Speaker 1: General Miranda because she's like, this is a high society

888
00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:09,400
Speaker 1: woman that he's like fucking and he's not. He's not

889
00:45:09,480 --> 00:45:11,759
Speaker 1: getting hitched to. And so Miranda basically sits him down

890
00:45:11,760 --> 00:45:14,799
Speaker 1: and says like, hey, if you don't marry this girl,

891
00:45:15,719 --> 00:45:17,920
Speaker 1: bad things will happen to you. Because this is a

892
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:22,640
Speaker 1: dictatorship and I have that power and his responses, I

893
00:45:22,680 --> 00:45:27,760
Speaker 1: have no objection to marrying her. So yeah, he doesn't

894
00:45:27,800 --> 00:45:29,600
Speaker 1: even say that, he's just like I don't hate her,

895
00:45:29,680 --> 00:45:32,839
Speaker 1: Yeah fine, yeah, yeah, no, ringer here, what do y'all

896
00:45:32,880 --> 00:45:37,319
Speaker 1: want to do it whatever. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, this

897
00:45:37,400 --> 00:45:39,840
Speaker 1: is this is basically a shotgun wedding um and it

898
00:45:39,880 --> 00:45:42,560
Speaker 1: would it would be one of General Miranda's last orders

899
00:45:42,600 --> 00:45:44,560
Speaker 1: because the war very quickly went to ship for the

900
00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:47,360
Speaker 1: Republican side. And to make a long story short, Miranda

901
00:45:47,440 --> 00:45:49,560
Speaker 1: was again an old man and kind of losing it,

902
00:45:49,600 --> 00:45:52,920
Speaker 1: and as his chances shout A soured, he retreated into fantasy.

903
00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:55,480
Speaker 1: And like he and he, he promotes McGregor to a

904
00:45:55,520 --> 00:45:57,360
Speaker 1: general and they would spend all of their time and

905
00:45:57,480 --> 00:45:59,839
Speaker 1: his like mansion in the hills away from the front line,

906
00:45:59,840 --> 00:46:02,520
Speaker 1: have big parties and they're actually having like a giant

907
00:46:02,600 --> 00:46:07,040
Speaker 1: fancy party on July twelve when the entire Venezuelan lion

908
00:46:07,160 --> 00:46:11,200
Speaker 1: collapses under a renewed Spanish assault, and obviously the guy

909
00:46:11,200 --> 00:46:13,799
Speaker 1: being the McGregor is he's very happy to be having

910
00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:15,839
Speaker 1: a party rather than like fighting at the front line

911
00:46:15,840 --> 00:46:18,920
Speaker 1: when things are actually bad. What a party spoiler though,

912
00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:22,239
Speaker 1: you know, someone coming in and be like, hey, hey,

913
00:46:22,239 --> 00:46:28,640
Speaker 1: everybody died, everybody's dead. We don't really have an army anymore.

914
00:46:28,800 --> 00:46:31,600
Speaker 1: It looks like we lost this one. Is that a

915
00:46:31,600 --> 00:46:36,080
Speaker 1: coop for Champagne? I know I will thank you so

916
00:46:36,160 --> 00:46:38,759
Speaker 1: the whole defeat happened in part because Simone Boulevard, who

917
00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:41,240
Speaker 1: was not yet the Liberator, kind of abandoned his post.

918
00:46:41,320 --> 00:46:43,600
Speaker 1: Because Boulevard is one of these guys was a real

919
00:46:43,640 --> 00:46:45,640
Speaker 1: sense of his own destiny and he's like, oh, we're

920
00:46:45,640 --> 00:46:47,280
Speaker 1: gonna lose. I don't I don't want to be around

921
00:46:47,280 --> 00:46:55,800
Speaker 1: for this ship. So he's not a loser. General Miranda

922
00:46:55,840 --> 00:46:58,920
Speaker 1: returns to Caracas to try to organize a defense, and

923
00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:01,879
Speaker 1: Boulevard gathers a bunch of his allies and comes back

924
00:47:01,920 --> 00:47:04,360
Speaker 1: and arrests the general and hands him over to Spain,

925
00:47:04,719 --> 00:47:07,120
Speaker 1: and as a result, Bolivar is able to kind of escape,

926
00:47:07,360 --> 00:47:10,120
Speaker 1: and it's it's a very shady thing that happens, but

927
00:47:10,200 --> 00:47:12,080
Speaker 1: it seems to be mostly his desire to save his

928
00:47:12,120 --> 00:47:14,200
Speaker 1: own ass and like the fact that the war was

929
00:47:14,239 --> 00:47:17,719
Speaker 1: clearly lost. So they yeah, so Boulevard like runs the

930
00:47:17,760 --> 00:47:21,520
Speaker 1: funk away to Jamaica basically uh. And Gregor McGregor does

931
00:47:21,560 --> 00:47:24,080
Speaker 1: the same thing. While a lot of brave Republicans die

932
00:47:24,120 --> 00:47:26,879
Speaker 1: fighting the Spanish. Gregor's like, oh no, no, no, no no,

933
00:47:28,400 --> 00:47:32,959
Speaker 1: and he got I am not a causes guy. Yeah,

934
00:47:33,800 --> 00:47:37,040
Speaker 1: and he he very pointedly gets on the boat with

935
00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:39,919
Speaker 1: all of the Republican sides money, like all of their

936
00:47:39,920 --> 00:47:42,200
Speaker 1: gold that they're taking away so that they can continue

937
00:47:42,239 --> 00:47:44,759
Speaker 1: the revolution. Like he makes sure he's on the money.

938
00:47:44,760 --> 00:47:47,160
Speaker 1: But yeah, he's watching the money. That's what he's there

939
00:47:47,200 --> 00:47:49,640
Speaker 1: to do. And they go back to sorry, the Jamaica,

940
00:47:49,640 --> 00:47:53,120
Speaker 1: to curus ou Um. Yeah, you know, the Bahamas, Like

941
00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:55,520
Speaker 1: that's that's that's that's that's where you go run to

942
00:47:55,640 --> 00:47:57,759
Speaker 1: when you lose a war in South America. Then and

943
00:47:57,960 --> 00:48:01,000
Speaker 1: now wind up in the Bahamas. When I lose my

944
00:48:01,080 --> 00:48:03,880
Speaker 1: war in South America, I'm planning to go to a

945
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:13,160
Speaker 1: beautiful yeah now refugees, a strong yeah yeah, no, yeah,

946
00:48:13,200 --> 00:48:16,880
Speaker 1: I was a freedom fighter. Yeah. So Bolivar winds up

947
00:48:16,880 --> 00:48:20,400
Speaker 1: there too. In the defeated revolutionaries immediately start planning their comeback.

948
00:48:20,480 --> 00:48:22,880
Speaker 1: But like Gregor is not really interested in that. The

949
00:48:22,960 --> 00:48:25,880
Speaker 1: reputation he had earned during the war, Like he kind

950
00:48:25,880 --> 00:48:27,799
Speaker 1: of liked being a cardillo and he liked he liked

951
00:48:27,840 --> 00:48:29,640
Speaker 1: he was a man people would follow. He had like

952
00:48:29,680 --> 00:48:32,040
Speaker 1: a name in South America. Now he was he was

953
00:48:32,120 --> 00:48:34,920
Speaker 1: kind of famous for being on the size of liberation,

954
00:48:35,320 --> 00:48:37,360
Speaker 1: and he figures that kind of leaning into this is

955
00:48:37,360 --> 00:48:39,400
Speaker 1: going to be his best chance to make a shipload

956
00:48:39,400 --> 00:48:41,640
Speaker 1: of money. So he travels to New Granada, which is

957
00:48:41,640 --> 00:48:44,600
Speaker 1: a Spanish colony on the border Venezuela that was fighting

958
00:48:44,600 --> 00:48:47,160
Speaker 1: like hell to not be a Spanish colony anymore. It

959
00:48:47,280 --> 00:48:49,960
Speaker 1: had a leader who was a general named Narinho who

960
00:48:49,960 --> 00:48:52,239
Speaker 1: had been given dictatorial power again and the hope that

961
00:48:52,239 --> 00:48:54,560
Speaker 1: he would beat Spain. Same kind of deal, and and

962
00:48:54,640 --> 00:48:56,600
Speaker 1: McGregor does the same thing. He like gets in good

963
00:48:56,600 --> 00:48:58,640
Speaker 1: with this guy. He gets given like an army by

964
00:48:58,680 --> 00:49:02,320
Speaker 1: this guy, and high too like hired to train them basically,

965
00:49:02,600 --> 00:49:04,880
Speaker 1: and he was not good at training armies um and

966
00:49:04,880 --> 00:49:08,080
Speaker 1: they he tended to mainly focus on making them look

967
00:49:08,080 --> 00:49:13,640
Speaker 1: fancy and march around a lot which they like gowns

968
00:49:13,719 --> 00:49:19,200
Speaker 1: beautiful downs can fight without a gown. Where's you want

969
00:49:19,200 --> 00:49:24,400
Speaker 1: to die in this war? So his subordinates complained that

970
00:49:24,400 --> 00:49:28,080
Speaker 1: he was basically a little dictator himself. Uh, but before

971
00:49:28,280 --> 00:49:30,240
Speaker 1: you know that can come to a head. General Narinho

972
00:49:30,320 --> 00:49:34,400
Speaker 1: loses a major battle and the Spanish army basically wins,

973
00:49:34,480 --> 00:49:37,520
Speaker 1: and seeing the advancing Spanish forces, Gregor runs like funk

974
00:49:37,560 --> 00:49:39,719
Speaker 1: again and he winds up retreating to the public to

975
00:49:39,760 --> 00:49:44,080
Speaker 1: the Republic of Cartagena in a in modern Columbia UM.

976
00:49:44,120 --> 00:49:48,759
Speaker 1: So we all know Cartagena uh for different things these days.

977
00:49:48,880 --> 00:49:51,040
Speaker 1: At that point it was like a little independent republic.

978
00:49:51,520 --> 00:49:54,440
Speaker 1: So this is a very complicated and messy period in

979
00:49:54,480 --> 00:49:57,480
Speaker 1: Latin American history. I'm the furthest thing in the world

980
00:49:57,520 --> 00:49:59,680
Speaker 1: from an expert from it. There's all these different figures.

981
00:49:59,719 --> 00:50:02,440
Speaker 1: Bol Far comes back and fights again and loses again

982
00:50:02,480 --> 00:50:05,080
Speaker 1: and runs away again, and like all this ship's happening,

983
00:50:05,080 --> 00:50:08,880
Speaker 1: Like it's just a fucking constantly revolution revolutions and rebellions

984
00:50:09,400 --> 00:50:13,880
Speaker 1: and fight and fight happening. It sounds like, yeah, everything

985
00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:17,080
Speaker 1: is just like it's very very confusing time to try

986
00:50:17,120 --> 00:50:21,720
Speaker 1: to understand. Gregor exhibited a great skill in latching himself

987
00:50:21,760 --> 00:50:24,719
Speaker 1: to whatever soldiers and whatever soldiers were hanging around him

988
00:50:24,760 --> 00:50:26,759
Speaker 1: to like whatever cause seemed like the best bet at

989
00:50:26,760 --> 00:50:29,400
Speaker 1: the time, and he was not always good at judging that,

990
00:50:29,440 --> 00:50:31,120
Speaker 1: which is why he wound up trapped in the city

991
00:50:31,160 --> 00:50:34,000
Speaker 1: of Cartagena while a massive Spanish army blasted the walls

992
00:50:34,040 --> 00:50:38,040
Speaker 1: away with big guns. He yeah, he managed to survive

993
00:50:38,120 --> 00:50:42,440
Speaker 1: the siege, just barely, and he characteristically got out because

994
00:50:42,480 --> 00:50:46,600
Speaker 1: he volunteered to organize the retreat after helping to convince

995
00:50:49,200 --> 00:50:51,239
Speaker 1: that's what I volunted there before. There in the room,

996
00:50:51,239 --> 00:50:56,239
Speaker 1: they're like, Okay, who's gonna do the charge? Who? You

997
00:50:56,280 --> 00:50:58,640
Speaker 1: know what, I got the retreat. I'm actually very good

998
00:50:58,640 --> 00:51:03,200
Speaker 1: at organizing. I majored in retreated college. I can take

999
00:51:03,200 --> 00:51:06,279
Speaker 1: care of this. You guys die holding them off, which

1000
00:51:06,280 --> 00:51:09,359
Speaker 1: is what happens, like the bravest men die holding them off,

1001
00:51:09,360 --> 00:51:12,719
Speaker 1: and Gregor organizes the retreat. Uh. And of course he

1002
00:51:12,760 --> 00:51:15,000
Speaker 1: winds up taking another boat back to Jamaica, and this

1003
00:51:15,120 --> 00:51:18,000
Speaker 1: time he's welcomed by the island's British high society types

1004
00:51:18,040 --> 00:51:22,480
Speaker 1: because now he's a famous freedom fighter. Because the British,

1005
00:51:22,640 --> 00:51:24,640
Speaker 1: they don't they like that all of these places are

1006
00:51:24,640 --> 00:51:27,480
Speaker 1: freeing themselves from Spain, because every country that frees itself

1007
00:51:27,520 --> 00:51:30,839
Speaker 1: from Spain is another place the British can set up

1008
00:51:30,840 --> 00:51:37,000
Speaker 1: shopping and sell stuff to right themselves. Yeah, but they're

1009
00:51:37,080 --> 00:51:40,919
Speaker 1: kind of colonization. So the British thought that Spanish colonialism

1010
00:51:40,960 --> 00:51:44,200
Speaker 1: was barbarous because they murder all these people, they enslave

1011
00:51:44,239 --> 00:51:47,560
Speaker 1: all these people, as opposed to the British kind of colonization,

1012
00:51:47,880 --> 00:51:53,480
Speaker 1: where the countries are independent, we just bring in corporations

1013
00:51:53,520 --> 00:51:57,360
Speaker 1: that force people to labor forests and in conditions that

1014
00:51:57,360 --> 00:52:02,080
Speaker 1: are basically slavery, right, Jeff bay selves murder and college. Yeah, Okay,

1015
00:52:02,120 --> 00:52:04,400
Speaker 1: it's cute over here like people that, but we at

1016
00:52:04,440 --> 00:52:07,759
Speaker 1: leastwork and we get to talk, yeah, and we get

1017
00:52:07,800 --> 00:52:12,200
Speaker 1: to talk a good game about supporting liberation in freedom right, um,

1018
00:52:12,280 --> 00:52:14,799
Speaker 1: and so like these high society types are all for

1019
00:52:15,000 --> 00:52:17,840
Speaker 1: the freedom of these nations from Spain. And McGregor is

1020
00:52:17,880 --> 00:52:19,959
Speaker 1: now a famous freedom fighter and he's the best kind

1021
00:52:19,960 --> 00:52:22,360
Speaker 1: of he's the best kind of Latin American freedom fighter.

1022
00:52:22,560 --> 00:52:26,919
Speaker 1: A white guy, right, he's not Latin American. Yeah. So

1023
00:52:27,480 --> 00:52:29,279
Speaker 1: and also like honestly, like a lot of the Latin

1024
00:52:29,320 --> 00:52:32,240
Speaker 1: American freedom fighters who were natives, we were basically white.

1025
00:52:32,280 --> 00:52:37,840
Speaker 1: Like we're white guys because like people, so uh quote.

1026
00:52:38,120 --> 00:52:40,600
Speaker 1: McGregor was delighted to find himself welcomed as a hero

1027
00:52:40,719 --> 00:52:43,160
Speaker 1: among the British community of Jamaica, and enthralled many a

1028
00:52:43,160 --> 00:52:45,839
Speaker 1: dinner party there with heavily embellished accounts of his part

1029
00:52:45,880 --> 00:52:48,600
Speaker 1: in the siege of Cartagena. Some of those listening received

1030
00:52:48,600 --> 00:52:51,080
Speaker 1: the impression that McGregor had taken personal charge of the

1031
00:52:51,120 --> 00:52:53,480
Speaker 1: defense of the city, with one of them recorded as

1032
00:52:53,560 --> 00:52:56,640
Speaker 1: leaping to his feet and proposing an enthusiastic toast to

1033
00:52:57,080 --> 00:53:00,720
Speaker 1: the Hannibal of modern Carthage. One of the names McGregor

1034
00:53:00,760 --> 00:53:02,799
Speaker 1: made was that he had lost two children during the

1035
00:53:02,880 --> 00:53:06,360
Speaker 1: Terrible Siege. This was almost certainly a lie, probably designed

1036
00:53:06,760 --> 00:53:10,959
Speaker 1: further to dramatize McGregor sacrifices in the car fake kid

1037
00:53:11,080 --> 00:53:14,399
Speaker 1: death scamp. Hell, yeah he did. That's the best kind

1038
00:53:14,440 --> 00:53:16,600
Speaker 1: of death to fake. You get so much. I fake that.

1039
00:53:16,640 --> 00:53:19,120
Speaker 1: I faked my children's deaths all the time. But did

1040
00:53:19,120 --> 00:53:21,680
Speaker 1: he bring the kids that he had with the Spanish

1041
00:53:21,680 --> 00:53:23,879
Speaker 1: woman with him or is he just a debbie dad

1042
00:53:23,920 --> 00:53:26,320
Speaker 1: who was like, yeah, and then they killed my kids

1043
00:53:26,480 --> 00:53:29,719
Speaker 1: for sure? He never had kids. Oh I thought the

1044
00:53:29,760 --> 00:53:34,400
Speaker 1: homegrown got pregnant before she died. The second wife, Uh no, no,

1045
00:53:34,480 --> 00:53:36,400
Speaker 1: she's dead as hell. I don't think she had any kids.

1046
00:53:36,400 --> 00:53:38,880
Speaker 1: The second wife didn't have kids either, Okay, no, no, no,

1047
00:53:38,920 --> 00:53:40,719
Speaker 1: the second wife no, sorry, the second wife is still alive,

1048
00:53:40,719 --> 00:53:43,799
Speaker 1: but they haven't had kids. Okay, he just made up

1049
00:53:43,800 --> 00:53:47,520
Speaker 1: some kids. He was like, yeah, I missed le Jr. M. McGregor,

1050
00:53:47,560 --> 00:53:54,640
Speaker 1: Gregor Gregor and us Stephanie. Those are my kids so weird. Yeah, yeah,

1051
00:53:54,680 --> 00:54:05,120
Speaker 1: my my child fake too for s own in my chad. Anyway,

1052
00:54:05,160 --> 00:54:09,000
Speaker 1: they're dead now, horrible, real, sad, real, sad? Can I

1053
00:54:09,040 --> 00:54:13,160
Speaker 1: have more wine? Yeah? Uh, that is my My advice

1054
00:54:13,200 --> 00:54:15,080
Speaker 1: to all of you is pretend that your children are

1055
00:54:15,120 --> 00:54:18,120
Speaker 1: dead if you want to be famous. It helps you

1056
00:54:18,160 --> 00:54:22,640
Speaker 1: know what, won't fake the deaths of your children. Wait, anyway,

1057
00:54:22,680 --> 00:54:30,920
Speaker 1: here's ads. We're back, and Sophie's being mean to me

1058
00:54:30,960 --> 00:54:34,640
Speaker 1: because I don't understand pop culture. And you know that's

1059
00:54:34,640 --> 00:54:36,719
Speaker 1: the kind of bigger tree that I faced daily. So

1060
00:54:36,840 --> 00:54:38,840
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not my fault that you don't know.

1061
00:54:38,920 --> 00:54:42,759
Speaker 1: As my kids died in the siege of Cartagena. I'm

1062
00:54:42,840 --> 00:54:46,520
Speaker 1: so sorry for you. A lot kids have been dead

1063
00:54:46,520 --> 00:54:51,160
Speaker 1: longer than he's been alive. By the time McGregor wound

1064
00:54:51,239 --> 00:54:53,839
Speaker 1: up back in Jamaica again, as I said, Boulivard had

1065
00:54:53,840 --> 00:54:57,160
Speaker 1: attempted deliberate Venezuela again and it hadn't worked out. Um,

1066
00:54:57,239 --> 00:54:59,319
Speaker 1: And this is like he's a boulevard is like a

1067
00:54:59,360 --> 00:55:01,759
Speaker 1: fucking committ a dude, Like he does believe in what

1068
00:55:01,800 --> 00:55:03,719
Speaker 1: he's doing. He's just you know, he's the kind of

1069
00:55:03,719 --> 00:55:05,120
Speaker 1: guy who's able to get it done, which is the

1070
00:55:05,160 --> 00:55:07,480
Speaker 1: kind of guy who's willing to like time for me

1071
00:55:07,520 --> 00:55:09,560
Speaker 1: to abandon this army. The same kind of work out.

1072
00:55:10,520 --> 00:55:12,640
Speaker 1: You gotta know when to cut your losses, my losses,

1073
00:55:12,680 --> 00:55:15,440
Speaker 1: I mean people. Yeah, yeah, I mean yeah, that's what

1074
00:55:15,480 --> 00:55:17,600
Speaker 1: we're talking about. Like you gotta know when to hold them,

1075
00:55:17,600 --> 00:55:19,480
Speaker 1: when to walk away, and when to run from them

1076
00:55:19,520 --> 00:55:21,120
Speaker 1: and lave them to die at the hands of the

1077
00:55:21,160 --> 00:55:26,399
Speaker 1: Spanish army. That's what um. Yeah. So the two meet

1078
00:55:26,480 --> 00:55:29,040
Speaker 1: up again on the island uh, and this time Bolivar

1079
00:55:29,239 --> 00:55:31,719
Speaker 1: offers to make McGregor a general again. And it was

1080
00:55:31,760 --> 00:55:34,359
Speaker 1: eighteen sixteen by this point. Um. In short order, both

1081
00:55:34,400 --> 00:55:37,759
Speaker 1: men managed to rally together another army. I don't know

1082
00:55:37,800 --> 00:55:39,200
Speaker 1: how they do it, but they're always able to keep

1083
00:55:39,239 --> 00:55:42,160
Speaker 1: making armies. And they invade Venezuela again, and this one

1084
00:55:42,200 --> 00:55:44,880
Speaker 1: goes better. At first, Bolivar's forces win a major victory,

1085
00:55:44,920 --> 00:55:47,040
Speaker 1: but then Spain counter attacks and a bunch of people die,

1086
00:55:47,080 --> 00:55:50,120
Speaker 1: and Bolivar finds himself retreating to a town called Sharoni,

1087
00:55:50,400 --> 00:55:53,520
Speaker 1: where his trust trustworthy friend, General Gregor McGregor was waiting

1088
00:55:53,560 --> 00:55:56,120
Speaker 1: with a fresh force of men. By the time he

1089
00:55:56,239 --> 00:55:58,640
Speaker 1: got there, though, Gregor was long gone because as soon

1090
00:55:58,680 --> 00:56:01,719
Speaker 1: as he heard that Bolivar had law he retreated. Look

1091
00:56:01,760 --> 00:56:08,120
Speaker 1: that's said, and he's give Hi credit this. He's incredible

1092
00:56:08,120 --> 00:56:10,520
Speaker 1: at retreating UM and this is the moment. This is

1093
00:56:10,560 --> 00:56:12,959
Speaker 1: his real moment of heroism, like the one that we're getting.

1094
00:56:13,000 --> 00:56:15,200
Speaker 1: This is like the one legitimate moment of heroism that

1095
00:56:15,239 --> 00:56:19,040
Speaker 1: he really has. UM. Also, like Bolivar feels to me

1096
00:56:19,120 --> 00:56:22,319
Speaker 1: just like McGregor. Word's like, okay, we usually third times

1097
00:56:22,360 --> 00:56:24,280
Speaker 1: the charm, but the third time we still didn't defeat

1098
00:56:24,280 --> 00:56:27,200
Speaker 1: the Spanish army. Like bro, let's just pack it up, okay,

1099
00:56:27,280 --> 00:56:29,520
Speaker 1: Like I'm not fighting an award for boulevard. Are you

1100
00:56:29,560 --> 00:56:33,080
Speaker 1: gonna die? The thing that differentiates them is that Bolivard

1101
00:56:33,160 --> 00:56:36,760
Speaker 1: really does believe in liberation, and that's why he keeps

1102
00:56:36,840 --> 00:56:39,880
Speaker 1: doing this right, like he's just willing to kind of

1103
00:56:39,920 --> 00:56:44,120
Speaker 1: like he's not. He believes so much in his destiny

1104
00:56:44,160 --> 00:56:46,920
Speaker 1: that he's not willing to like die because he he

1105
00:56:46,960 --> 00:56:49,319
Speaker 1: has to make the cause happen. Gregor doesn't believe in

1106
00:56:49,360 --> 00:56:53,799
Speaker 1: anything um, but he's really good at retreating UM. So

1107
00:56:53,840 --> 00:56:55,719
Speaker 1: he's got this army which is mostly made up of

1108
00:56:55,760 --> 00:56:58,240
Speaker 1: freed slaves who didn't really know they had any option

1109
00:56:58,280 --> 00:57:01,160
Speaker 1: but to fight for a bunch of indigenous people. Um.

1110
00:57:01,160 --> 00:57:03,120
Speaker 1: But to his credit, he didn't like abandon them. He

1111
00:57:03,120 --> 00:57:05,319
Speaker 1: he leads them on this retreat and it's like the

1112
00:57:05,360 --> 00:57:08,319
Speaker 1: most herobic moment in his life because it's it's a

1113
00:57:08,400 --> 00:57:11,560
Speaker 1: horrible like situation to be in, because like they're fleeing

1114
00:57:11,600 --> 00:57:15,080
Speaker 1: through these heavy like woodland areas and they're they're being

1115
00:57:15,120 --> 00:57:18,520
Speaker 1: pursued constantly by all of these Spanish armies and they

1116
00:57:18,600 --> 00:57:21,200
Speaker 1: keep getting into like these battles that they keep winning.

1117
00:57:21,480 --> 00:57:23,919
Speaker 1: Like he's actually really good at this. He keeps getting

1118
00:57:23,960 --> 00:57:27,680
Speaker 1: attacked while he's fleeing and like beating these Spanish armies

1119
00:57:27,920 --> 00:57:29,920
Speaker 1: that are trying to capture him as he's trying to

1120
00:57:29,960 --> 00:57:34,000
Speaker 1: link up with his other allies further north. And like

1121
00:57:34,080 --> 00:57:37,120
Speaker 1: by day nine of this, their ammunitions almost spent and

1122
00:57:37,240 --> 00:57:39,520
Speaker 1: like their their clothing is in tatters and they're just

1123
00:57:39,600 --> 00:57:42,360
Speaker 1: they've just been like murdering their way through this this

1124
00:57:42,520 --> 00:57:46,120
Speaker 1: incredibly rugged terrain. Um. It's like it's it's actually a

1125
00:57:46,160 --> 00:57:48,760
Speaker 1: really impressive military feat that he's able to keep this

1126
00:57:48,880 --> 00:57:51,240
Speaker 1: army together and winning. But he owes a lot of

1127
00:57:51,240 --> 00:57:54,200
Speaker 1: it to his wife because like kind of when they're

1128
00:57:54,240 --> 00:57:56,720
Speaker 1: at the end of their rope and exhausted and ammunition,

1129
00:57:56,840 --> 00:57:59,600
Speaker 1: and out of ammunition, they wind up running into like

1130
00:57:59,640 --> 00:58:02,640
Speaker 1: get an their Spanish army, and they don't really like

1131
00:58:02,840 --> 00:58:04,480
Speaker 1: they don't have the ammo to fight them in the

1132
00:58:04,520 --> 00:58:07,400
Speaker 1: traditional way, and so his wife picks up a lance

1133
00:58:07,560 --> 00:58:09,920
Speaker 1: and leads the army on her horse into like this

1134
00:58:10,040 --> 00:58:13,800
Speaker 1: desperate suicidal charge against the Spanish lines, and they break

1135
00:58:13,800 --> 00:58:16,720
Speaker 1: the Spanish army against all odds and win. It's like

1136
00:58:16,720 --> 00:58:20,120
Speaker 1: this this fucking wild thing that happens. UM, And so

1137
00:58:20,240 --> 00:58:22,960
Speaker 1: General McGregor and his victorious army limp into the city

1138
00:58:23,000 --> 00:58:26,560
Speaker 1: of Barcelona after thirty four days of constant fighting and fleeing,

1139
00:58:27,000 --> 00:58:29,800
Speaker 1: and it's like it's it's it's seen as like a

1140
00:58:29,880 --> 00:58:33,280
Speaker 1: miracle basically that they'd survived Um and this incredible feat

1141
00:58:33,280 --> 00:58:37,439
Speaker 1: and it makes him like a legendary figure within South America. UM,

1142
00:58:37,480 --> 00:58:39,520
Speaker 1: And it is an act of like really like it's sucking.

1143
00:58:39,560 --> 00:58:41,080
Speaker 1: It was a crazy thing that he was able to

1144
00:58:41,120 --> 00:58:44,840
Speaker 1: like succeed at Um so simone Bolivar sin sem a

1145
00:58:44,920 --> 00:58:47,440
Speaker 1: letter hailing him as one of the great military geniuses

1146
00:58:47,480 --> 00:58:49,920
Speaker 1: of the era, and like he kind of deserved it

1147
00:58:49,920 --> 00:58:53,040
Speaker 1: at that point. Um And if he'd stayed with the

1148
00:58:53,120 --> 00:58:56,000
Speaker 1: Venezuelan cause, he would have had a guaranteed place of

1149
00:58:56,000 --> 00:58:59,480
Speaker 1: honor and privilege when they eventually won their war. But

1150
00:58:59,800 --> 00:59:01,880
Speaker 1: he gets into another big fight with a guy in

1151
00:59:01,960 --> 00:59:03,840
Speaker 1: charge of him, and when that guy like won't take

1152
00:59:03,880 --> 00:59:07,120
Speaker 1: the advice that McGregor gives him, McGregor just abandons, like

1153
00:59:07,200 --> 00:59:12,760
Speaker 1: the Venezuelan army and leaves. He was like, Okay, enough liberation. Yeah,

1154
00:59:12,840 --> 00:59:14,560
Speaker 1: I got into an argument with a guy. Fuck it, Like,

1155
00:59:14,600 --> 00:59:19,320
Speaker 1: I don't believe in this anymore, so he he fucks off.

1156
00:59:20,040 --> 00:59:22,400
Speaker 1: Bolivar like writes him a series of letters, desperate to

1157
00:59:22,440 --> 00:59:24,640
Speaker 1: try to get this guy to come back, but there

1158
00:59:24,680 --> 00:59:26,960
Speaker 1: was no getting McGregor back because he had fallen in

1159
00:59:27,000 --> 00:59:29,880
Speaker 1: love with a new dream, Lacey, the dream of every

1160
00:59:29,960 --> 00:59:38,200
Speaker 1: red blooded man and woman invading and conquering Florida. So

1161
00:59:40,400 --> 00:59:42,680
Speaker 1: he travels to Haiti and he hand picks a group

1162
00:59:42,680 --> 00:59:44,760
Speaker 1: of mercenaries for this endeavor, and he finds like a

1163
00:59:44,840 --> 00:59:46,880
Speaker 1: hundred and five guys, but they all abandoned him as

1164
00:59:46,920 --> 00:59:48,640
Speaker 1: soon as it's time to leave for the United States,

1165
00:59:48,680 --> 00:59:51,400
Speaker 1: so he winds up sailing to Philadelphia with just his wife,

1166
00:59:51,680 --> 00:59:54,400
Speaker 1: and he immediately sets to work recruiting get another army

1167
00:59:54,440 --> 00:59:56,840
Speaker 1: to invade Florida, which at that point belonged to Spain.

1168
00:59:57,520 --> 01:00:01,720
Speaker 1: Um yeah, and I'll so at that point it was

1169
01:00:01,760 --> 01:00:03,240
Speaker 1: a time in the world where you could just kind

1170
01:00:03,240 --> 01:00:05,400
Speaker 1: of like show up in an American city and been like,

1171
01:00:05,440 --> 01:00:07,120
Speaker 1: who has a gun and wants to do some war

1172
01:00:07,240 --> 01:00:10,680
Speaker 1: with me, Let's go to Florida, And like people would be, oh, yeah,

1173
01:00:10,720 --> 01:00:15,800
Speaker 1: I want to do that to Jethro about the war,

1174
01:00:16,960 --> 01:00:19,920
Speaker 1: let's go. Have you been to philadel It doesn't get nicer,

1175
01:00:20,040 --> 01:00:25,520
Speaker 1: Like we might as well go to war. So yeah,

1176
01:00:26,080 --> 01:00:28,520
Speaker 1: um he gets some yeses. And I'm gonna quote again

1177
01:00:28,560 --> 01:00:31,160
Speaker 1: from the land that never was here. He claimed that

1178
01:00:31,200 --> 01:00:33,040
Speaker 1: he had received a commission from the government of the

1179
01:00:33,120 --> 01:00:35,600
Speaker 1: United States, together with a considerable sum of money, to

1180
01:00:35,600 --> 01:00:38,360
Speaker 1: take possession of Florida on behalf of the Republican movement

1181
01:00:38,400 --> 01:00:41,360
Speaker 1: to New Granada, with a tacit agreement of the Spanish government.

1182
01:00:41,640 --> 01:00:44,280
Speaker 1: He had, he said, attended daily meetings in March eighteen

1183
01:00:44,320 --> 01:00:46,920
Speaker 1: seventeen with the American Secretary of State and the Spanish

1184
01:00:46,960 --> 01:00:49,680
Speaker 1: ambassador in Washington, and they had agreed that he should

1185
01:00:49,680 --> 01:00:52,400
Speaker 1: take a small force to occupy Amelia Island off the

1186
01:00:52,400 --> 01:00:55,200
Speaker 1: east coast of Florida, which he would subsequently hand over

1187
01:00:55,240 --> 01:00:58,400
Speaker 1: to the Americans. Spain would not attempt any military interventions

1188
01:00:58,400 --> 01:01:00,120
Speaker 1: so long as McGregor was seen to be acting in

1189
01:01:00,200 --> 01:01:02,240
Speaker 1: the interests of New Granada and was willing to see

1190
01:01:02,240 --> 01:01:04,320
Speaker 1: it Amelia to the Americans, but could not do so

1191
01:01:04,360 --> 01:01:07,520
Speaker 1: directly for political reasons, mainly that any display of willingness

1192
01:01:07,520 --> 01:01:09,680
Speaker 1: to give up its American possessions would serve to spread

1193
01:01:09,680 --> 01:01:12,680
Speaker 1: and encourage revolution. Now this was all a lie, like

1194
01:01:12,760 --> 01:01:15,040
Speaker 1: Spain did not agree to give up any part of Florida.

1195
01:01:15,440 --> 01:01:18,320
Speaker 1: Uh and the Secretary of State, who McGregor claims that

1196
01:01:18,360 --> 01:01:20,400
Speaker 1: he had worked with to set up this plan was

1197
01:01:20,440 --> 01:01:22,120
Speaker 1: not even in the United States at the time. He

1198
01:01:22,160 --> 01:01:25,360
Speaker 1: was in like France or something. But McGregor, nonetheless, somehow,

1199
01:01:25,440 --> 01:01:28,840
Speaker 1: somehow still walked away with a State Department mandate authorizing

1200
01:01:28,920 --> 01:01:31,320
Speaker 1: him to take control of Amelia Island and East and

1201
01:01:31,400 --> 01:01:34,200
Speaker 1: West Florida. Now, the paper was not signed by the

1202
01:01:34,240 --> 01:01:36,960
Speaker 1: Secretary of State, but it was signed by representatives of

1203
01:01:36,960 --> 01:01:40,520
Speaker 1: several Latin American liberation movements. And like some random dude

1204
01:01:40,560 --> 01:01:42,840
Speaker 1: who worked in the Secretary in the Department of State

1205
01:01:43,640 --> 01:01:45,520
Speaker 1: or in the State Department, and as best I can tell,

1206
01:01:45,840 --> 01:01:49,680
Speaker 1: he basically convinced these South American liberation leaders who were

1207
01:01:49,680 --> 01:01:52,680
Speaker 1: in Washington, d c. To like support their cause, that

1208
01:01:52,720 --> 01:01:54,880
Speaker 1: he was going to conquer Florida for them. And then

1209
01:01:54,880 --> 01:01:56,920
Speaker 1: he used their clout to score a meeting with some

1210
01:01:57,080 --> 01:02:00,680
Speaker 1: random State Department functionary who wrote down what he told him,

1211
01:02:00,840 --> 01:02:03,360
Speaker 1: and that gave McGregor the most important thing in the

1212
01:02:03,400 --> 01:02:06,000
Speaker 1: world in the eighteen hundreds, which was a fancy piece

1213
01:02:06,040 --> 01:02:08,400
Speaker 1: of paper with nice stamps on hit that he could

1214
01:02:08,480 --> 01:02:11,240
Speaker 1: use to convince dumb soldiers of fortune that he was legitimate.

1215
01:02:11,240 --> 01:02:14,160
Speaker 1: So like that's what he does. Like he needs the papers.

1216
01:02:14,200 --> 01:02:16,800
Speaker 1: He gets the papers, and so he starts trawling around

1217
01:02:16,840 --> 01:02:20,560
Speaker 1: New York and South Carolina and Georgia, calling himself Brigadier

1218
01:02:20,600 --> 01:02:23,520
Speaker 1: General of all the forces both naval and military, destined

1219
01:02:23,560 --> 01:02:28,880
Speaker 1: to affect the independence of the Florida's Look at my papers.

1220
01:02:29,520 --> 01:02:31,480
Speaker 1: I kind of want to steal that one someday when

1221
01:02:31,520 --> 01:02:35,160
Speaker 1: I invade Florida. I mean, someone needs to invade Florida,

1222
01:02:35,280 --> 01:02:40,080
Speaker 1: so I can use a Colonel Lazy. It could be you,

1223
01:02:41,160 --> 01:02:44,920
Speaker 1: just you. You just show up tall, and it's my

1224
01:02:45,040 --> 01:02:47,600
Speaker 1: job to raise the army and never get close to Florida.

1225
01:02:47,720 --> 01:02:50,320
Speaker 1: Someone else actually has to try invading it and stuff.

1226
01:02:51,000 --> 01:02:52,800
Speaker 1: I'm just here to raise a bunch of money and

1227
01:02:52,840 --> 01:02:55,360
Speaker 1: then take it and run. See, that's why I want

1228
01:02:55,360 --> 01:02:56,760
Speaker 1: to be I don't want to be the president doing

1229
01:02:56,760 --> 01:03:00,960
Speaker 1: the work of liberating Florida. No, No, nobody deliberate Florida.

1230
01:03:01,000 --> 01:03:04,960
Speaker 1: That's why it's still the way it is. So. Uh.

1231
01:03:05,080 --> 01:03:07,400
Speaker 1: He gathers an army of several hundred men, which is

1232
01:03:07,480 --> 01:03:09,320
Speaker 1: enough to cut Like a couple hundred guys, you could

1233
01:03:09,320 --> 01:03:12,280
Speaker 1: conquer a Florida. Back in those days things were easier. Uh.

1234
01:03:12,280 --> 01:03:14,080
Speaker 1: To fund his journey, he did the only thing he

1235
01:03:14,120 --> 01:03:16,280
Speaker 1: knew how to do besides fight, and he hatched an

1236
01:03:16,360 --> 01:03:19,959
Speaker 1: elaborate scheme. I'm gonna quote here from Colonel Rafters book.

1237
01:03:20,720 --> 01:03:23,120
Speaker 1: The Americans had long been looking with eyes of desire

1238
01:03:23,160 --> 01:03:25,600
Speaker 1: on the fertile and extensive tracts of East Florida, and

1239
01:03:25,600 --> 01:03:28,480
Speaker 1: now gladly embraced the opportunity which seemed to offer itself

1240
01:03:28,520 --> 01:03:31,720
Speaker 1: of gratifying their long cherished wishes. McGregor saw and took

1241
01:03:31,720 --> 01:03:34,960
Speaker 1: advantage of the public feeling. He issued and issued papers

1242
01:03:35,000 --> 01:03:37,520
Speaker 1: which he called scripts, which he engaged to convey to

1243
01:03:37,560 --> 01:03:40,480
Speaker 1: every person advancing one thousand dollars or to the holder

1244
01:03:40,480 --> 01:03:43,160
Speaker 1: of the script, which was transferable two thousand acres of

1245
01:03:43,240 --> 01:03:46,160
Speaker 1: land in Florida or to repay the sum advanced with interest.

1246
01:03:46,400 --> 01:03:48,720
Speaker 1: The world was is at all times the dupe of

1247
01:03:48,760 --> 01:03:51,600
Speaker 1: some hubble or another. And although it is scarcely credible,

1248
01:03:51,800 --> 01:03:54,040
Speaker 1: yet it is a certain fact that McGregor obtained by

1249
01:03:54,080 --> 01:03:58,880
Speaker 1: this means a hundred sixty thousand dollars. So he's like, yeah,

1250
01:03:59,080 --> 01:04:00,640
Speaker 1: give me a thousand bucks and I'll give you a

1251
01:04:00,720 --> 01:04:03,640
Speaker 1: land in Florida. And people do it and he makes

1252
01:04:03,640 --> 01:04:07,120
Speaker 1: a lot of money. How you don't, Oh, I love it.

1253
01:04:08,080 --> 01:04:10,240
Speaker 1: That's what That's what all great con men do, though,

1254
01:04:10,280 --> 01:04:12,320
Speaker 1: is sell land they don't own. That's the great con

1255
01:04:13,080 --> 01:04:16,120
Speaker 1: our president kind of. Yeah, I mean it's still happening.

1256
01:04:16,160 --> 01:04:18,120
Speaker 1: You have to be careful if you're renting a house

1257
01:04:18,240 --> 01:04:20,160
Speaker 1: or something because there's so many people out here. We're

1258
01:04:20,160 --> 01:04:22,880
Speaker 1: still renting homes to that they don't own too people.

1259
01:04:23,120 --> 01:04:26,160
Speaker 1: So I love it. Yeah, it is. He is doing

1260
01:04:26,200 --> 01:04:29,040
Speaker 1: an Airbnb, right, Like the Airbnb is just like a

1261
01:04:29,160 --> 01:04:33,600
Speaker 1: dressed up like they're selling Florida to Yeah. No, you

1262
01:04:33,680 --> 01:04:38,600
Speaker 1: got this lang out so you see right there? Yeah,

1263
01:04:38,680 --> 01:04:40,840
Speaker 1: have you have you ever been there? No, I'll sell

1264
01:04:40,880 --> 01:04:43,640
Speaker 1: it to you. No, it's nice. You don't love it,

1265
01:04:43,720 --> 01:04:49,960
Speaker 1: You're gonna you're gonna love it. Florida, great weather, no snakes.

1266
01:04:50,000 --> 01:04:52,360
Speaker 1: So most con men would have just taken the money

1267
01:04:52,360 --> 01:04:54,760
Speaker 1: and run, but Gregor actually used it to equip an

1268
01:04:54,880 --> 01:04:56,760
Speaker 1: army and charter a boat, which he used to take

1269
01:04:56,840 --> 01:04:59,880
Speaker 1: sixty hand picked men to Amelia Island, which is that

1270
01:05:00,000 --> 01:05:02,240
Speaker 1: that point, just kind of a lawless island for haven

1271
01:05:02,280 --> 01:05:06,080
Speaker 1: for pirates and prostitutes. He defeats the tiny Spanish garrison

1272
01:05:06,240 --> 01:05:10,200
Speaker 1: and then like conquers the island, and he delivers this

1273
01:05:10,280 --> 01:05:12,640
Speaker 1: baffling speech to his soldiers, who again are all like

1274
01:05:12,760 --> 01:05:16,840
Speaker 1: drunk mercenaries, promising, the children of South America will resound

1275
01:05:16,840 --> 01:05:19,280
Speaker 1: your names and their songs, your deeds will be handed

1276
01:05:19,320 --> 01:05:22,800
Speaker 1: down to succeeding generations, and will cover yourselves and your

1277
01:05:22,880 --> 01:05:26,200
Speaker 1: latest posterity with a never fading wreath of glory. So

1278
01:05:26,280 --> 01:05:30,760
Speaker 1: he really he's talking. He's talking this up like the

1279
01:05:30,800 --> 01:05:33,760
Speaker 1: girls are gonna know you. Okay, everyone's gonna know your name.

1280
01:05:33,760 --> 01:05:38,080
Speaker 1: They're gonna singing songs about you. Tom, Tom oh Tom.

1281
01:05:38,120 --> 01:05:48,000
Speaker 1: He he fought real good. He's so good at fighting. Yeah.

1282
01:05:48,240 --> 01:05:52,000
Speaker 1: So McGregor calls for reinforcements, but rather than invade Florida

1283
01:05:52,120 --> 01:05:54,760
Speaker 1: is promised, he's set to work trying to turn Amelia

1284
01:05:54,840 --> 01:05:58,920
Speaker 1: Island into like an independent nation. And not because anyone

1285
01:05:59,000 --> 01:06:02,080
Speaker 1: had asked him to do us, but because he just

1286
01:06:02,160 --> 01:06:03,560
Speaker 1: kind of he was just kind of thought it was

1287
01:06:03,560 --> 01:06:05,560
Speaker 1: a neat So he like he builds a seal. He

1288
01:06:05,640 --> 01:06:08,439
Speaker 1: like designs a seal for the Amelian government. He puts

1289
01:06:08,480 --> 01:06:11,440
Speaker 1: himself at its head. Uh, he like and he like

1290
01:06:12,200 --> 01:06:14,920
Speaker 1: I'm gonna quote here from from David Sinclair talking about

1291
01:06:14,920 --> 01:06:16,720
Speaker 1: like what he kind of gets up to in this period.

1292
01:06:17,280 --> 01:06:19,680
Speaker 1: The main purpose of his administration seems to have been

1293
01:06:19,680 --> 01:06:21,600
Speaker 1: to raise money for One of the first acts of

1294
01:06:21,600 --> 01:06:24,560
Speaker 1: Citizen McGregor, which is the title he gives himself, was

1295
01:06:24,600 --> 01:06:27,160
Speaker 1: to establish what he described as an admiralty court that

1296
01:06:27,160 --> 01:06:29,800
Speaker 1: would officially value the booty brought back to the island

1297
01:06:29,800 --> 01:06:32,600
Speaker 1: by its resident privateers and pirates. For the service, the

1298
01:06:32,600 --> 01:06:34,640
Speaker 1: court would demand a fee of sixteen and a half

1299
01:06:34,760 --> 01:06:37,320
Speaker 1: percent of the gross value of the treasure. Whether any

1300
01:06:37,360 --> 01:06:39,800
Speaker 1: of the island's maritime entrepreneurs ever he took advantage of

1301
01:06:39,800 --> 01:06:42,560
Speaker 1: the offer is not recorded, but to encourage them further

1302
01:06:42,600 --> 01:06:45,400
Speaker 1: in their brutal trade, McGregor issued so called letters of mark,

1303
01:06:45,440 --> 01:06:49,200
Speaker 1: which were officially government licenses for buccaneers. So again he

1304
01:06:49,320 --> 01:06:52,400
Speaker 1: probably no one it. It's not anyone took like him

1305
01:06:52,480 --> 01:06:54,400
Speaker 1: up on this. But he decides, like, I'm gonna start

1306
01:06:54,400 --> 01:06:56,160
Speaker 1: at government so that I can get pirates to pay

1307
01:06:56,200 --> 01:07:01,920
Speaker 1: me for being pirates, like what comes to interstate con Yeah,

1308
01:07:03,520 --> 01:07:06,360
Speaker 1: and he issues banknotes. He starts having money printed and

1309
01:07:06,400 --> 01:07:09,360
Speaker 1: he just signs it with his last name McGregor, which

1310
01:07:09,400 --> 01:07:11,360
Speaker 1: is a flex. I'll give him that it is. I

1311
01:07:11,360 --> 01:07:16,000
Speaker 1: would like some McGregor's. Yeah. Yeah. So he spends the

1312
01:07:16,040 --> 01:07:18,320
Speaker 1: next few months just kind of drinking and fucking and partying,

1313
01:07:18,720 --> 01:07:20,840
Speaker 1: celebrating the fact that he's in charge of a country,

1314
01:07:20,840 --> 01:07:22,720
Speaker 1: and ignoring the fact that he had promised a lot

1315
01:07:22,720 --> 01:07:27,120
Speaker 1: of people he was going to conquer Florida. Um, yeah,

1316
01:07:27,240 --> 01:07:29,960
Speaker 1: it's on the back burner. I'll ask for him. Spain

1317
01:07:30,200 --> 01:07:33,200
Speaker 1: realizes eventually that he's conquered their island and they don't

1318
01:07:33,280 --> 01:07:36,080
Speaker 1: like this, so they send an army to take it back,

1319
01:07:36,120 --> 01:07:39,360
Speaker 1: and the instant McGregor realizes that there's a Spanish army coming.

1320
01:07:39,560 --> 01:07:41,600
Speaker 1: He abandons all of his soldiers in country and he

1321
01:07:41,640 --> 01:07:47,840
Speaker 1: flees by boat with his wife, his script. That's his script,

1322
01:07:48,400 --> 01:07:52,040
Speaker 1: and ironically, the guys he leaves behind actually beat the

1323
01:07:52,040 --> 01:07:55,160
Speaker 1: Spanish invasion. They beat two of them. Um, and then

1324
01:07:55,200 --> 01:07:58,480
Speaker 1: Mexico sends in troops and like takes over the island

1325
01:07:58,520 --> 01:08:00,840
Speaker 1: and it becomes a part of Mexico briefly. But then

1326
01:08:00,880 --> 01:08:03,560
Speaker 1: the United States invades and like kills all the Mexican

1327
01:08:03,600 --> 01:08:07,920
Speaker 1: soldiers and annexes Amelia from Mexico, and President Monroe justifies

1328
01:08:07,960 --> 01:08:11,240
Speaker 1: this by saying, like, well, hey, Mexico stole it from Spain,

1329
01:08:11,840 --> 01:08:15,840
Speaker 1: or Mexico stole it from these random mercenaries who stole

1330
01:08:15,880 --> 01:08:19,280
Speaker 1: it from Spain, so like it's on the open market now. Yeah,

1331
01:08:21,800 --> 01:08:23,600
Speaker 1: we just came in and ticket, like what are you?

1332
01:08:23,680 --> 01:08:26,280
Speaker 1: What are you complaining about? Pirates can take it, but

1333
01:08:26,360 --> 01:08:30,600
Speaker 1: we can't. Fuck you. Yeah, we're America. Baby. The manifest

1334
01:08:30,800 --> 01:08:34,000
Speaker 1: my favorite scam manifest Destiny, which is like God told

1335
01:08:34,080 --> 01:08:36,960
Speaker 1: us to steal his land. So yeah, that's how it.

1336
01:08:37,160 --> 01:08:41,840
Speaker 1: The United States gets its first piece of Florida. WoT

1337
01:08:42,040 --> 01:08:44,920
Speaker 1: fun had to involve a con man at some point,

1338
01:08:45,040 --> 01:08:48,800
Speaker 1: So on November nine, eighteen seventeen, Josepha McGregor, his wife

1339
01:08:48,800 --> 01:08:50,719
Speaker 1: gives birth to a son and they're still on board

1340
01:08:50,720 --> 01:08:52,559
Speaker 1: a boat at this point that they're using to flee

1341
01:08:52,600 --> 01:08:54,840
Speaker 1: to North America with all flee North America with all

1342
01:08:54,880 --> 01:08:57,759
Speaker 1: the money they'd grifted because he stilled like fifty grand

1343
01:08:57,840 --> 01:09:01,000
Speaker 1: from his army money. Uh. So gregor makes a medallion

1344
01:09:01,160 --> 01:09:03,439
Speaker 1: to commemorate his son's birth, which is the kind of

1345
01:09:03,439 --> 01:09:05,720
Speaker 1: guy he is. He's like, he's he's he has a kid,

1346
01:09:05,760 --> 01:09:07,519
Speaker 1: and he's like, I gotta get an award for this ship.

1347
01:09:07,760 --> 01:09:10,200
Speaker 1: I gotta give myself an award for him. My wife

1348
01:09:10,200 --> 01:09:12,719
Speaker 1: who's having a baby in olden times on a boat.

1349
01:09:12,760 --> 01:09:16,320
Speaker 1: What did she do? What did she do? Tell me that.

1350
01:09:16,520 --> 01:09:19,880
Speaker 1: So this medallion he makes has an engraving of the

1351
01:09:19,880 --> 01:09:22,719
Speaker 1: flag of the Florida's and two phrases written in Latin

1352
01:09:22,800 --> 01:09:26,760
Speaker 1: on it Amelia I came, I saw I conquered, and

1353
01:09:27,200 --> 01:09:31,439
Speaker 1: liberty for the Florida's Under the leadership of McGregor, neither

1354
01:09:31,479 --> 01:09:34,840
Speaker 1: of these things happened. Like you didn't want to fun

1355
01:09:35,680 --> 01:09:39,479
Speaker 1: like nothing, nothing, the baby, like okay, it's not about

1356
01:09:39,520 --> 01:09:42,920
Speaker 1: the baby. The baby is an excuse to have a medallion.

1357
01:09:44,760 --> 01:09:47,040
Speaker 1: The girls are gonna love this at the next party. Okay,

1358
01:09:47,120 --> 01:09:50,360
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. So McGregor was now a rich guy, but

1359
01:09:50,400 --> 01:09:52,280
Speaker 1: not as rich as he wanted to be. Fifty grand

1360
01:09:52,320 --> 01:09:54,640
Speaker 1: you could retire on in those fucking days, um, but

1361
01:09:54,720 --> 01:09:56,800
Speaker 1: he wanted, he wanted to be fuck you rich and

1362
01:09:56,840 --> 01:09:59,439
Speaker 1: it was not quite that much. Yeah. So he regarded

1363
01:09:59,439 --> 01:10:01,960
Speaker 1: the con and then lost of a loss of Amelia

1364
01:10:02,000 --> 01:10:03,920
Speaker 1: Island as a big success because he'd made a bunch

1365
01:10:03,920 --> 01:10:05,800
Speaker 1: of money off of it, and it convinced him that

1366
01:10:05,840 --> 01:10:08,479
Speaker 1: being a freebooter, basically a pirate, you know, but on

1367
01:10:08,520 --> 01:10:10,439
Speaker 1: the national scale was kind of the way to go.

1368
01:10:10,960 --> 01:10:12,680
Speaker 1: Uh And I'm gonna quote now from a rite up

1369
01:10:12,680 --> 01:10:17,280
Speaker 1: in the Rothschild archive. He then oversaw two calamitous operations

1370
01:10:17,280 --> 01:10:20,160
Speaker 1: in New Granada during eighteen nineteen that each ended with

1371
01:10:20,240 --> 01:10:25,240
Speaker 1: his abandoning British volunteer troops under his command. McGregor conferred

1372
01:10:25,240 --> 01:10:29,439
Speaker 1: and invented decorations and titles on his officers, fraudulently obtained

1373
01:10:29,439 --> 01:10:33,599
Speaker 1: and squandered money, and generally and generally behaved abominably. And

1374
01:10:33,680 --> 01:10:36,000
Speaker 1: during this period of time, I've been telling about this guy,

1375
01:10:36,040 --> 01:10:39,160
Speaker 1: Colonel Rafter, who wrote this biography of him. The reason

1376
01:10:39,280 --> 01:10:43,080
Speaker 1: Rafter is obsessed with McGregor is that his brother, who

1377
01:10:43,160 --> 01:10:46,000
Speaker 1: is another Rafter, who was like an office. Was an

1378
01:10:46,040 --> 01:10:49,200
Speaker 1: officer in McGregor's army, and McGregor abandoned him and he

1379
01:10:49,280 --> 01:10:54,360
Speaker 1: was executed. The one thing you're gonna see of McGregor,

1380
01:10:54,439 --> 01:10:59,760
Speaker 1: it's the back of his head, okay, because the girls

1381
01:11:00,520 --> 01:11:04,639
Speaker 1: war better his face. Well, I got you all here.

1382
01:11:04,760 --> 01:11:07,479
Speaker 1: My job is done. I feel like he doesn't even

1383
01:11:07,520 --> 01:11:10,760
Speaker 1: announce when he's leaving. It's like the new Irish goodbye,

1384
01:11:10,840 --> 01:11:14,719
Speaker 1: Just turn around, looks starting the wars, half the battle.

1385
01:11:14,720 --> 01:11:18,639
Speaker 1: I figured y'all would do the rest. You go back

1386
01:11:18,640 --> 01:11:20,000
Speaker 1: to have a meeting with him. They're like, no, his

1387
01:11:20,080 --> 01:11:23,560
Speaker 1: tent is gone. Like his tent is gone, so is

1388
01:11:23,680 --> 01:11:26,479
Speaker 1: all of our money. Who went out for battle? Actually

1389
01:11:26,520 --> 01:11:29,639
Speaker 1: he started backing. It was very bizarre. He took all

1390
01:11:29,680 --> 01:11:31,599
Speaker 1: of the gold and left us with the fake money

1391
01:11:31,640 --> 01:11:34,920
Speaker 1: with his name on it. Right, y'all trying to pay

1392
01:11:34,960 --> 01:11:39,920
Speaker 1: for beers with McGregor. So McGregor arrives at the court

1393
01:11:39,960 --> 01:11:43,040
Speaker 1: of King George Frederick Augustus on the on the Mosquito

1394
01:11:43,160 --> 01:11:46,280
Speaker 1: Coast after he loses these these two wars that he's

1395
01:11:46,320 --> 01:11:50,040
Speaker 1: gotten involved with, and because of his like his fame

1396
01:11:50,080 --> 01:11:53,120
Speaker 1: in the area, he's able to convince the King of

1397
01:11:53,160 --> 01:11:56,920
Speaker 1: the Mosquito coast. Who's this this guy George Frederick to

1398
01:11:57,000 --> 01:11:59,200
Speaker 1: sign a document giving him in his airs, like a

1399
01:11:59,280 --> 01:12:03,040
Speaker 1: huge chunk of Mosquito territory in an area larger than Wales.

1400
01:12:03,320 --> 01:12:05,320
Speaker 1: It's said that he does this in exchange for rum

1401
01:12:05,360 --> 01:12:09,320
Speaker 1: and jewelry. There's some debate um and it's so he

1402
01:12:09,360 --> 01:12:11,120
Speaker 1: gets this big he cons his way into like having

1403
01:12:11,160 --> 01:12:13,600
Speaker 1: a bunch of land, but it's useless land from a

1404
01:12:13,640 --> 01:12:16,360
Speaker 1: financial point of view, Like it's pretty, it's got a

1405
01:12:16,400 --> 01:12:18,240
Speaker 1: lot of game on it, it's able to support like

1406
01:12:18,280 --> 01:12:21,040
Speaker 1: an indigenous population, but like the soil is not great,

1407
01:12:21,120 --> 01:12:24,200
Speaker 1: it's a bad place to grow crops, and there's like

1408
01:12:24,280 --> 01:12:28,479
Speaker 1: it's in no way established or settled. He he has

1409
01:12:28,520 --> 01:12:32,040
Speaker 1: this land that's not very useful. But what's more important

1410
01:12:32,040 --> 01:12:34,040
Speaker 1: than that is that he has this land, and he

1411
01:12:34,120 --> 01:12:37,080
Speaker 1: has a letter from this king telling him that he

1412
01:12:37,120 --> 01:12:40,960
Speaker 1: owns a bunch of land in Latin America. And this

1413
01:12:41,200 --> 01:12:45,400
Speaker 1: gives McGregor an idea because he's like, I've been trying.

1414
01:12:45,439 --> 01:12:47,559
Speaker 1: I've been putting all this effort into trying to conquer

1415
01:12:47,760 --> 01:12:51,759
Speaker 1: countries or conquered chunks of land and turn them into countries,

1416
01:12:52,040 --> 01:12:55,160
Speaker 1: and like that's hard. What if I just pretend that

1417
01:12:55,240 --> 01:12:59,479
Speaker 1: I already have a country and then make people buy it,

1418
01:12:59,520 --> 01:13:01,240
Speaker 1: and then can vince people to buy it from me.

1419
01:13:01,720 --> 01:13:03,880
Speaker 1: So he he gives a name to this territory that

1420
01:13:03,920 --> 01:13:07,360
Speaker 1: he's he's kind of grifted, Poier, which he names after

1421
01:13:07,439 --> 01:13:11,280
Speaker 1: the inhabitants of the highlands of the area. And yeah, Poier,

1422
01:13:11,520 --> 01:13:13,759
Speaker 1: nice name. And this is this is where the story

1423
01:13:13,880 --> 01:13:17,920
Speaker 1: of his great con begins, because McGregor didn't actually move

1424
01:13:17,960 --> 01:13:20,680
Speaker 1: to the land he'd acquired, nor did he like do

1425
01:13:20,760 --> 01:13:24,120
Speaker 1: anything with it, Like he's got this land, but he doesn't,

1426
01:13:24,240 --> 01:13:26,960
Speaker 1: he doesn't use it. Instead, he takes the letters saying

1427
01:13:27,000 --> 01:13:29,200
Speaker 1: it's his, and he sails back to Great Britain with

1428
01:13:29,200 --> 01:13:32,439
Speaker 1: a scheme in mind. And over the way on the

1429
01:13:32,560 --> 01:13:35,120
Speaker 1: like boat over to Great Britain, he starts calling himself

1430
01:13:35,160 --> 01:13:38,400
Speaker 1: the Kazik, which he claimed meant prince in in the

1431
01:13:38,479 --> 01:13:41,840
Speaker 1: local language. So he starts claiming that this tract of

1432
01:13:41,920 --> 01:13:45,040
Speaker 1: land he's been given as like personal property is actually

1433
01:13:45,080 --> 01:13:48,200
Speaker 1: an independent country and he's been made royalty in this

1434
01:13:48,360 --> 01:13:51,759
Speaker 1: in this tribe, and so he's he's the Prince of Poier.

1435
01:13:52,360 --> 01:13:54,960
Speaker 1: And when he gets back to Great Britain, he's going

1436
01:13:55,000 --> 01:13:57,600
Speaker 1: to try to convince people to to buy into this

1437
01:13:57,640 --> 01:13:59,720
Speaker 1: scheme with him. Um, and that's what we're gonna talk

1438
01:13:59,720 --> 01:14:05,320
Speaker 1: about out in part two. Lazy Robbert, what would you

1439
01:14:05,400 --> 01:14:11,280
Speaker 1: name your fake country? Oh, that's a great question. Oh gosh,

1440
01:14:11,320 --> 01:14:17,040
Speaker 1: it needs to be something like, uh, maybe like oh,

1441
01:14:18,040 --> 01:14:20,040
Speaker 1: I want to go with an L I don't know why.

1442
01:14:20,439 --> 01:14:25,240
Speaker 1: It's like leaves. Oh you went with a fancy name. Yeah,

1443
01:14:25,320 --> 01:14:27,040
Speaker 1: and go to La Bos. I don't think of something

1444
01:14:27,080 --> 01:14:29,439
Speaker 1: that sounds good like in a Drake song, like and

1445
01:14:29,760 --> 01:14:32,840
Speaker 1: popping bottles and La Bas. Yeah, l Bos. That's that's

1446
01:14:32,840 --> 01:14:36,559
Speaker 1: my fake That's that does sound fancy. I was gonna

1447
01:14:36,600 --> 01:14:39,759
Speaker 1: call it fuck Valley and just like like, yeah, everybody

1448
01:14:39,760 --> 01:14:42,439
Speaker 1: gets laid in fun Valley, Like all these frat boys

1449
01:14:42,439 --> 01:14:43,800
Speaker 1: pay me a hundred bucks, you get to go to

1450
01:14:43,840 --> 01:14:45,760
Speaker 1: fuck Valley and then it's just a bunch of frat

1451
01:14:45,800 --> 01:14:49,000
Speaker 1: boys stuck in a valley and then they all get dehydrated.

1452
01:14:49,880 --> 01:14:52,920
Speaker 1: That fire festival, the fire festival is my plan. I

1453
01:14:53,000 --> 01:14:55,120
Speaker 1: was about to say that sounds like your plan is

1454
01:14:55,120 --> 01:15:00,840
Speaker 1: the fire festival. That's exactly what it was. It's a

1455
01:15:00,880 --> 01:15:04,639
Speaker 1: great plan as long as you don't have the internet,

1456
01:15:04,680 --> 01:15:06,559
Speaker 1: so people find out it's a con and you can

1457
01:15:06,560 --> 01:15:08,240
Speaker 1: just take the money and run away to Norway or

1458
01:15:08,280 --> 01:15:10,360
Speaker 1: some ship. Right. I wish I could have run scams

1459
01:15:10,360 --> 01:15:12,880
Speaker 1: before there was Internet. I still think about old shadder

1460
01:15:12,960 --> 01:15:16,560
Speaker 1: hands and like checking people's money. Oh to see it

1461
01:15:16,680 --> 01:15:24,000
Speaker 1: was real? Oh yeah, Lacy Pluggables, Yeah sure, guys. As always,

1462
01:15:24,040 --> 01:15:26,040
Speaker 1: you can find me a d I D A l

1463
01:15:26,120 --> 01:15:29,120
Speaker 1: A c I deva Lacey on all platforms. And if

1464
01:15:29,160 --> 01:15:32,639
Speaker 1: you like robbery and comedy, listen to my podcast Scam Goddess.

1465
01:15:33,400 --> 01:15:40,679
Speaker 1: Enjoin Lacey's Army Comication. Yes, people liberating Florida. Maybe tea

1466
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Speaker 1: next two days a good time? Look out? Look out

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Speaker 1: for that on Twitter with you. We're just gonna show

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Speaker 1: up and liberate Florida. Yeah yeah, you gotta live. I

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Speaker 1: mean to be honest, could you some liberating these days?