sentence of death at Winchester, was immured a grant of the lands of Anthony Babington, leav in the Tower of London. In that dismal state-ing the young and innocent widow and children to prison he found several men fit to be his mates; beggary. The letter to the favourite produced and these were increased year after year by the no effect. Then the prisoner's wife, the devoted absurd tyranny of the court, until it seemed and spirited Lady Raleigh, got access to the king, almost to be James's intention to shut up all the and throwing herself on her knees, with her chilgenius, taste, and enterprise of England in that dren kneeling with her, implored him to spare great cage. Henry Percy, the accomplished and the remnant of their fortunes. James's only reply munificent Earl of Northumberland-the friend was, "I maun ha' the land-I maun ha' it for of science and scientific men, the enthusiastic Carr;" and the minion had it accordingly. From promoter of natural and experimental philoso- this time it is probable that the hospitable table phy, the favourer of all good learning-and Ser- kept by the Earl of Northumberland was of conjeant Hoskins, the scholar, poet, wit, and critic, sequence to Raleigh on other grounds than those the admired of Camden, Selden, Daniel, the of society and conversation. This extraordinary friend and polisher of Ben Jonson-were among man had always had a determined turn to letters the distinguished co-mates of Raleigh; and these and the sciences; in the bustle of the camp, in the men constantly attracted to the Tower some of court, in the discomforts of the sea, he had snatched the most intellectual of their contemporaries, who hours for intense studies, which had embraced the enlivened their captivity with learned and plea- wide range of poetry, history, law, divinity, assant discourse. Northumberland served as a tronomy, chemistry, and other sciences. In the centre for these wits, and his purse appears to Tower, the quiet of the place, the necessity his have been always open to such as were in need, restless mind felt for employment and excitewhether prisoners or free. For some time Ra- ment, and the tastes of his fellow-prisoners and leigh did not require pecuniary assistance; for, visitors, all led him to an increased devotion to though his moveable estate was forfeited by his these absorbing pursuits. If he was a rarelyattainder, it was consigned to trustees appointed accomplished man when he entered his prisonby himself for the benefit of his family and cre- house, the thirteen years he passed there in this ditors, and his principal estate and castle of Sher- kind of life were likely to qualify him for great borne in Dorsetshire, which his taste and unspar- literary undertakings. During one part of his ing outlay of money in his prosperous days "had confinement he devoted a great deal of his time beautified with orchards, gardens, and groves of to chemistry, not without the usual leaning to much variety and great delight," had been cau- alchemy, and an indefinite hope of discovering the tiously conveyed to his eldest son some time philosopher's stone-a dream which was fully inbefore the death of Elizabeth and the beginning dulged in by his friend Northumberland, and of his troubles. But some sharp eye, in looking which was no stranger to Bacon himself. Rafor prey, discovered that there was a legal flaw leigh fancied that he had discovered an elixir, or in the deed of conveyance, and the chief-justice, grand cordial of sovereign remedy in all diseases Popham, Raleigh's personal enemy, and the same -a sort of panacea. On one occasion, when the that had sat on his trial, decided that, from the queen was very ill, she took his draught, and omission of some technicality, the deed was alto- experienced or fancied immediate relief. Prince gether invalid. No doubt the chief-justice knew Henry, who had always taken a lively interest in beforehand that the king wanted the property his fate, and for whom Raleigh had written some for his minion Robert Carr, who was just then admirable treatises in the Tower, joined his commencing his career at court. From his pri- grateful mother in petitions for his liberation; son Raleigh wrote to the young favourite, telling but without avail. For the instruction of the him that, if the inheritance of his children were young prince, Raleigh commenced his famous thus taken from them for want of a word, there History of the World—a work, as far as it goes, would remain to him but the name of life. Some of uncommon learning and genius, and altogether of the expressions in this letter are exceedingly extraordinary, if we consider the time, the trying affecting; but, in reading them, we cannot but circumstances under which it was written, and remember that Raleigh himself, at his own dawn, the previous busy life of the author. The first had greedily grasped at the possessions of the fa- part was finished in 1612.2 Shortly after young therless-that he himself had got from Elizabeth Henry died; and then, though (to use his own The first entry in Lord Burghley's Diary, under the year honour, I beseech you not to begin your first building upon the 1587, is the following: "A grant of Anthony Babington to Sir Walter Raleigh." The touching expressions in Raleigh's letter to Carr are these:And for yourself, sir, seeing your fair day is now in the dawn, and mine drawn to the evening, your own virtues and the king's grace assuring you of many favours and of much ruins of the innocent, and that their sorrows with mine may not attend your first plantation . . . . I therefore trust, sır, that you will not be the first who shall kill us outright, cut down the tree with the fruit, and undergo the curse of them that enter the fields of the fatherless."—Serin. Sac. It was not published till 1614. expression) he had "hewn out" the second and third parts, he had not heart to finish them.' In 1614 the revolutions at court had thrown Somerset into disgrace, and brought Buckingham into favour. Raleigh built new hopes on the change, and instantly became a suitor to George Villiers. But he and his friends had never SIR WALTER RALEIGH. From the print in his "History of the World," ed. 1677. ceased their endeavours at court, and before this time Sir Walter had proposed to Secretary Winwood a scheme which, he fancied, must excite the king's cupidity, and lead to his immediate release. In the year 1595, Raleigh, in the course of one of his adventurous voyages, had visited Guiana in South America, the fabled El Dorado, or Land of Gold, which, though discovered by the Spaniards, had not been conquered or settled. The capital city of Manoa, which had been described by Spanish writers as one vast palace of Aladdin-a congeries of precious stones and precious metals-eluded his pursuit; but he found the country to be fertile and beautiful, and he discovered at an accessible point, not far from the banks of the mighty Orinoco, some signs of a gold mine. He now proposed to Secretary Winwood an expedition to secure and work that virgin mine, which he was confident would yield exhaustless treasures. The ships necessary, their equipment, and all expenses, he undertook to provide by himself and his friends; he asked nothing from the king, who was to have one-fifth of the gold, but his liberty and an ample commission. Winwood, though a practised and cau It should be remembered, however, that he was released from the Tower after the prince's death, and again involved in the active business of life. tious man of business, was captivated by the project, and he recommended it to the king as a promising speculation. James, who was almost penniless, entered into it at first with more eagerness than the secretary; but, on reflection, he fancied that the enterprise might involve him in a war with Spain, which still pretended its exclusive right, by Papal bull, to all those regions; and war was James's horror. Still, however, his increasing wants made him often dream of El Dorado, and he began to talk about Raleigh as a brave and skilful man. Some noble friends of the captive took advantage of this frame of mind: but nothing was now to be done at court without conciliating "the kindred;" and it was a sum of £1500 paid to Sir William St. John and Sir Edward Villiers, uncles of the favourite, that undid the gates of the Tower. Raleigh walked forth in the beginning of March, leaving behind him, in that fortress, the fallen Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, who, in the following month, was brought to his trial for the murder of Overbury. But, though admitted to liberty, Sir Walter as yet had no pardon; and to obtain one, and to restore his shattered fortune, to indulge again in his favourite pursuits, his romantic adventures, he laboured heart and soul to remove the king's objections to his great project. James had a hard struggle between his timidity and his cupidity: he longed for the gold as the traveller in the desert longs for water, but still he dreaded the Spaniards, the dragons of the mine. His indecision was increased when, by his indiscreet gossiping, the project became known to the Spanish ambassador. Count Gondomar was a very accomplished diplomatist, the best that could possibly have been found for such a court as that of James. "He had as free access to the king as any courtier of them all, Buckingham only excepted; and the king took delight to talk with him, for he was full of conceits, and would speak false Latin a purpose, in his merry fits, to please the king; telling the king plainly, 'You speak Latin like a pedant, but I speak it like a gentleman.'" While he could drink wine with his majesty and the men, he could win the ladies of the court by his gallantry and liberality; and it is said that, in that sink of dishonour and immorality, he intrigued with some of the highest dames, and bribed some of the proudest nobles. If the indiscretion of the king over his cups were not enough, he had plenty of other keys to the secrets of government. According to James's own declaration, Gondomar "took great alarm, and made vehement assertions, in repeated audiences, that he had discovered the objects of the expedition to be hostile and piratical, tending to a breach of the late peace between the two 2 Arthur Wilson. Islands before October, and it was the 13th of November when they "recovered the land of Guiana." During the long rough voyage, disease had broken out among the sailors; forty-two men died on board the admiral's ship alone, and Raleigh suffered the most violent calenture that ever man did and lived. But he wrote to his wife, "We are still strong enough, I hope, to perform what we have undertaken, if the diligent care at London to make our strength known to the Spanish king by his ambassador have not taught that monarch to fortify all the entrances against us." He was received by his old friends, the Indians on the coast, with enthusiasm ; but he soon learned that the Spaniards were up the country, and prepared to dispute with him the possession of it. Being himself so reduced by sickness as to be unable to walk, he sent Captain Keymis up the river Orinoco with five of the ships, and took up his station with the rest at the island of Trinidad, close to the mouths of that river. He had been given to understand that a Spanish fleet was in the neighbourhood; and it is quite certain that he intended not only to fight it if challenged, but also to fight in order to prevent it following Keymis up the river. This brave captain, who had been for many years devoted to Raleigh, and had suffered many troubles on his account, had explored the country where the mine was situated in 1595, and he was now ordered to make direct for the mine, "the star that directed them thither." If he found it rich and royal he was to establish himself at it; if poor and unpromising, he was to bring away with the arms and soldiers he took with him would be solely for self-defence. According to James, the ambassador then seemed to be satisfied, observing to Secretary Winwood, that if Raleigh only meant to make a peaceful settlement, Spain would offer no resistance. Thereupon the ener-him a basket or two of ore, to convince the king getic adventurer pressed the preparations for his expedition, and his reputation and merit "brought many gentlemen of quality to venture their estates and persons upon the design." Sir Walter obtained from the Countess of Bedford £8000, which were owing to him, and Lady Raleigh sold her estate of Mitcham for £2500; all of which money he embarked in the adventure. Having obtained ample information as to the course he intended to pursue, and securities, in persons of wealth and rank, for his good behaviour and return, James granted his commission under the privy seal, constituting Raleigh general and commander-in-chief of the expedition, and governor of the colony which he was about to found. On the 28th of March, 1617, he set sail with a fleet of fourteen vessels. The Destiny, in which he hoisted his flag, had on board 200 men, including sixty gentlemen, many of whom were his own or his wife's relations. The voyage began inauspiciously; the ships were driven by a storm into the Cove of Cork, where they lay till the month of August. They did not reach the Cape de Verd James's declaration in Appendix to Cayley's Life of Raleigh. that the design was not altogether visionary. Keymis began sailing up the river on the 10th of December. If we are to believe the English accounts, the Spaniards began the war, and shot at the ships both with their ordnance and muskets, which they were very likely to do, even without a reference to the exclusive pretension of sovereignty, from the recollection of the mode in which the great Drake and other English commanders had behaved, and that too when, as now, there was no declaration of war between England and Spain. Keymis soon arrived off the town of St. Thomas, which the Spaniards had recently built on the right bank of the river; and he landed and took up a position between that town and the mine. It is said that he had no intention of attacking the place-we confess that, from a consideration of the circumstances, we 2 "To tell you that I might here be king of the Indians were a vanity. But my name hath still lived among them here. They feed me with fresh meat, and all that the country yields. All offer to obey me."-Letter to his Wife. 3 It was an axiom with sailors long before and long after this voyage of Raleigh, that the treaties of Europe did not extend across the ocean-that there was "no peace beyond the Line." men. doubt the assertion-and that the Spaniards broke in upon him by surprise, in the middle of the night, and butchered many of his people in their sleep. In the morning the English assaulted the town and forced their way into it. The fight was desperate: on one side the governor, a near relation of the ambassador Gondomar, was slain; on the other the brave young Captain Walter Raleigh, the general's eldest son. This young Walter was the true son of his father: he cut down one of the chief officers of the Spaniards, and was cut down himself in the act of charging at the head of his own company of pikeHis death infuriated the English, who loved him dearly; and, after much bloodshed, they set fire to the houses. All the Spaniards that escaped retired to strong positions among the hills and woods, to guard, as Raleigh said, the approaches to some mines they had found in the neighbourhood of St. Thomas. We cannot help suspecting that the adventurers expected to find and secure some rich prize, like what had been pounced upon by the Drakes and Hawkinses, but all they really found in the captured and destroyed town of St. Thomas were two ingots of gold and four empty refining-houses. They immediately showed their disappointment and discontent, became mutinous and dangerous, and Keymis, oppressed with grief for the loss of young Raleigh, and confounded by their clamours and conflicting projects, appears to have lost his head. He, however, led them some way higher up the river; but, on receiving a volley from a body of Spaniards lying in ambush, which killed two and wounded six of his men, he retreated and made all haste to join his chief. Their meeting was dreadful: Raleigh, in anguish and despair, accused Keymis of having undone him, and ruined his credit for ever. The poor captain answered, that when his son was lost, and he reflected that he had left the general himself so weak that he scarcely thought to find him alive, he had no reason to enrich a company of rascals, who, after his son's death, made no account of him. Raleigh, in the utter anguish of his soul, repeated his charges. Keymis drew up a defence of his conduct in a letter to the Earl of Arundel, which he requested his commander to approve of; but, though some days had been allowed to elapse, Raleigh was not yet in a humour to be merciful to the brave friend of many years. He refused to sign the letter; he vented reproaches of cowardice or incapacity; and then, Keymis retiring to his cabin, in the general's ship, put an end to his existence with a pistol I rejected all these his arguments, and told him that I must leave it to himself to answer it to the king and state. He shut himself into his cabin, and shot himself with a pocket pistol, which brake one of his ribs; and finding that he had not pre 2 and a knife.' All now was horror, confusion, and mutiny in the fleet. Captain Whitney took off his ship, and sailed for England, and Captain Woollaston went with him. Others followed"a rabble of idle rascals"--and Sir Walter was soon left with only five ships. But the men that remained were, for the most part, dashing, daring sailors, or desperate adventurers; and these men would have wished Raleigh to take a leaf or two out of the book of the lives of some of his predecessors (men honoured above all naval heroes in the annals of their country); and, though Raleigh rejected their plans of plunder, it appears to have been after a struggle with the overwhelming feeling of his utter desperation. With his "brains broken," he sailed down the North American coast to Newfoundland, where he refitted his ships. When they were ready for sea, a fresh mutiny broke out, and Raleigh avowedly kept them together by holding out the hope of intercepting the treasure galleons. What followed at sea is open to much doubt; but, in the month of June, 1618, Sir Walter came to anchor at Plymouth, where he was welcomed by the intelligence that there was a royal proclamation against him. Gondomar, who had received intelligence of all that had passed on the Orinoco, and of the death of his kinsman, had rushed into the royal presence, crying, "Pirates! pirates!" and had so worked upon James that the worst possible view of Raleigh's case was instantly adopted at the English court, and a proclamation was published, accusing him of scandalous outrages in infringing the royal commission, and inviting all who could give information to repair to the privy council, in order that he might be brought to punishment; and, a few days after Raleigh's arrival, Buckingham wrote a most humble letter to the Spanish ambassador, informing him that they had got the offender safe, and had seized his ships and other property; that King James held himself more aggrieved by the proceedings than King Philip could do; that all kinds of property belonging to the subjects of the King of Spain should forthwith be placed at his disposal; and that, though the offenders could not be put to death without process of law, the King of England promised that a brief and summary course should be taken with them. As if this were not enough, Buckingham concluded by saying that the king, his master, would punctually perform his promise by sending the offenders to be punished in Spain, unless the King of Spain should think it more satisfactory and exemplary that they should receive the reward of their crimes in vailed, he thrust a long knife under his short ribs up to the handle, and died."—Raleigh's Letter to his Wife. 2 This striking expression is Raleigh's own, in a letter to his wife. England: and he requested the ambassador to nive at his escape. On reaching London, his faithful friend, Captain King, informed him that he had a bark waiting near Tilbury Fort; and on that same evening Le Clerc, the French chargé d'affaires, sought him out privately, and gave him a safe-conduct to the governor of Calais, with letters of recommendation to other gentlemen in France. On the following morning, as he was descending the Thames, he was basely betrayed by Stukely, who, to the last moment, pretended that he was assisting him through the toils.' He was brought back to London, and se The thirst of the Spaniards for Raleigh's blood was provoked by many causes besides the burning of the little town of St. Thomas. He was hated and feared as the ablest commander Eng-curely lodged in that wretched prison where he land possessed, and one whose place it was thought would not soon be supplied. It was remembered how he had butchered the Spaniards in the surrendered fort on the coast of Ireland, and the feeble garrison on the coast of Guiana, at the time of his first voyage thither in 1595. There were other bitter recollections of his exploits with Essex among the Azores and the Canary Islands, and Gondomar was eager to avenge the Ideath of his kinsman. Sir Walter was fully aware of his danger; his sailors had told him that if he returned to England he would be undone; but, according to the testimony of his younger son, Carew, given many years after his father's death, the Earls of Pembroke and Arundel had become bound for his return, and he had therefore come to discharge his friends from their heavy engagement, and to save them from trouble on his account. Upon landing at Plymouth, he was arrested by Sir Lewis Stukely, vice-admiral of Dover, and his own near relation, who took him to the house of Sir Christopher Harris, not far from that seaport, where he remained more than a week. As he had returned and delivered himself up, Pembroke and Arundel were released from their bond, and Sir Walter now attempted to escape to France, but he failed through his indecision, or-which is more probable through the faithlessness of his agents and the vigilance of Stukely. When he was carried forward from the coast to be lodged again in the Tower, Sir Walter feigned to be sick, to have the plague, to be mad; and if what is related of him be true, which we doubt, never did man play wilder or sadder pranks to save his life. Having gained a little wretched time and the king's permission to remain a few days at his own house at London before being locked up, he sent forward Captain King, one of his old officers and friends, to secure a bark for him in the Thames, in which he might yet escape to the Continent. He then followed slowly to the capital, giving a rich diamond to his loving kinsman Stukely, and some money to one Manourie, a Frenchmen, Stukely's servant, who both took the bribes, and promised to con had already spent so many years, and where he was soon subjected to frequent examination by a commission composed of the Archbishop of Canterbury (Abbot), Lord-chancellor Bacon, Sir Edward Coke, and some other members of the privy council. He was charged, first, with hav ing fraudulently pretended that his expedition was to discover a mine, while his real object was to recover his liberty, and commence pirate; secondly, that he intended to excite a war with Spain; thirdly, that he barbarously abandoned his ships' companies, and exposed them unnecessarily to extreme danger; fourthly, that he had spoken disrespectfully of the king's majesty; that he had imposed upon the king by feigning sick ness and madness; and lastly, had attempted to escape in contempt of his authority. Raleigh replied that his sincerity as to the gold mine was proved by his taking out refiners and tools, at his own expense, "of not less than £2000;" that the affair of St. Thomas was contrary to his orders; that he never abandoned his men, or exposed them to more danger than he underwent himself; that all that he had said of the king was, that he was undone by the confidence he had placed in his majesty, and that he knew his life would be sacrificed to state purposes. As to his feigning sickness and attempting to escape, it was true, but natural and justifiable. As the commissioners could gain no advantage over him in these interrogatories, it was resolved to place a familiar or spy over him, who might ensnare him into admissions and dangerous correspondence. The person chosen for this detestable, but at that time not uncommon office, was Sir Thomas Wilson, keeper of the State Paper Office, a learned, ingenious, base villain. If this Wilson is to be credited, Raleigh acknowledged that, had he fallen in with the treasure-ships, he would have made a prize of them according to the old principles which he had learned in the school of Drake and Cavendish. To which my lord-chancellor said, "Why, you would have been a pirate." "O!" quoth he, "did you ever 1 For the particulars of Stukely's villainy, see Mr. Tytler's Life of Raleigh. |