Sir Sean Connery on a crusade to uncover secrets of doomed expedition

09-Sep-2003 • Actor News

Sir Sean Connery will bring to life his film role as the archaeologist father of Indiana Jones when he joins an expedition to Central America later this year, according to The Herald.

The former James Bond, who played Professor Henry Jones Sr in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, is backing an excavation in Panama on the site of a doomed seventeenth- century attempt to set up a Scots colony.

The expedition is heading for the long-lost graveyard site of the famous Darien venture, which ended in the loss of 2000 lives and left Scotland nearly bankrupt.

Connery was so interested in the dig that he is helping the organisers to raise cash and hopes to meet up with the team if his filming schedule allows. Now he has taken up the role of expedition patron.

The trip to Caledonia Bay has been organised by the Scientific Exploration Society (SES) and the Royal Scottish Geographical Society.

About 40 volunteers will head to Panama in December, where part of their expedition will survey the ruined towns of Fort St Andrews and New Edinburgh. During the month, they will also search for shipwrecks from the colony, excavate a rubbish tip on the site and create a museum of their finds for local Kuna Indians.

Connery, who is expected to make a return as the father of Indiana Jones in the fourth film, said he was fascinated by the story of the Darien venture.

He said: "When I was at school, no-one ever told me about the Scots colony in Darien. It is extraordinary that so many very brave and courageous Scots had the enthusiasm to seek a better future by going all the way to Panama to start a colony in the face of considerable adversity."

The actor may even join the expedition for Burns Night in Panama.

Colonel John Blashford Snell, chairman of the SES and expedition leader, said Sir Sean`s contacts in the area had already helped in organising the expedition.

He said: "Sir Sean is a great personal friend of the president of Panama and after we wrote to him he phoned us straight back and has subsequently been a tremendous supporter."

Scots colonists landed in Caledonia Bay in 1698 as part of the Company of Scotland trading to Africa and the Indies. Led by William Paterson, they described the bay as an "earthly paradise" and dreamt of establishing a colony independent of England.

But after three years the climate, mosquitoes, English government obstruction and Spanish attacks forced them to abandon the bay. More than 2000 men, women and children perished in the disease-ridden colony and the financial losses forced Scotland into economic union with England.