Gregor MacGregor Gregor MacGregor ( 24 December 1786 – 4 December 1845 ) was a Scottish soldier , adventurer , land speculator , and colonizer who fought in the South American struggle for independence . Upon his return to England in 1820 , he claimed to be " cacique " of Poyais ( also known as " Principality of Poyais " , " Territory of Poyais " , " Republic of Poyais " ) , a fictional Central American country that MacGregor had invented which , with his help , drew investors and eventually colonists . Early life . MacGregor was born in the family house of Glengyle in Stirlingshire , Scotland on Christmas Eve 1786 to Daniel MacGregor , a sea captain with the East India Company , and Ann Austin , a doctor ' s daughter . Little is known of MacGregor ' s early life but apparently he had at least one sister . In 1803 , at the age of 16 , he joined the British Army and served in an infantry regiment , the 57th Foot . By 1804 he had risen to the rank of lieutenant , an unusually rapid progression in the ranks . He married Mary Bowater , an admiral ' s daughter , in June 1805 , and they set up house in London while MacGregor spent much of his time in Gibraltar , where the 57th Foot was in training . In July 1809 , MacGregor ' s regiment was sent to Portugal , as reinforcements for the Duke of Wellington ' s second peninsular campaign to drive the French out of Spain . Accounts of MacGregor ' s service in this campaign vary , but it is known that for a time he was seconded to the Portuguese army with the rank of major , and that he sold out of the British Army in May 1810 , possibly because of disagreements with his superior officers . MacGregor and his wife then went to Edinburgh , where he assumed the title of " Colonel " , but by 1811 they were in London and MacGregor was styling himself Sir Gregor MacGregor , while claiming falsely to have succeeded to the chieftainship of the clan Gregor . He was in fact a grandson of one Gregor MacGregor , called " the Beautiful " , who belonged to a junior branch of the Glengyle house and joined the Black Watch under the name Drummond . Venezuela and New Granada . In December 1811 , his wife Mary died . By this time , MacGregor had heard about the independence movements in South America and the Captaincy General of Venezuela in particular . He sold his small Scottish estate and sailed for South America , arriving in Caracas in the spring of 1812 . There he met Josefa Antonia Andrea Aristeguieta y Lovera , the daughter of a prominent local family and a cousin of Simon Bolívar . They were married on 10 June 1812 . They eventually had three children , Gregorio ( b . ca . 1817 ) , Constantino , ( b . ca . 1819 ) and Josefa Anna Gregoria ( b . ca . 1821 ) . Upon his arrival in Caracas , MacGregor talked General Francisco de Miranda , the Commander in Chief of the new Venezuelan Republic ' s army , into appointing him a colonel , and almost immediately became involved in a series of skirmishes that resulted in his promotion to brigadier - general . A month or so later , when General Miranda was captured and handed over to the royalist forces by Simon Bolívar , MacGregor and his wife fled to Curaçao on a British brig . From Curaçao , MacGregor decided to go to New Granada ( present - day Colombia ) and join the liberation forces of General Antonio Nariño . For Josefa ' s safety , he first took her to the British island of Jamaica and then sailed for Cartagena on the northern coast of New Granada . From there he made his way south to Tunja , where General Nariño put him in command of the military district of Socorro , near the Venezuelan border . During the year or so he spent here , he earned what became a lifelong reputation as an unreliable braggart . One local official wrote of him : " I am sick and tired of this bluffer , or Quixote , or the devil knows what . This man can hardly serve us in New Granada without heaping ten thousand embarrassments upon us . " In 1814 , the Spanish royalist forces routed General Nariño ' s army and MacGregor took refuge in Cartagena de Indias , where he played a role in organizing the city ' s defenses . In August 1815 , the Spanish troops of General Pablo Morillo attacked the city and began a siege that lasted until December , when disease and starvation forced the city to surrender . On the night of 5 December , MacGregor helped to organize a mass escape aboard gunboats that blasted their way through the Spanish blockade and sailed for Jamaica . In Jamaica , MacGregor was treated as a hero , but by the spring of 1816 he had moved on with Josefa to the neighboring island of Haiti , where Simon Bolívar was raising a new army . In April , MacGregor sailed with Bolívar ' s fleet as a brigadier - general to Venezuela , landing on the island of Margarita before crossing to Carupano on the mainland . Both Bolívar and MacGregor ran into trouble after their forces split up , and MacGregor ' s troops were eventually forced to retreat towards the town of Barcelona , fighting all the way . This difficult , month - long campaign earned MacGregor deserved acclaim and is probably the high point of his military adventures , which were otherwise marred by varying amounts of error , incompetency , and exaggeration on his part . Green Cross of Florida . MacGregor claimed to be commissioned by representatives of the revolting South American countries to liberate Florida from Spanish rule . Financed by American backers , he led an army of only 150 men including recruits from Charleston and Savannah , some War of 1812 veterans , and 55 musketeers in an assault on Fort San Carlos at Fernandina on Amelia Island . Through spies within the Spanish garrison , MacGregor had learned that the force there consisted of only 55 regulars and 50 militia men . He spread rumors in the town which eventually reached the ear of the garrison commander that an army of more than 1 , 000 men was about to attack . On 29 June 1817 , he advanced on the fort , deploying his men in small groups coming from various directions to give the impression of a larger force . The commander , Francisco Morales , struck the Spanish flag and fled . MacGregor raised his flag , the " Green Cross of Florida " , a green cross on a white ground , over the fort and proclaimed the " Republic of the Floridas " . Now in possession of the town , and seeing the need to make the appearance of a legitimate government , MacGregor quickly formed a committee to draft a constitution , and appointed Ruggles Hubbard , the former high sheriff of New York City , as unofficial civil governor , and Jared Irwin , an adventurer and former Pennsylvania Congressman , as his treasurer . MacGregor then opened a post office , ordered a printing press to publish a newspaper , and issued currency to pay his troops and to settle government debts . Expecting reinforcements for a raid against the Castillo de San Marcos in St . Augustine , MacGregor intended to subdue all of Spanish East Florida . His plan was doomed to fail , however , as President James Monroe was in sensitive negotiations with Spain to acquire all of Florida . Soon MacGregor ' s reserves were depleted , and the Republic needed revenue . He commissioned privateers to seize Spanish ships and set up an admiralty court which levied a customs duty on their sales . They began selling captured prizes and their cargoes , which often included slaves . When about 28 August fellow conspirator Ruggles Hubbard sailed into the harbor aboard his own brig Morgiana , flying the flag of Buenos Ayres , but without the needed men , guns , and money , MacGregor announced his departure . On 4 September , faced with the threat of a Spanish reprisal , and still lacking money and adequate reinforcements , he abandoned his plans to conquer Florida and departed Fernandina with most of his officers , leaving a small detachment of men at Fort San Carlos to defend the island . After his withdrawal , these and a force of American irregulars organized by Hubbard and Irwin repelled the Spanish attempt to reassert authority . The French privateer Luis Aury sailed into the port of Fernandina on 17 September 1817 . Following negotiations with Hubbard and Irwin , Amelia Island was dubiously annexed to the Republic of Mexico on 21 September 1817 , and its flag raised over Fort San Carlos . Aury surrendered the island to U . S . forces on 23 December 1817 . Cacique of Poyais . MacGregor returned to London in 1820 , where he announced that he had been created " cacique " ( highest authority or prince ) of the Principality of Poyais , an independent nation on the Bay of Honduras . He claimed that native chieftain King George Frederic Augustus I of the Mosquito Shore and Nation had granted him the territory of Poyais , of fertile land with untapped resources , a small number of settlers of British origin , and cooperative natives eager to please . He painted the picture of a country with a civil service , an army and a democratic government , which needed English settlers and investors . At the time , British merchants were all too eager to enter the South American market that Spain had denied to them . In the wake of wars for South American independence , the new governments of Colombia , Chile and Peru had issued bonds in the London Royal Exchange to raise money . London high society welcomed MacGregor ' s colourful figure , and he and his Spanish - American wife received many invitations . The Lord Mayor of London Christopher Magnay even organized an official reception in London Guildhall . MacGregor claimed descent of clan MacGregor and that Rob Roy MacGregor had been his direct ancestor . MacGregor also claimed that one of his ancestors was a rare survivor of the Darien Scheme , a failed Scottish attempt of colonization in Panama in 1690s . In order to compensate for this , he said , he had decided to draw most of the settlers from Scotland . For this purpose , he established offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow . He also enhanced his allure by embellishing his exploits in the Venezuelan War of Independence in the service of Francisco de Miranda and Simon Bolivar . MacGregor was also reunited with Major William John Richardson , an old comrade - in - arms from the revolutionary wars in Venezuela , and by the winter of 1821 he had made Richardson legate of Poyais . He moved to Oak Hall in Richardson ' s estate in Essex , as befitted his station as a prince , so - called . An office for the Legation of the Territory of Poyais was opened at 1 Dowgate Hill in London . MacGregor threw elaborate banquets in Oak Hall and invited dignitaries , foreign ambassadors , government ministers and senior military officers . In Edinburgh in 1822 , MacGregor began to sell land rights for 3 shillings and 3 pence per acre ( a worker ' s weekly wage at the time was about 1 shilling ) . The price steadily rose to 4 shillings . Many people willing to help colonize the new land signed on with their families . By October 23 , 1822 , MacGregor had secured a £200 , 000 loan on behalf of the Poyais government , in the form of 2 , 000 bearer bonds worth £100 each . No dividend was ever paid to the bondholders , and the bonds became unsaleable . The " Republic of Poyais " offered the bondholders land in exchange for these obligations , but the offer was accepted by none of them . That same year , " Sketch of the Mosquito Shore , " including the Territory of Poyais , supposedly written by Captain Thomas Strangeways , was published . It described the Poyais in glowing terms and boasted of the profit one could gain from the country ' s ample resources . Poyais was described as a very anglophilic region with existing infrastructure , untapped gold and silver mines , and large areas of land with fertile soil ready to be settled . Macgregor had pamphlets printed and distributed that described Poyais as a rich country with opportunities to easily acquire wealth . Its supposed capital , the long - abandoned British settlement of St . Joseph , was depicted as having wide avenues , elegant houses , and even an opera house . Eager settlers . The Legation of Poyais chartered a ship called " Honduras Packet " , and London merchants provisioned it with food and ammunition . Its cargo also included a chest full of Poyaisian currency that MacGregor had printed in Scotland . Many of the settlers changed their pounds to Poyais dollars . On 21 or 22 November 1822 , the " Honduras Packet " departed from the Port of Leith with about 70 would - be - settlers , including doctors , lawyers and bankers who had been promised positions in the Poyais civil service . Some had also purchased officer commissions in the Poyaisian army . On 22 January 1823 another ship , the " Kennersley Castle " , similarly left Scotland for Poyais with 200 would - be - settlers and enough provisions for a year . When it arrived in the Bay of Honduras on March 20 , it spent two days looking for a port . Eventually the Scottish newcomers encountered the settlers on the " Honduras Packet " . The settlers found only an untouched jungle , and a few American hermits who had made their homes there . The capital of " St . Joseph " consisted only of ruins of a previous attempt at settlements abandoned in the previous century . The Honduras " Packet " was eventually swept away by a storm . While some of the labourers began to build rudimentary shelter for themselves , the officers and civil servants decided to try to find a way out . Lieutenant - Colonel Hector Hall , would - be - governor of Poyais , left to look for another ship to take them back to Britain . The would - be - settlers began to argue , and the " Kennersley Castle " sailed away . Tropical diseases also began to take their toll . One settler , having used his life savings to gain passage , committed suicide . In April , the " Mexican Eagle " , an official ship from Belize , with the magistrate Marshall Bennett aboard , was sent by Superintendent Major General Edward Codd to investigate conditions at the settlement and found the settlers in a deplorable state . Bennet told them that there was no such place as Poyais , and agreed to take them to Belize . By the time they arrived there , the settlers were weakened , and many later died . All told , 180 of the 240 would - be settlers eventually perished during the ordeal . Edward Codd , Superintendent for Belize , sent a warning to London , sending back any ships of would - be - settlers that were headed for Poyais . Those survivors who did not decide to remain in the Americas departed for London on August 1 , 1823 . More people died during that journey , and fewer than 50 came back alive to Britain . When they returned , city papers published the whole story . Astonishingly , some survivors refused to label MacGregor as a culprit . One of them , James Hastie , who had lost two of his children to tropical diseases , published a book , " Narrative of a Voyage in the Ship Kennersley Castle from Leith Roads to Poyais " , in which he blamed Gregor ' s advisers and publicists for spreading false information . A group of survivors signed a declaration of their belief that had Sir Gregor gone with them , things would have turned out differently . Major Richardson sued the papers for libel and defended MacGregor against the charges of fraud . MacGregor , however , had left for Paris in October 1823 . Poyaisian scheme in France . In France , MacGregor contacted the trading organization " Compagnie de la Nouvelle Neustrie " and commissioned it to solicit more Poyaisian settlers and investors in France . In March 1825 MacGregor summoned Gustavus Butler Hippisley , an acquaintance from the army , and appointed him a representative of Poyais in Colombia . Hippisley was asked to write about the Poyais affair in France in " Acts of Oppression Committed under the Administration of m . de Villele , Prime minister of Charles X , " from 1825 to 1826 . MacGregor told Hippisley that he needed the help of the French government to obtain a formal renunciation of any ( in reality nonexistent ) claims Spain might have to Poyais and that he had met with French Prime Minister Jean - Baptiste de Villele . MacGregor and la Nouvelle Neustrie already had plans to send French emigrants to Poyais . Hippisley wrote back to London , castigating the journalists who had called MacGregor a " penniless adventurer " . In August , MacGregor published a new constitution of Poyais ; he had changed it into a republic with himself as the head of state . On August 18 , 1825 he issued a £300 , 000 loan with 2 . 5 % interest , through the London bank of Thomas Jenkins & Company . The bond was probably never issued . At the same time , la Nouvelle Neustrie recruited settlers to buy FFr100 worth of shares each . When French officials noticed that a number of people had obtained passports in order to voyage to a country they had never heard of , they seized the la Nouvelle Neustrie vessel in Le Havre . The would - be - emigrants demanded an investigation ; Hippisley was arrested , but MacGregor was nowhere to be found . Hippisley and MacGregor ' s secretary Thomas Irving were held in custody in La Force prison pending an investigation . Lehuby , one of the directors of la Nouvelle Neustrie , fled to Belgium . MacGregor went into hiding until he was apprehended on December 7 , 1825 . In January 1826 , he made a proclamation to Central American states , written in French . The accused were later moved to Bicetre prison . The trial began on 6 April 1826 . MacGregor , Hippisley , Irving and Lehuby ( in absentia ) were accused of fraud based on the Poyais emigration program . The prosecutor was willing to drop the charges if the men were deported from France . Initially the court agreed , but changed its mind when Belgium agreed to extradite Lehuby . The new trial began on July 10 , 1826 , and lasted for four days . MacGregor ' s lawyer eloquently put the blame on anybody else but MacGregor . MacGregor was acquitted and Hippisley and Irving were released . Lehuby was sentenced to 13 months for making false promises . Lesser Poyais schemes . In 1826 , MacGregor returned to London , where the furor over his affairs had died down . He continued peddling modified , watered - down versions of his old schemes : this time he claimed that natives had elected him as the head of state and became just " Cacique of the Republic of Poyais " and opened an office at 23 Threadneedle Street , without any diplomatic trappings . In the summer of 1827 , he issued a loan worth £800 , 000 as 20 - year bonds with Thomas Jenkins & Company as brokers . However , an anonymous handbill was circulated that warned against investing in " Poyais humbug " . MacGregor had to pass most of the unsold certificates to a consortium of speculators for a small sum . Other Poyais schemes were equally unsuccessful . In 1828 , MacGregor tried to sell Poyaisian land for 5 shillings per acre , but Robert Charles Frederic , the brother of George Frederic , king of the indigenous Miskito people , began to sell those same territories to lumber companies , with certificates that competed with MacGregor ' s . When original investors demanded their long - overdue interest , he could only pay with more certificates . Soon other charlatans began to use the same trick - opening rival " Poyaisian offices " which offered land debentures for sale . By 1834 , MacGregor was living in Scotland and had to issue a new series of land certificates as payment for unredeemed securities . In 1836 his constitution for the Poyaisian Republic , previously published in a French pamphlet , was republished at Edinburgh in English . The last record of any Poyais scheme is in 1837 , when he tried to sell some land certificates . In 1839 , Gregor MacGregor moved to Venezuela where he received Venezuelan citizenship , and a pension as a general who had fought for independence . He died in Caracas on 4 December 1845 .