About a year ago, a 19th-century map drawn by a man named Gregor MacGregor was discovered. The map depicts the Central American country of Poyais, which stretched across eight million acres and was located between what is now Nicaragua and Honduras on the Mosquito Coast.
The tropical oasis ran right along the Caribbean and contained major port towns like St. Joseph, Lempira, and MacGregor.
Poyais offered hope for a better and brighter future. But the problem was that Poyais didn’t actually exist—it never had.
The map of Poyais turned out to be nothing more than a massive fraud. It was one of the most successful con jobs in history.
MacGregor was born on December 24, 1786, to the Clan MacGregor. His father was Daniel MacGregor, a sea captain with the East India Company, while his grandfather had served in the Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland.
He joined the British army at the age of 16, right before the Napoleonic Wars broke out. He served in the 57th Foot Regiment and was promoted to lieutenant after just one year.
In 1805, he married Maria Bowater, a wealthy woman with connections who was the daughter of a Royal Navy admiral. He was able to buy his way into becoming captain and was stationed at Gibraltar until 1809.
He was sent to Portugal to support the Duke of Wellington. In 1810, a disagreement with a senior officer caused him to retire from the army.
He moved back to British soil with his wife and tried to establish himself as someone with an elite background in London.
tomertu – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only – pictured above is a gold crown in the woods
Not long after, his wife died, leaving him without any money. He did not have many options, so he decided to head to Venezuela.
He rose through the ranks to become general by the age of 30. He also ended up marrying another wealthy heiress.
In 1817, MacGregor landed on Amelia Island with a few hundred armed men. He took over the island quickly since there was hardly anyone living on it.
During his occupation, he invented a flag, stamps, and currency. Soon, the Spanish arrived and kicked him out.
That was when the idea for Poyais was born. The whole point of the scam was to make more money.
He sold £200,000 in Poyaisian government bonds with a six percent return in 1822 alone by convincing London aristocrats and investors that he was a war hero and that a local Indigenous population granted him a large piece of land with lush forests and sparkling streams.
He claimed that he had been appointed as the “Cazique,” or prince, the leader of the country. To support his story, MacGregor presented official-looking documents, land grants, maps, designs of military uniforms, a guidebook, and even Poyais currency that prospective settlers could exchange for their British pounds.
He persuaded around 250 individuals to depart England and Scotland on voyages to Poyais in 1822 and 1823. When they arrived, they were met by a desolate wilderness. The settlers tried to construct makeshift shelters as they waited for help to arrive.
But by the time a British rescue ship reached them, nearly 75 percent of the group had died from malnutrition or diseases like malaria and yellow fever. Some of the surviving colonists blamed the voyage leaders for the failure rather than MacGregor.
In 1823, MacGregor fled to France and continued promoting Poyais. The French government attempted to convict him of fraud in 1826, but he managed to get himself out of that one, too.
He ultimately retired in Caracas, where he died a rich man at the age of 58. For all the lives he ruined and the money he stole, he never really was brought to justice.
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