This historical fiction is presented in letter form and the protagonist is Daniel Defoe. Defoe has recently been freed of his debts and his financial savior, the "secretary of state" has requested him to go to Scotland and create propaganda to support legislation before the Scottich parliament that would allow the union of Scotland and England. Scotland has recently suffered the financial disastor of the Darien affair. A reader might enjoy the story more if was sufficiently familiar with the Scottish history of the time to sort out which characters were based on fiction or not. ( )