Part 3 (1/2)

he said, 'to be Orlando Furioso, if the bright Angelica persevere against hier'

It was all a farce, of course, but underneath the fantastic affectation there was a very real sentih had been living a life of exaggerated activity, never a month at rest, now at sea, now in Devonshi+re, now at Court, hurrying hither and thither, his horse and he one veritable centaur A the Euphuistic 'tears of fancy' which he sent fro the most co beco for breath, with laland whoe This reference to his lungs is the first announceh's constitution was tough, but he had a variety of ailments, and a tendency to rheu them In later years we shall find that the damp cells of the Tower filled his joints with pain, and reduced hi before his s were troubleso expedition in which Raleigh had launched his fortune was proceeding to its destination in the Azores No such enterprise had been as yet undertaken by English adventurers It was a strictly private effort, but the Queen in her personal capacity had contributed two shi+ps and 1,800_l_, and the citizens of London 6,000_l_, but Raleigh retained by far the largest share Raleigh had been a week in the Tohen Adh, who had divided the fleet and had left Frobisher on the coast of Spain, joined to his contingent two London shi+ps, the 'Golden Dragon' and the 'Prudence,' and lay in wait under Flores for the great line of approaching carracks The largest of these, the 'Madre de Dios,' was thewhat in those days seeo, brought through Indian seas from the coast of Malabar, was valued when she started at 500,000_l_ She was lined with glooven carpets, sarcenet quilts, and lengths of white silk and cyprus; she carried in chests of sandalwood and ebony such store of rubies and pearls, such porcelain and ivory and rock crystal, such great pots of musk and planks of cinnamon, as had never been seen on all the stalls of London Her hold sarden of spices for all the benjaris and frankincense There was a fight before Raleigh's shi+p the 'Roebuck' could seize this enormous prize, yet so carrack, such a fight as reat rabbit and the little stoat that sucks its life out When she was entered, it was found that pilferings had gone on already at every port at which she had called; and the English sailors had done their share before Burrough could arrive on board; the jewels and the lighter spices were badly ta over so vast a prize this was not h seas so tempestuous that it seemed at one time likely that she would sink in the Atlantic, the 'Madre de Dios' was at last safely brought into Dartmouth, on September 8

The arrival of the 'Madre de Dios' on the Queen's birthday had so like the importance of a national event No prize of such value had ever been captured before When all deduction had been made for treasure lost or pilfered or squandered, there yet remained a total value of 141,000_l_ in thein Dartmouth harbour was more than the tradesmen of London could bear Before the Queen's commissioners could assemble, half the usurers and shopkeepers in the City had hurried down into Devonshi+re to try and gather up a few of the golden cruh,in the Tower, until it suddenly appeared that this very concourse and rabble at Dartmouth would render his release imperative No one but he could cope with Devonshi+re in its excite hi from Exeter to his father on September 19, reported that for seven miles everybody he met on the London road s without finding seed-pearls in it 'My Lord!' he says, 'there never was such spoil'

Raleigh's presence was absolutely necessary, for Cecil could do nothing with the desperate and obstinate h arrived at Dartmouth with his keeper, Blount

Cecil was araced favourite so popular in Devonshi+re 'I assure you,' he says, 'his poor servants to the nuoodly men, and all the mariners, came to him with such shouts and joy as I never saw a man more troubled to quiet them in my life But his heart is broken, for he is extreer than he is busied, in which he can toil terribly, but if you did hear hi all the short wares utterly devoured, you would laugh as I do, which I cannot choose Thebetween him and Sir John Gilbert ith tears on Sir John's part; and he belike finding it known he had a keeper, wherever he is saluted with congratulation for liberty, he doth answer, ”No, I aland's poor captive” I wished him to conceal it, because here it doth direater arace hireedy to do anything to recover the conceit of his brutish offence'

Raleigh broke into rage at finding so ave out that if he oldsmiths in Devonshi+re, were it on the wildest heath in all the county, he would strip theainst the coainst Cross As was his wont, he showed no tact or consideration towards those ere engaged with or just above him; but about the end of September business cooled his wrath, and he settled down to a division of the prize On Septehley and Howard a report of their proceedings with respect to the 'Madre de Dios'; this report is signed by Cecil, Raleigh, Sir Francis Drake, and three other persons They had carried on their search for stolen treasure so rigorously that even the Adainst his will They confess their disappoint than soold, and a bunch of seed-pearl

Sir Walter Raleigh now ed Elizabeth Throckmorton, and in February 1593 Sir Robert Cecil procured soe froe flowery letter[6] of the 8th of that month, in which she excuses her husband for his denial of her--'if faith were broken with me, I was yet far away'--and shows an affectionate solicitude for his future It see himself free was to depart on an expedition to Aly objects to In her alembicated style she says to Cecil, 'I hope for my sake you will rather draw for Walter towards the east than help him forward toward the sunset, if any respect to otten But every month hath his flower and every season his contentreat councillors are so full of new councils, as you are steady in nothing, but we poor souls that have bought sorrow at a high price, desire, and can be pleased with, the sa alterations will but multiply misery, of which we have already felt sufficient' The poor woman had her way for the present, and for two full years her husband contented hi the woods of Sherborne

For the next year we get scanty traces of Raleigh's movements from his own letters In May 1593 his health, shaken by his iave him some uneasiness, and he went to Bath to drink the waters, but without advantage In August of that year we find hiives Sir Robert Cecil a roan gelding in exchange for a rare Indian falcon In the autu quarrels between English and French fishermen

In April 1594 he captures a live Jesuit, 'a notable stout villain,' with all 'his copes and bulls,' in Lady Stourton's house, which was a very warren of dangerous recusants But he soon gets tired of these small activities The sea at Weymouth and at Plymouth put out its arms to him and wooed hiranite judgment-seat of the Stannaries ell, but life offered h In June 1594 he tells Cecil that he will serve the Queen as a poor privateabroad, and the following o with the Lord Admiral to Brittany He has a quarrel meanwhile with the Dean and Chapter of Sarum, who have let his Sherborne farms over his head to one Fitzjames, and 'who could not deal with me worse withal if I were a Turk' But a ue has broken up his home, his wife and son are sent in opposite directions, and he himself has leave to be free at last; with God's favour and the Queen's he will sail into 'the sunset' that Lady Raleigh had feared so olden cities of Guiana

CHAPTER IV

GUIANA

The vast tract in the north-east of the southern continent of America which is now divided between Venezuela and three European powers, was known in the sixteenth century by the name of Guiana Of this district the three territories now styled English, Dutch, and French Guiana respectively for outside the vague eastern limit of the traditional ereat Pizarro had returned to Peru with a legend of a prince of Guiana whose body was sold dust, so that he strode naked aolden statue This prince was El Dorado, the Gilded One But as time went on this title was transferred frodoolden mountains in the heart of Guiana Spanish and Geruna_, starting now from Peru, now from Quito, now from Trinidad, but they never found it: little advance was e or authority, nor did Spain raise any definite pretensions to Guiana, although her provinces hemmed it in upon three sides

There is no doubt that Raleigh, who folloith the closest attention the nascent geographical literature of his time, read the successive accounts which the Spaniards and Gerave of their explorations in South America But it was not until 1594 that he seems to have been specially attracted to Guiana At every part of his career it was 'hatred of the tyrannous prosperity' of Spain which excited hi apparently in one of Raleigh's vessels, captured at sea and brought to the latter certain letters sent ho that on April 23, 1593, at a place called Warismero, on the Orinoco, Antonio de Berreo, the Governor of Trinidad, had annexed Guiana to the dominions of his Catholic Majesty, under the name of El Nuevo Dorado In these same letters various reports of the country and its inhabitants were repeated, that the chiefs danced with their naked bodies glea froreat pearls froold, that the innocent people were longing to exchange their jewels for jews-harps Raleigh was aroused at once, less by the splendours of the description than by the fact that this unknown country, with its mysterious possibilities, had been impudently added to the plunder of Spain He immediately fitted out a shi+p, and sent Captain Jacob Whiddon, an old servant of his, to act as a pioneer, and get what knowledge he could of Guiana Whiddon went to Trinidad, saw Berreo, was put off by hiland in the winter of 1594 with but a scanty stock of fresh inforh to start for Guiana without delay

On December 26 he writes: 'This wind breaks my heart That which should carry me hence now stays me here, and holds seven shi+ps in the river of Thames As soon as God sends them hither I will not lose one hour of tiazing for a wind to carry me to my destiny' At last, on February 6 he sailed away froether with s rivers What the number of his creas, he nowhere states The section of them which he took up to the Orinoco he describes as 'a handful of entlemen; soldiers, rowers, boat-keepers, boys, and all sorts' Sir Robert Cecil was to have adventured his own shi+p, the 'Lion's Whelp,' and for her Raleigh waited seven or eight days a the Canaries, but she did not arrive On the 17th they captured at Fuerteventura two shi+ps, Spanish and Flemish, and stocked their own vessels ine from the latter

They then sailed on into the west, and on March 22 arrived on the south side of Trinidad, casting anchor on the north shore of the Serpent's Mouth Raleigh personally explored the southern and western coasts of the island in a small boat, while the shi+ps kept to the channel He was a to the branches of the rove trees at loater, and he examined also the now famous liquid pitch of Trinidad Twenty years afterwards, in writing _The History of the World_, we find hison these natural wonders At the first settlelish fleet came to, Port of Spain, they traded with the Spanish colonists, and Raleigh endeavoured to find out what he could, which was but little, about Guiana He pretended that he was asking merely out of curiosity, and was on his way to his own colony of Virginia

While Raleigh was anchored off Port of Spain, he found that Berreo, the Governor, had privately sent for reinforce to attack him suddenly At the salish shi+ps with terrible co the ancient chiefs of the island in prison, and had the singular foible of a their bare li bacon These considerations deter he marched his men up the country to the new capital of the island, St Joseph, which they easily storh found five poor roasted chieftains hanging in irons at the point of death, and at their instance he set St Joseph on fire That very day two lish shi+ps, the 'Lion's Whelp' and the 'Galleys,' arrived at Port of Spain, and Raleigh was easily master of the situation

Berreo seems to have submitted with considerable tact He insinuated hih's confidence, and, like the faulled hiinal idea probably was that by inflaination with the wonders of Guiana, he would be the e to his own destruction into the fatal swah, as e in these terentleentlereat heart: I used his I could, according to the small means I had' Berreo showed him a copy he held of a journal kept by a certain Juan Martinez, who professed to have penetrated as far as Manoa, the capital of Guiana This narrative was very shortly afterwards exposed as 'an invention of the fat friars of Puerto Rico,' but Raleigh believed it, and it greatly encouraged him When Berreo realised that he certainly meant to attempt the expedition, his tone altered, and he 'was stricken into a great uentlemen of my company that it would be labour lost,' but all in vain

The first thing to be done was to cross the Serpent's Mouth, and to ascend one of the streah sent Captain Whiddon to explore the southern coast, and determined from his report to take the Capuri, or, as it is now called, the Macareo branch, which lies directly under the western extremity of Trinidad After an unsuccessful effort here, he started farther west, on the Cano Manamo, which he calls the River of the Red Cross He found it exceedingly difficult to enter, owing to the sudden rise and fall of the flood in the river, and the violence of the current At last they started, passing up the river on the tide, and anchoring in the ebb, and in this ent slowly onward

The vessels which carried theh had had an old galley furnished with benches to row upon, and so far cut down that she drew but five feet of water; he had also a barge, therries, and a shi+p's boat, and in this e vessels behind him in the Gulf of Paria, he accoe to the Orinoco and back, with one hundred persons and their provisions Of the raphic account:

We were all driven to lie in the rain and weather, in the open air, in the burning sun, and upon the hard boards, and to dress our meat, and to carry all manner of furniture, ith [the boats] were so pestered and unsavoury, that ith victuals being ether, and the heat of the sun, I will undertake there was never any prison in England that could be found more unsavoury and loathsome, especially to myself, who had for many years before been dieted and cared for in a sort far different

On the third day, as they were ascending the river, the galley stuck so fast that they thought their expedition would have ended there; but after casting out all her ballast, and after ot off in twelve hours When they had ascended beyond the limit of the tide, the violence of the current became a very serious difficulty, and at the end of the seventh day the crews began to despair, the tee of the Ita-pal every breath of air

Day by day the Indian pilots assured theh had to harangue his men to prevent mutiny, for now their provisions also were exhausted He told theh that deadly swah their memory to scorn

[Illustration: GUIANA]

Presently things grew a little better They found wholesome fruits on the banks, and now that the strea what they saw, they e tawny,' which was Raleigh's own colour, 'purple, green, watchet and of all other sorts both si of the ti so pieces'