An English travel guide in 1822 praised the Miskito coast of Central America as "one of the prettiest pieces in the world".
In the west of today's Honduras and Nicaragua, author Thomas Strangeways had discovered a true paradise.
With crystal clear water, mountain slopes overgrown by exotic plants - and extremely pleasant weather: "The climate is mild for these latitudes (...). The wonderful wholesomeness of the air offers European settlers health and opportunities for activity, a blessing that is so rarely found in others Enjoy parts of North or South America. "
The as yet unknown kingdom of Poyais, a little larger than Wales, offers not only beauty in abundance but also "good, healthy and fertile land".
A dream for farmers: Every type of animal or fruit has "been given to this country very generously," enthused Strangeways.
Cocoa nuts, cotton, fine spices and indigo could be produced here, as well as luxury goods such as "oysters of extremely delicate quality".
In the rivers you can find "an extremely opulent amount of fish" - and even gold dust!
It was the "barbaric politics" of the Spanish conquerors that kept the inhabitants from becoming more civilized.
But now, freed from the knout of Spain, the poor savages "showed an eager desire to acquire the arts of Europe, as shown in their repeated invitations to the English to build settlements among them".
In order to encourage the British to invest in their country, even the head of the Poyaisians came to London in 1821: "His Highness the Cazique von Poyais".
Or bourgeois: Gregor MacGregor.
At celebrations of London's high society, MacGregor was admired for stories about his eventful life and the economic opportunities he promised in Poyais.
Sure, a lot in his lectures sounded incredible.
But he could explain everything: how, as a Scot, he could become the leader of a Central American indigenous people.
Why these natives dearly wanted to be robbed of their goods and natural resources by British immigrants.
And above all: why the Londoners should give him all their money for this purpose.
The Poyais boom that MacGregor instigated in London from 1821 onwards became one of the most bizarre scams in the history of financial fraud.
It robbed many Brits of their fortunes, some even of their lives.
Because quite a few died while emigrating - to a country that did not exist.
The cowardly hero
Gregor MacGregor was born on Christmas Eve 1786 in Glengyle, Scotland, the son of a captain of the East India Company.
He was practically born with wanderlust.
As a soldier he was stationed in Gibraltar and Portugal during the Napoleonic Wars.
At the age of 24, Ingo Malcher reconstructed it in "brand eins" in 2013, MacGregor finally heard of Latin America's struggles for independence against the Spanish colonial rulers and traveled to Venezuela to fight for the revolutionary Simón Bolívar.
The "Cazique von Poyais" astonished the London high society with the stories about this time: His rapid rise in the military, his accolade by Portugal's king and the liberator medal that Bolívar had awarded him - that made an impression.
He earned the pompous title of "His Majesty the Inca of New Granada" by wresting two fortresses in New Granada from the Spaniards.
Shortly after he snatched an island off Florida and proclaimed his own country there - the "Republic of Florida".
A gentleman and daredevil of such caliber was likely to rule a distant empire in Central America.
MacGregor let out at the soirees that he had been thrown out of the unit in Portugal before any contact with the enemy.
And that he had invented the accolade, just like most of his military promotions, was wanted by Bolívar for high treason and in Jamaica for piracy.
"His Majesty the Inca" had planned the attack on New Granada so badly that the Spaniards slaughtered his men.
He barely managed to save himself by throwing a mattress out of the window and jumping after it.
Above all, MacGregor kept one thing from the British: the "Republic of Florida", which existed for only two months, had never been his country - but that of the wealthy US investors, to whom he had sold it before the conquest.
He was planning to do something similar again.
Only this time there was no country at all.
Swamp and mosquitos instead of palaces
MacGregor gave newspapers interviews about Poyais, he had London street musicians sing songs about distant paradise he had composed himself, and behind the Poyais travel guide from "Thomas Strangeways" was of course himself. The whole sparkling facade served one purpose: to make money.
Not for the investors, however.
Maria Konnikova reported to the BBC in 2016 that he sold government bonds for his fictional economic paradise for a total of £ 200,000 and promised whopping returns of six percent - twice as much as British bonds imported at the time.
Hoping that Poyais would flourish, the papers were literally ripped from his hands.
That nobody had ever heard of the country ... Back then, states were constantly being dissolved or recaptured in Latin America, who could keep track of things?
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A king of nepps: Gregor MacGregor
Photo: National Galleries of Scotland / Getty Images
And MacGregor's business model went even further: he sold plots of land to interested parties who wanted to emigrate to Poyais - at rapidly rising prices due to the high demand.
He willingly exchanged her fortune for "Poyais dollars".
At the beginning of 1823 the "Honduras Packet" and the "Kennersley Castle" put to sea - with 240 hopeful settlers on board.
MacGregor had recruited them as farmers and laborers for Poyais, as well as doctors, bank directors, and theater directors.
But when they anchored at the place described after two months of crossing, there was no trace of the alleged capital St. Joseph, including the opera house, the royal palace and 15,000 extremely Anglophile inhabitants.
What was there: mud, forest, mountains.
And a lot of mosquitoes.
The end of the dream
The unfortunate ones hadn't booked return tickets.
With all her money exchanged for worthless Poyais dollars, they had to stay for better or for worse.
They made makeshift tents, leaf huts and a few wooden crates.
The promised paradise quickly became hell: Many fell ill from dirty drinking water or developed yellow fever, weakened and elderly people died.
Malnutrition was one problem; rampant despair was another.
Some drove them to suicide.
Some dared an expedition to Cape Gracias a Dios, 150 kilometers away, to explain their predicament to George Frederic, King of the Miskito Coast.
It turned out that he had actually given MacGregor some land after a binge - but by no means permission to trade in it and declare himself a "Cazique".
The angry king declared the agreement null and void and called on the settlers to submit - otherwise he would have to, as Georg Fahrion quoted in Capital in 2019, "massacre every man".
It did not come to extremes: a ship picked up the desperate settlers and rescued them to Belize, from where they could return to Great Britain.
There weren't many of them anymore - only 60 of the 240 people who had traveled had survived the three hellish months in the supposed Garden of Eden.
In the clutches of justice
Meanwhile, MacGregor had left the country - he certainly did not want to discuss the debacle on the Miskito Coast personally with investors and settlers.
He moved to Paris and lived there with his family in a prestigious location.
But he couldn't help it: In France, too, he tried to sell real estate and government bonds for his fictional state - this time for 300,000 instead of a mere 200,000 pounds.
However, unlike their British counterparts, the French authorities noticed that citizens suddenly wanted to register in droves to leave a country that did not even exist.
MacGregor was arrested and charged with fraud.
Perhaps in the end he owed it to the shock of the settlers, some of whom still refused to accept the fatal rip-off and considered it to be legally binding;
maybe it was just MacGregor's skill at knitting lies;
a police investigation into the case in Belize was also unsuccessful.
In any case, the unbelievable happened: The brazen impostor was acquitted.
However, luck did not hold on to him: Nobody wanted to do business with MacGregor anymore, his wife died, he lived impoverished in London, haunted by the anger of the cheated.
Ultimately, it was Simón Bolívar, of all people, whom he had instrumentalized for his lies, showed sympathy: The independence fighter granted MacGregor a pension and outstanding wages for his military services and enabled him to move to Venezuela in 1839.
Gregor MacGregor died on December 4, 1845 in the capital Caracas on the edge of the Caribbean.
Not that far from his realm, which never existed.
Icon: The mirror
