The Company of Scotland, hoping to recoup…

The Company of Scotland, hoping to recoup some capital by a more conventional venture, had sent two ships from the Clyde, the Speedy Return and the Continent, to the Guinea coast laden with trade goods.

Sea captain Robert Drummond is the master of the Speedy Return; his brother Thomas, who had played such an active part in the second expedition, is supercargo on the vessel.

Neither ship is seen in Scotland again.

Instead of seeking to sell for gold, as the company's directors intended, the Drummonds had exchanged the goods for slaves, which they had sold in Madagascar.

Carousing with the buccaneers for whom the island is a refuge, the Drummonds had fallen in with the pirate John Bowen of Bermuda, who had offered loot if they would lend the Scots ships to him for a raid on homeward bound Indiamen.

Robert Drummond, initially persuaded, had backed out of the agreement, only to have Bowen appropriate the ships while he was ashore.

The Continent had been lost to fire on the Malabar coast and Bowen had scuttled the Speedy Return after transferring to a merchant ship he had taken.

The Drummonds had decided against returning to Scotland to explain the loss of the ships with which they had been entrusted; no more is ever heard of the brothers.