Elements of Influence

PART IIITHE DARK SIDE OF INFLUENCE

In March 1823, the Kennersley Castle neared the Caribbean coast of South America carrying 200 Scottish settlers who were bound for St. Joseph, the capital city of Poyais, a small but prosperous country located along the Mosquito Coast. Many of the settlers carried a 350-page guidebook written and published by Captain Thomas Strangeways entitled Sketch of the Mosquito Shore, Including the Territory of Poyais, Descriptive of the Country. They were following another group of settlers who had left London four months earlier aboard another ship, the Honduras Packet. Some of these intrepid souls had secured positions ...