Setting out and the voyage

By the summer of 1853 Landale had recruited, despite opposition from local Ayrshire mine owners, the required number of miners.  In the company of wives and children they numbered more than 200. With their luggage sent by boat to London they travelled by train to Carlisle to meet the connecting train. They missed the connection in Carlisle and "the sight of them roaming the streets of Carlisle in the early hours of the morning was distressing" (1) They arrived in London 24 hours overdue.

The Voyage

Having been joined by 40 Norwegian labourers the Colinda left Gravesend on 04 August 1853 captained by My John Powell Mills. Disagreements soon broke out between Captain Mills on one side and the ship's surgeon Dr Henry Coleman and the rest of the passengers on the other. It became clear the ship was under provisioned for the voyage, something Captain Mills tried to blame the Hudson's bay Company for at a later stage.

Cptn Mills challenged his surgeon to a duel with pistols across the table, terrorized the passengers and laid charges of Mutiny and Piratical acts against the passengers and crew" (1)
Following the deaths of children and the harsh conditions rounding Cape Horn the passengers and crew prevailed upon Captain Mills to put ashore in Chile where the disputes could be settled by the British and Norwegian consuls there.

Arrival in Chile

According to the later report made by James Douglas, Governor of Victoria, British Columbia, the Colinda arrived initially in Chile at the port of Valdivia where Captain Mills applied to the Admiral on station for an enquiry into the behaviour of the passengers.
The Colinda was by order of Admiral Moresby, taken to Valparaiso, and the passengers were there tried, before a naval court, for "mutinous and piratical conduct" at the suit of Captain Mills, and acquitted: the latter having failed in proving the charges made against them, and having by order of the Court, to pay the costs of suit.
The ship's surgeon Dr Henry Coleman gave evidence in support of the passengers and against Captain Mills.
The Passengers almost to a man, refused to proceed on the voyage under the command of Captain Mills, and left the Colinda at Valparaiso, with the exception of seventeen; who continued to Canada but who mostly deserted the ship on arrival in Canada and fled to the United States.

Offer of employment in Chile

A report finally reached Fort Victoria in Vancouver from Captain Mitchell of the SS America explaining that most of the passengers who had left the Colinda were wandering the streets in destitute state and declared that they would not go on the ship with Captain Mills but were quite willing to go to Vancouver Island with any other captain.
By chance the arrival of the Scottish miners in Chile coincided with the early development of that country's coal industry. In particular the proprietor of the Compania de Lota, Thomas Garland took the opportunity to offer the Scots generous contracts including a house, although initially the families had to sleep in tents on the beach in Lota.

Chile Mining Experience

More details of the Colinda and the recruitment of the Scottish miners by Thomas Garland are contained in E Edmundson Geoscot Article 1993

"...Thomas Garland's faith in the miners abilities seems to have paid off handsomely..."