SIR WALTER Raleigh HIS apology For his voyage To GUIANA:  
By Sir Walter Raleigh Knight.  
LONDON, Printed by T. W. for HUM: MOSELEY and are to be sold at the Prince's arms in St. Paul's churchyard 1650.   

Sir Walter Raleigh his apology.  
IF ill success of this Enterprise of mine had been without Example, I should have needed a large discourse and many arguments for my Justification, But if the attempts of the greatest Princes of Europe, both among themselves and against the great Turk, are in all modern Histories left to every eye to peruse. It is not so strange that myself being but a private man, and drawing after me the chains and Fetters whereunto I have been thirteen years tied in the Tower, being unpardoned and in disgrace with my sovereign Lord, have by other men's errors failed in the attempt I undertook.  
For if that Charles the Fifth returned with unexampled loss, I will not say dishonour, from Algire in Africa: If King Sebastian lost himself and his Army in Barbary: If the invincible Fleet and forces of Spain in Eighty Eight were beaten home by the Lord Charles Howard admiral of England: If Mr. Strozzi the Count Brizack the Count of Vinnnoso and others, with the Fleet of fifty eight sail and six thousand soldiers, encountered with far less numbers could not defend the Terceres. Leaving to speak of a world of other attempts furnished by Kings and Princes. If Sir Francis Drake, Sir John Hawkins and Sir Thomas Baskervile men for their experience and valour as Eminent as England had any, strengthened with divers of her majesty's ships, and filled with soldiers at will, could not possess themselves of the Treasure they sought for, which in their view was embarked in certain frigates at Puerto Rico, yet afterward they were repulsed with fifty Negroes upon the Mountains of Vasques Numius, or Sierra de Capira in their passage towards Panania: If Sir John Norris (though not by any fault of his) failed in the attempts of Lysbone and returned with the loss, by sickness and otherwise, of eight thousand men. What wonder is it, but that mine (which is the last) being followed with a company of volunteers who for the most part had neither seen the Sea nor the wars, who, some forty Gentlemen excepted, had we the very scum of the World: Drunkards, Blasphemers and such others as their father's Brothers and friends thought it an exceeding good gain to be discharged of them with the hazard of some thirty forty or fifty pounds, knowing they could not have lived a whole year so cheap at home: I say what wonder is it, if I have failed, where I could neither be present myself, nor had any of the Commanders (whom I most trusted) living, or in state to supply my place?  
Now, where it was bruited, both before my departure out of England and by the most men believed, that I meant nothing less than to go to Guiana: but that being once at liberty and in mine own power, having made my way with some foreign Prince I would turn Pyratt and utterly forsake my country. My being at Guiana, my returning into England unpardoned, and my not taking the spoil of the Subj. of any Christian Prince, hath (I doubt not) destroyed that Opinion.  
But this is not all: for it hath been given out by an hypocritticall thief who was the first Master of my ship: And by an ungrateful Youth which waited upon me in my cabin, though of honourable worthy Parents: and by others: That I carried with me out of England twenty two thousand pieces of twenty two shillings the piece, and thererefore needed not, or cared not to discover any Mine in Guiana, nor make any other attempt elsewhere: Which Report being carried secretly from one to an other in my ship, and so spread through all the ships in the Fleet which stayed with me at Trenidado while our Land-Forces were in Guiana, had like to have been my utter overthrow in a most miserable fashion; For it was consulted when I had taken my Barge and gone a shore (either to discover or otherwise as I often did) That my ship should have set sail and left me there, where either I must have suffered Famine, been eaten with wild beasts, or have fallen into the hands of the Spaniards and been flayed alive as others of the English, which came thither but to trade only, had formerly been.  
To this Report of Riches, I make this Protestation, That if it can be proved, either now or hereafter, that I had in the world, either in my keeping or in my power, either directly or indirectly in trust or otherwise, above one hundred pieces when I departed London, of which I had left forty five pieces with my wife, and fifty five I carried with me: I acknowledge myself for a Reprobate, a villain, a Traitor to the King, and the most unworthy man that doth live, or ever hath lived upon the earth.  
Now where the captains that left me in the Indies, and captain Baily, that ran away from me at Cancerota, have, to excuse themselves, objected for the first, That I lingered at Plymouth when I might have gone thence, and lost a fair Wind and time of the year, or to that effect. It is strange that men of fashion and Gentlemen should so grossly belie their own knowledge: And that had not I lived nor returned to have made answer to this Faction, yet all that know us in Plymouth and all that we had to deal withal knew the contrary. For after I had stayed at the Isle of Wight divers days; the Thunder, Commanded by Sir Warram St. Leger by the negligence of her Master, was at Lee in the Thames; and after I arrived at Plymouth, captain Pennington was not come then to the Isle of Wight, and being arrived there, and not able to redeem his Bread from the Bakers, he rode back to LONDON to entreat help from my wife to pay for it, who having not so much money to serve his turn, she wrote to Mr. Wood of Portsmouth and gave him her word for thirty pounds, which she soon after paid him, without which (as Pennington himself protested to my wife) he had not been able to have gone the journey: Sir John Ferne I found there without all hope of being able to proceed, having nor men nor money, and in great want of other provision, insomuch as I furnished him by my cousin Herbert with a hundred pounds, having supplied himself in Wales with a hundred pounds before his coming to Plymouth: and procured him a third hundred pound from the worthy and honest Dean of Exeter Doctor Sutcliffe. captain Whitney, whom I also stayed for, had a third part of his victuals to provide, insomuch as having no money to help him withal I sold my Plate in Plymouth to supply him. Baily I left at the Isle of Wight, whose arrival I also attended here some ten or twelve days as I remember, and what should move Baily only to leave me as he did at the Canaries, from whence he might have departed with my love and leave, and at his return to do me all the wrong he could devise, I cannot conceive; he seemed to me from the beginning not to want any thing, he only desired of me some Ordnance and some iron-bound cask, and I gave it him; I never gave him ill language nor offered him the least unkindness to my knowledge: It is true, that I refused him a French Shallop which he took in the Bay of Portugal outward bound, and yet after I had bought her of the French, and paid fifty crowns ready money for her if Baily had then desired her he might have had her; But to take any thing from the French, or from any other nation, I meant it not.  
True it is, that as many things succeeded both against Reason and our best endeavours; So it is most commonly true, that men are the cause of their own misery, as I was of mine, when I undertook my late enterprise without a pardon for all my Company, having heard it avowed in England before they went, that the Commission I had, was granted to a man who was Non Ens in law, so hath the want thereof taken from me both arms and Actions: Which gives boldness to every petty Companion to spread Rumours to my Defamation and the wounding of my Reputation, in all places where I cannot be present to make them Knaves and liars.  
It hath been secondly objected, That I put into Ireland and spent much time there, taking care to revictual myself and none of the rest.  
Certainly I had no purpose to see Ireland when I left Plymouth, but being encountered with a strong storm some eight Leagues to the Westward of Scilly, in which captain Chudley's pinnace was sunk, and captain King thrust into Bristol: I held it the Office of a Commander of many ships, and those of divers sailings and conditions, of which some could Hull and try, and some of them beat it up upon a Tack, and others neither able to do the one nor the other, rather to take a Port and keep his fleet together, then either to endanger the loss of Masts and yard's; or to have it severed far asunder, and to be thrust into divers places. For the attendance of meeting them again at the next rendezvous, would consume more Time and victual, and perchance the weak ships might be set upon, taken, or disordered, then could be spent by recovering a Harbour, and attending the next change of wind.  
That the dissevering of Fleets hath been the overthrow of many Actions, I could give many Examples, were it not in every man's Knowledge. In the last enterprise of worth, undertaken by our English Nation with three Squadrons of ships, Commanded by the Earl of Essex, the Earl of Suffolk and myself, where was also present the Earl of Southampton, If we being storm-beaten in the Bay of Alcashar or biscay had had a Port under our Lee, that we might have kept our Transporting ships with our men of War, we had in all likelihood both taken the Indian Fleet and the Asores.  
That we stayed long in Ireland it is true, but they must accuse the Clouds and not me, for our stay there; for I lost not a day of a good Wind: and there was not any captain of the Fleet but had Credit or might have had for a great deal of more victuals than we spent there, and yet they had of me fifty Beeves among them and somewhat else.  
For the third Accusation, That I landed in Hostile manner at Lancerota; Certainly captain Baily had great want of matter when he gave that for an excuse of his turning back, for I refer myself to Mr. Barney, who I know will ever justify a truth, to whom (when he came to me from captain Baily to know whether he should land his men with the rest) I made this answer, that he might land them if it pleased him, or otherwise keep them aboard, for I had agreed with the Governor for a proportion of victual which I hourly expected: And it is true, that the Governor being desirous for to speak with me with one Gentleman with him with their Rapiers only, which I accepting, and taking with me lieutenant Bradshaw, we agreed: that I should send up an English Factor (whose ship did then ride in the road) and that whatsoever the Island could yield should be delivered at a reasonable rate; I sent the English Factor according to our agreement, but the governor put it off from one morning to an other, and in the end sent me word, that except I would embark my men which lay on the Sea side, Slanders were so jealous as they durst not sever themselves to make our Provisions: I did so, but when the one half were gotten aboard two of our sentinels forc●, one slain and the English Factor sent to tell me that he had nothing for us, whom he still believed to be a Fleet of the Turks, who had lately taken and destroyed Puerto Sancto. Hereupon all the Companies would have marched toward the town and have sacked it, but I knew it would not only dislike His Majesty; But that our Merchants having a continual trade with those Islands, that their Goods would have been stayed, and amongst the rest, the poor English man riding in the Road having all that he brought thither ashore, would have been utterly undone.  
Hereof I complained to the governor of the Grand Canaries, whom I also desired that we might take water without any disturbance, but instead of answer, when we landed some hundred men, far from any habitation, and in a desert place of the Island, where we found some fresh water, there Ambush was laid, and one Fisher of Sir John Fernes ship wounded to death, and more had been slain had not captain Thornhurst and Master Robert Hayman my son's lieutenant, two exceeding valiant Gentlemen, who first made head against them, seconded by Sir Warham Sentleger and my son with half a dozen more, made forty of them run away. From hence because there was scarcity of water, we sailed to Gomarrah, one of the strongest an well defenced places of all the Islands and the best Port: The town being seated upon the very Wash of the Sea, at the first entrance of our ships, they shot at us, and ours at them, but as soon as I myself recovered the Harbour, and had commanded that there should be no more shooting, I sent a Spaniard a shore (taken in a bark which came from Cape blank) to tell the governor that I had no purpose to make war with any of the Spanish King's Subjects, and if any harm were done by our great Ordnance to the town, it was his fault, which by shooting first gave the occasion. He sent me for answer that he thought we had been the Tu●kish Fleet, which destroyed Puerto Sancto, but being resolved by the Messenger that we were Christians and English, and sought nothing but water, he would willingly afford us as much as we pleased to take, if he might be assured that we would not attempt his Towne-Houses, nor destroy the Gardens and fruits; I returned him answer that I would give him my Faith, and the word of the King of Great Brittaigne my sovereign Lord, that the People of the Town and Island should not lose so much as one Orange or a Grape w●thout paying for it, I would hang him up in the Market-street. Now that I kept my Faith with him, and how much he held himself bound unto me: I have divers of his Letters to show, for he wrote unto me every day And the Countess being of an english Race a Stafford by Mother, and of the house of Horn by the Father, sent me divers presents of fruits, Sugar, and Ruske: to whom I returned because I would not depart in her debt) things of greater value; The old Earl at my departure wrote a Letter to the Spanish Ambassador here in England how I had behaved myself in those Islands. There I discharged a bark of the grand Canaries taken by one of my Pinnaces coming from Cape-Blank in Africa, and demanding of him what prejudice he had received by being taken, he told me that my men had eaten of his fish to the value of six Duckers, for which I gave him eight.  
From the Canaries, it is said That I sailed to Cape de Verte knowing it to be an insec●ious place, by ●eason whereof I lost so many of my men ere I recovered the Indies; The truth this that I came no nearer to Cape de Vert then Bravo, which is one hundred and sixty Leagues off; But had I taken it in my way, falling upon the Coast or any other part of Guiana, after the rain, there is as little danger of insection as in any other part of the World, as our English that trade in those parts every year do well know; There are few places in England or in the world near great Rivers which run through low grounds or near Moorish or Marsh grounds, but the People inhabiting near, are at some time of the year subject to Feaver●, witness Woollwich in Kent and all down the Rivers on both sides, other Infection there is not found ei●her in the Indies or in Af●rica, Except it be when the Easterly wind or Breefes are kept off by some High mountains from the V●llies, w●erby the air wanting motion doth become exceeding unhealthful as at number de Dios and elsewhere. But as good success admits no Examination, so the contrary allows of no excuse, how reasonable or just soever. Sir Francis Drake, Mr. John Winter and John Tomas, when they passed the straits of Malegan, mee●ing with a storm which drove Winter back, which thrust John Thomas upon the Islands to the South where he was cast away, and Sir Francis near a small Island upon which the Spaniards landed their cheins & murderers, from Baldivia, and he found there Philip an Indian who told him where he was and conducted him to Baldivia, where he took his first prize of Treasure and in that ship he found a pilot called John Grege who guided him all that Coast, in which he possessed himself of the rest, which pilot because he should not rob him of his Reputation and knowledge in those parts (desisting the entreaties and tears of all his Company) he set him a shore upon the Island of Altegulors to be by them devoured. After which passing by the East-Indies, he returned into England, and notwithstanding the peace between Us and Spain, he enjoyed the Riches he brought, and was never so much as called to account for cutting off Douly his head at Porte St. Julian having neither martial Law nor other Commission available. Mr. Candish having past all the Coasts of Chyle and Peru, and not gotten a farthing, when he was without hope, and re●dy to shape his course by the East homewards, met a ship which came from the Phillippines at Calestorvia, a thousand pounds to a Nutshell. These two in these two Voyages were the Children of Fortune, and much honoured; But when Sir Francis Drake in his last attempt might have landed at Cruces, by the river of Chyagre within eight miles of Panama, he notwithstanding se● the troops on land at number de Dios and received the repu●se aforesaid, he died for s●rrow. The same success had Candish in his last Passage towards the straits. I say that one and the same end they both had, to wit Drake and Candish, when Chance had left them to the trial of their own virtues.  
For the rest I leave to all worthy and indifferent men to judge, by what neglect or error of mine, the Gold Mine in Guiana which I had formerly discovered was not found and enjoyed, for after we had refreshed ourselves in Galleana, otherwise in the first discovery called Poet Howard, where we tarried captain Hastins, captain Pigott, and captain Snedall, and there recovered the most part of our sick men. I did lmbarque six Compani●s of fifty to each Company in five ships, to wi●, the Encounter, Commanded by captain Whitney, in the Conside●e by captain Woollastone, into two ●●yboats of my own, Commanded by captain Samuel King, and captain Robert Smith, In a carvil which Companies had for their Leaders captain Charles Parker, captain North, My son, captain Thornhurst, captain Penjuglous lieutenant, and captain Chudlyes' lieutenant Prideux.  
At the triangle Islands I embarked the companies for Orrenoque between which and Calliana I lay a ground twenty four hours, and if it had not been fair weather we had never come off the Coast, having not above two fathom and a half of water: Eight Leagues off from whence, I directed them for the River of Surniama, the best part of all that Tract of land between the river Ama●o●es and Orrenoque, there I gave them order to trim their boats and Barges; and by the Indians of that place to understand the state of the Spaniards in Orrenoque, and whither they had replanted or streng●hened themselves upon the entrances or elsewhere; and if they found any Indians there, to send in the little flyboate or the carvil into the river of Dis●ebecke, where they should not fail to find Pilots for Orrenoque, for with our great ships we durst not approach the Coast we having been all of us a ground, and in danger of leaving our Bands upon the shoules before we recovered the triangle Islands as aforesaid; The Biggest ship that could Enter the River was the Encounter, who might be brought to eleven foot water upon the Bar, we could never understand neither by Keymis, who was the first of any Nation that had entered the main mouth of Orrenoque nor by any of the Masters or mariners of our Fleet, which had traded there ten or twelve years for tobacco: For the Chudley when she came ne'er the Entrance, drawing but twelve foot, found herself in danger and bore up for Trinidado.  
Now whereas some of my friends have been unsatifised why I myself had not gone up with the Companies I sent, I desire hereby to give them satisfaction, that besides my want of health and strength, and having not recovered my long and dangerous sickness, but was again fallen into a Relapse, my ship Stoalde and laid a ground at seventeen foot water, 7 Leagues of the shore, so as the Mr. nor any of my company durst adventure to come near it, much less to fall between the shoules on the south side of the river's side, and sands on the North side called Puncto Anegado, one of the most dangerous places in all the Indies: It was therefore resolved by us all, that the fi●e greater ships should ride at Puncto Gallo in Trinidado, and the five lesser should enter the River, For it Whitney and Woollaston at eleven foot lay a ground three days in passing up, in what case had I been which drew seventeen foot, a heavier ship and charged with forty pieces of Ordnance, besides this impossibility, neither would my son nor the rest of the captains and Gentlemen have adventured themselves the River (having but one months' victuals and being thrust together a hundred of them in a small Flyboate) had not I assured them that I would stay for them at Trinidado, and that no Force should drive me thence, except I were sunk in the Sea or set on Fire by the Spanish galleons, for that they would have ad●entured themselves upon any other man's word or resolution, it were ridiculous to believe.  
Having in t●is sort resolved upon our enterprise, and having given instructions, how they should proceed before and ●f●er their entrance into Orrenoque, Keymis having undertaken to disco●er the mine with six or eight persons in Sir John Fernes Shallop, I better bethinking myself and misliking his determination gave him this order, viz.  
Keymis, whereas you were resolved after your arrival into Orrenoque to pass to the mine with my x Harbert and six musketeers, and to that end you desired to have Sir John Fernes sh●llop, I do not allow of that course, because you cannot Land so secretly but that some Indians on the River side may discover you, who giving knowledge of your passage to the Spaniards you may be cut off before you can recover your Boa●e, I do therefore advise you to suffer the captains and the Companies of ●●e English ●o pass up to the Westward of the mountain Aio, from whence you have no l●sse than three mi●es to the mine, and to lodge and encam●e between the Spanish town and you, if there be any To●n near it, that bei●g so s●●●red you may make try all what depth and br●dth the mine ●o●ds, and whe●●er or no it answer our ●o●es. And if you find it royal, and the Spaniards begin to war up●n you, then let the sergeant Major repel them i● i● be in his power, and drive them as for ●s he can.  
But if you find that the mine be not so rich as it may persuade the holding of it, and draw on a second supply, then shall you bring but a ba●ket or two to satisfy his Majesty, that my design was not Imaginatory but true, though not answerable to his majesty's expectation, for the quantity of which I never gave assurance, nor could.  
On the other side, if you shall find that any great number of soldiers be newly sent into Orrenoque, as the Cassique of Caliana told us that there were, and that the Passages be already forced so that without manifest peril of my son, yourself, and other captains, you cannot pass toward the mine, then be well advised how you land, for I know (that a few Gentlemen excepted) what a scum of men you have, and I would not for all the world receive a blow from the Spaniards to the dishonour of our Nation; I myself for my weakness cannot be present, neither will the Company land except I stay with the ships, the Gallioones of Spain being daily expected. Pigott the Sergeant-Major is dead. Sir Warrham my lieutenant, without hope of life, and my Nephew your Sergeant-Major now but a young man: It is therefore no your judgement that I Rely whom I trust God will direct for the best.  
Let me hear from you as soon as you can, you shall find me at Puncto Gallo dead or alive, and if you find not my ships there, yet you shall find their Ashes; For I will fire with the Gallioones if it come to extremity, But run away I will never.  
That these my Instructions were not followed, was not my fault, But it seems that the Sergeant-Major, Keymis and the rest were by acci●ent forced to change their first resolution, and that finding a Spanish town or rather a village, set up twenty mile distant from the place where Antonio Berro the first governor by me taken in my first discovery who had attempted to plant to meet some two Leagues to the Westward of the Mine: They agreed to land and encamp between the mine and the town, which they did not suspect to be so near them as it was, and meaning to rest themselves on the river's side ●●ll the next day, they were in the night set upon and charged by the Spaniards, which being unlooked for, the Common sort of them were so amazed, as had not the captains and some other valiant Gentlemen made a Head and encouraged the rest, they had all been broken and cut in pieces. To repel this force putting themselves in order, they charged the Spaniards, and following them upon their retreat they were ready to enter the Town, ere they knew where they were, and being then charged again by the governor, and four or five captains which lead their Companies; My son not tarrying for my musketeers run up in the head of a company of Pikes, where he was first shot, and pressing upon a Spanish captain called Erinetta with his sword; Erinetta taking the small end of his Musket in his hand struck him on the head with the stock and field him, whom again John Plesington, my son's sergeant, thrust through with his halberd, at which time also the governor Diego Palmeque and the rest of the Spanish captains being slain, and their Companies divided, they betook themselves into a house, or hold adjoining to the market place, where they slew and wounded the English at their pleasure, so as we had no way to save ourselves; but by firing those houses adjoining, which done all the Spaniards ran into the bordering Woods, and Hills, keeping the English still waking with perpetual alarms.  
The town such as it was being in this sort possessed. Keymis prepared to discover the mine, which at this time he was resolved to do, as appeareth by his Letter to me of his own hand writing hereafter inserted; he took with him captain Thornhurst, Master William Herbert, Sir John Hambden, and others, but at his first approach near the bank where he meant to Land, he received from the wood a vollew of shot which slew two of his Company, hurt six others, and wounded captain Thornhurst in the head, of the which he languished three months after.  
Keymis his LETTER Dated the eight of January from Orrenoque.  
ALL things that appertain to human condition in that proper natare and sense, that of fate and necessity belongeth unto them, maketh me choose rather with grief to let you know from me this certain truth than uncertainties from others; which is, viz. That had not this extraordinary valour and forwardness, which with the constant vigour of mind being in the hands of death his last breath expressed these words. (Lord have mercy upon me and prosper your enterprise) lead them all on, when some began to pause and recoil shamefully: this action had neither been attempted as it was, nor performed as it is with his surviving honour.  
This Indian Pilot whom I have sent, if there be occasion to use his service in any thing will prove sufficient and trusty: Peter Andrew's whom I have sent with him can better certify your Lordship of the state of the town, the plenty, the condition of our men, &c. than I can write the same.  
We have the governor's servant Prisoner that waited on him in his bedchamber, and knows all things that concerned his Master. We find there are four Refiners Houses in the town; the best Houses of the town. I have not seen one piece of coin, or bullion, neither Gold or Silver; a small deal of Plate only excepted.  
Captain Whitney and Woollastone are but now come to us, and now I purpose (God willing) without delay to visit the mine, which is not eight miles from the town, sooner I could not go by reason of the murmurings, the discords and vexations, wherewith the sergeant Major is perpetually tormented and tired, having no man to assist him but myself only, things are now in some reasonable order, and so soon as I have made trial of the mine, I will seek to come to your Lordship, by the way of the River. To go and to search the Channels (that if it be possible) our Ships may shorten their course for Trinidado, when time serves, by those passages; I have sent your Lordship a parcel of scattered papers (I reserve a cart load) one roll of Tobacco, one tortoise, and some Oranges and Limmons, praying God to give you strength and health of body, and a mind armed against all extremities. I rest ever to be commanded  
this 8. of January, 1617. Your Lordships KEYMIS.  
Now it seems that the death of my Son, fearing also (as he told me when he came to Trinidado) that I was either dead of my first sickness, or that the news of my son's death would have hastened my end, made him resolve not to open the mine, to the which he added for excuse, and I think it was true, that the Spaniards being gone off in a whole body, lay in the Woods between the mine and their passage, that it was impossible, except they had been beaten out of the Country, to pass up the Woody and Craggy Hills without the loss of those Commanders which should have led them, who had they been slain, the rest, would easily enough have been cut in pieces in their retreat; for being in possession of the town, which they guarded with the greatest part of three Companies, they had yet their handful to defend themselves from firing, and the daily and nightly alarms, wherewith they were vexed. He also gave forth the excuse that it was impossible to lodge any Companies at the mine, for want of victual, which from the town they were not able to carry up the mountain their Companies being divided; He therefore as he told me thought it a greater error to discover it to the Spaniards, themselves neither being able to work it, nor possess it then to excuse himself to the Company, said that he could not find it; all which his fancies when I received, and before divers of the Gentlemen disavowed his ignorance, for I told him That a blind man might find it, by the marks which himself had set down under his hand, and that I told him that his care of losing so many men in passing through the Woods, was but feigned, for after my son was slain, I knew that he had no care at all of any man surviving, and therefore had he brought to the King but one hundred weight of the oar though with the loss of one hundred men, He had given his Majesty satisfaction, preserved my reputation, and given our Nation encouragement to have returned this next year, with greater force and to have held the Country for his Majesty to whom it belonged, and of which himself had given the testimony, that besides the excellent air, pleasantness, healthfulness, and riches: it hath plenty of corn, Fruits, Fish, fowl, wild and tame, Beeves, Horses, sheep, Hogs, Deeres, Coneys, Hares, tortoises, Armadiles, Wanaes, oils, honey, Wax, Potatoes, sugar Canes, Medicaments, Balsamum, Simples, Gums, and what not; but seeing he had followed his own advice, and not mine, I should be forced to leave him arguments with the which if he could satisfy his Majesty, and the State, I should be glad of it, though for my part he must excuse me to justify it, that he, if it had pleased him, though with some loss of men might have gone directly to the place: with that he seemed greatly discontent, and so he continued divers days; afterward he came to me in my cabin, and showed me a Letter which he had written to the Earl of Arundel, to whom he excused himself, for not discovering of the mine: using the same arguments, and many others which he had done before, and prayed me to allow of his Apology; but I told him that he had undone me by his obstinacy, and that I would not favour or colour in any sort his former folly. He then asked me, whether that were my resolution, I answered, that it was: he then replied in these words, I know not then Sir what course to take; and went out of my cabin into his own, in which he was no sooner entered, but I heard a pistol go off. I sent up (not suspecting any such thing as the killing of himself) to know who shot a pistol, Keymis himself made answer lying on his Bed, that he had shot it off, because it had been long charged, with which I was satisfied; some half hour after this, the Boy going into his cabin, found him dead, having a long knife thrust under his left pap through his heart, and his pistol lying by him, with which it appeared that he had shot himself, but the Bullet lighting upon a rib, had but broken the rib and went no further. Now he that knew Keymis, did also know that he was of that obstinate resolution, and a man so far from caring to please or satisfy any man but myself, as no man's opinion from the greatest to the least could have persuaded him to have laid violent hands on himself, neither would he have done it, when he did it, could he have said unto me, that he was ignorant of the Place, and knew no such mine; for what cause had I then to have rejected his excuses, or to have laid his obstinacy to his charge; thus much I have added, because there are some Puppies which have given it out, that Keymis slew himself because he had seduced so many Gentlemen and others with an imaginary mine; but as his Letter to me the 8. of January proves that he was then resolved to open it, and to take off all these kinds of objections; Let captain Charles Parker, captain George Ralegh and captain King all living and in England; be put to their oaths whether or no Keymis did not confess to them coming down the River, at a place where they cast anchor, that he could from that place have gone to the mine in two hours, I say then that if the opening of the mine had been at that time to any purpose; or had they had had any victuals left then, to bring them away, or had they not been hastened by seeing the King of Spain's Letters before they came to my hands, which I am assured Keymis had seen who delivered them to me, whereof one of them was dated at Madrill the 17 of March before I left the River of Thames, and with it, three other dispatches with a Commission for the strengthening of Orrenoque with 150 soldiers, which should have come down the River from the new kingdom of Granada; and one other 150 from Puerto Rico with ten pieces of Ordnance which should have come up the River from the entrance, by which two troops they might have been enclosed, I say had not the rest seen those dispatches; and that having stayed in the River above two months, they feared the hourly arrival of those forces, why had they not constrained Keymis to have brought them to the mine, being as himself confesses within two hours' march. Again, had the Companies Commanders but pinched the governor's man whom they had in their possession, he could have told them of two or three Gold mines and a Silver mine not above four miles from the town, and given them the names of their possessors; with the reason why they forbore to work them at that time, and when they left off from working them, which they did as well because they wanted Negroes, as because they feared lest the English, French, or Dutch would have forced them from those being once thoroughly opened, having not sufficient strength to defend themselves; But to this, I have heard it said since my return, that the governor's man was by me persuaded, being in my power, to say that such mines there were, when indeed there was no such thing, Certainly they were but silly fools, that discovered this subtlety of Mine, who having not yet by the long Calenture that weakened me, lost all my wits which I must have done, if I had left my reputation in trust with a Malato, who for a pot or two of Wine, for a dozen of Hatchets, or a gay suit of apparel would have confessed, that I had taught him to speak of mines, that were not in Rerum natura, No I protest before the Majesty of God, that without any other agreements or promises of mine, than well usage, he hath discovered to me, the way to five or six of the richest mines which the Spaniards have, and from whence, all the mass of Gold that comes into Spain in effect is drawn.  
Lastly, when the Ships were come down the River as far as Carapana's Country (who was one of the natural Lords) and one that reserved that part of Guiana to her Maje. hearing that the English had abandoned St. Thome, and left no force in the Country, which he hoped they would have done, he sent a great Canooe with store of fruits and Provisions to the Captains, and by one of his men which spoke Spanish, having as it seemed been long in their hands; he offered them a rich Gold mine in his own Country, knowing it to be the best argument to persuade their stay, and if it please them to send up any one of the English to view it, he would leave sufficient pledges for his safe return. Master Leake, Master Moleneux and others offering themselves, which when the greater part refused (I know not by what reason lead) he sent again, leaving one of his men still aboard to entreat them to tarry but two days, and he himself would come to them, and bring them a sample of the oar: for he was an exceeding old man, when I was first in the Country some twenty four years since, which being also neglected, and the Ships under sail; he not withstanding sent a Boat after them to the very mouth of the River in hope to persuade them: that this is true, witness captain Parker, captain Leake, Master Stresham, Master Maudict, Master Moleneux, Master Robert Hamon, Master Nicholes, captain King, Peter Andrews, and I know not how many others; but besides his offer also, there hath not been wanting an argument though a foolish one; which was that the Spaniards, had employed the Indians with a purpose to betray our men, but this treason had been easily prevented, if they had stayed the old man's coming; who would have brought them the Gold oar aboarde their Ships, and what purpose could there be of treason when the Guianians offered to leave pledges six for one, yea one of the Indians which the English had aboarde them, whom they found in fetters when they took the town of St. Thome could have told them, that the Cassique which sent unto them to show them the Gold mine in his Country, was unconquered; and are enemies to the Spaniard, and could also have assured them, that this Cassique had Gold Mynes in his Country.  
I say then, that if they would neither force Keymis to go to the mine, when he was by his own confession, within two hours march of it; to examine from whence these two Ingots of Gold which they brought me, were taken, which they found laid by for Kings quinto or fifth part; or those small pieces of Silver, which had the same marks and stamps; if they refused to send any one of the fleet into the Country to see the mines which the Cassique Carapana offered them; if they would not vouchsafe to stay two days for the coming of Carapana himself, who would have brought them a sample of the Gold oar, I say, that, there is no reason ●o lay it to my charge, that I carried them with a pretence of Gold, when neither Keymis nor myself knew of any in those parts: if it had been to have gotten my liberty, why did I not keep my liberty when I had it, Nay why did I put my life in manifest peril to forgo it? if I had had a purpose to have turned pirate, why did I oppose myself against the greatest number of my Company, and was there by in danger to be slain or cast into the Sea because I refused it?  
A strange fancy had it been in me to have persuaded my son whom I have lost, and to have persuaded my Wife to have adventured the 8000. l. which his Majesty gave them for Sherbone, and when that was spent, to persuade my Wife to sell her house at Micham, in hope of enriching them by the mines of Guiana; if I myself had not seen them with my own eyes; for being old and weakly, thirty years in prison, and not used to the air to travel and to watching, it being ten to one that I should ever have returned, and to which by reason of my violent sickness, and the long continuance thereof, no man had any hope, what madness could have made me undertake this journey but the assurance of the mine, thereby to have done his majesty service, to have bettered my Country by the trade, and to have restored my Wife and Children their States; they had lost for that, I have refused all other ways or means, for that I had a purpose to have changed my Master, and my Country, my return in the state I did return may satisfy every honest and indifferent man.  
An unfortunate man I am, and it is to me a greater loss than all I have lost, that it pleaseth his majesty to be offended for the burning of a Spanish town in Guiana; of which these parts bordering the River Orrenoque, and to the South as far as the Amazons doth by the Law of Na●ions belong to the crown of England, as his majesty was well resolved when I prepared to go thither, otherwise his Majesty would not have given once leave to have landed there; for I set it down under my hand that I intended that enterprise and nothing else, and that I meant to enter the Country by the River of Orrenoque; It was not held to be a breach of peace neither by the State here nor the Spanish ambassador who knew it as well as I, that I pretended the journey of Guiana which he always held to be a pretence; for he said it to Master Secretary Windode and to others of my Lords; that if I meant to sail to Guiana, and had no intent to invade any part of his majesty's West Indies nor his Fleets, I should not need to strengthen myself as I did, for I should work any mine there, without any disturbance and in peace, to which I made answer, that I had set it under my hand to his Majest. that I had no other purpose, nor meant to undertake any thing else; but for the rest, that Sir John Haukins in his journey, to St. John de Loa, notwithstanding that he had leave of the Spanish King to trade in all parts of the West Indies, and having the Plate fleet in his power, did not take out of it one ounce of Silver, but kept his faith and promise in all places, was set upon by Don Henrico de Martin's whom he suffered (to save him from perishing) to enter the Porte; upon Martin's faith, and interchanged pledges delivered, he had Jesus of Lubeck a Ship of her Majesties of a 1000 tun burnt; had his men slain which he left on the Land; lost his Ordnance, and all the treasure which he had got by Trade; what reason had I to go unarmed upon the ambassador's promises, whose words and thoughts that they were one, it hath well appeared since then, as well by the forces which he persuaded his Master to send to Guiana to encounter me, and cut me off there; as by his persecuting of me since my return; who have neither invaded his Master's Indies, nor his Fleet, whereof he stood in doubt.  
True it is, that the Spaniards cannot endure that the English Nation should look upon any part of America, being above a fourth part of the whole known world; and the hundred part neither possessed by the Spaniards, nor to them known, as Acosta the Jesuit in his description of the West Indies doth confess, and well know to be true: No though the King of Spain can pretend no other title to all that he hath not conquered, than the Pope's donation; for from the straits of Megellan to the river of Plate, being a greater territory than all that the Spaniards possess in Peru or Chile, and from Cape St. Augustine's to Trinidado being a greater ex●ent of Land then all which he possesses in Nova Spain, or elsewhere, they have not one foot of ground in their possession, neither for the greatest part of it so much as in their own knowledge.  
In Orrenoque they have lately set up a Wooden town, and made a kind of a fort, but they have never been able either to Conquer the Guianians; nor to reconcile them, but the Guianians before their planting, they did willingly resign all that territory to her Majesty, who by me promised to receive them, and defend them against the Spaniards; and though I were a Prisoner for this last fourteen years, yet I was at the charge every year, or every second year, to send unto them to keep them in hope of being relieved. And as I have said before the greatest of the natural Lords, did offer us a rich mine of Gold in his own Country in hope to hold us there; And if this usurped possession of the Spaniards be a sufficient bar to his majesty's right; and that thereby the King of Spain calls himself King of Guiana, why might he not as well call himself Duke of Britain, because he took possession of Blewett, and built a fort there; and calls himself King of Ireland; because he took possession at Smerike and built a fort there.  
If the ambassador had protested to his Majesty that my going to Guiana before I went would be a breach to the peace, I am persuaded that his Majesty if he had not been resolved that Guiana had been his would have stayed me, but if it be not thought to be a breach of Peace not for the going thither (for that cannot be) because I had no other intent, and went with leave; but for taking and burning of a Spanish town in the Country, certainly, if the Country be the King of Spain's, it had been no less a breach of Peace to have wrought any mine of his, and to have robbed him of his Gold; then it is now calded a breach of peace to take a town of his in Guiana and burn it, and with as good reason might I have been called a thief and a robber of the King of Spain, if the Country be not his Majesties, as I am now pursued for the Invasion; for either the Country is the King of Spain's or not the Kings; if it be the Kings, I have not then offended; if it be not the Kings, I must have perished, if I had but taken Gold out of the mines there, though I had found no Spaniards in the Country.  
For conclusion, if we had had any peace with the Spaniards in those parts of the world; why did even those Spaniards, which were now encountered in Guiana, tie six and thirty English men out of Master Wall's Ship of London and mine back to back, and cut their throats, after they had traded with them a whole month, and came to them a shore; having not so much as a sword, or any other weapon, among them all, and if the Spaniards to our complaints made answer, that there was nothing in the treat against our trading in the Indies, but that we might trade at our peril; I trust in God that the word peril shall ever be construed to be indifferent to both Nations; otherwise we must for ever abandon the Indies, and lose all our knowledge, and our Pylotage of that part of the world: if we have no other peace than this; how can there be a breach of peace, which e'er the Spaniards with all Nations, and all Nations with them may trade upon their guard?  
The readiest way that the Spaniards ambassador could have taken, to have stayed me from going to Guiana; had been to have discovered the great practices which I had with his Master against the King my sovereign Lord in the first year of his majesty's reign of Great Britain, for which I lost my estate and lay thirteen years in the Tower of London, and not to urge my offences in Guiana; to which his Master hath no title other than his sword, is with which to this day, he hath not conquered the least of these Nations, and against whom contrary to the Catholic profession, his Captains have entertained, and do entertain whole Nations of cannibals; for in a Letter of the governors to the King of Spain of the eighth of July: he not only complaineth that the Guianians are in arms against him, but that ever those Indians which under their noses live, do in despite of all the King's edicts trade with Los Flamnicos & Engleses, enemicos, With the Flemish, and English enemies, never once naming the English Nations but with the Epitheton of an enemy.  
But in truth the Spanish ambassador hath complained against me to no other end, then to prevent my complaints against the Spaniards. Who landing my men in a territory appertaining to the crown of England; they were invaded and slain before any violence offered to the Spaniards; and I hope that the ambassador doth not esteem us for so wretched and miserable a people, as to offer our throats to their swords without any manner of resistance; howsoever, I have said it already, and I will say it again; that if Guiana be not his Majesties, the working of a mine there; and the taking of a town there; had been equally perilous, for by doing the one, I had robbed the King of Spain and been a thief; and by the other a disturber or breaker of the peace.  
A Letter of Sir WALTER Raleigh to my Lord Carew touching Guiana.  
BEcause I know not whether I shall live, to come before the Lords, I have for his majesty's satisfaction here set down as much as I can say, either for mine own defence, or against myself, as things are now construed.  
It is true, that though I acquainted his Majesty with my intent to Land in Guiana, yet I never made it known to his Majesty that the Spaniards had any footing there; neither had I any authority by Patent, to remove them from thence, and therefore his Majesty had no interest in the attempt of Saint Thome by any foreknowledge in his Majesty.  
But knowing his majesty's title to the Country to be best, and most Christian, because the natural Lords did most willingly acknowledge Queen Elizabeth to be their sovereign, who by me promised to defend them from the Spanish cruelty, I made no doubt but I might enter the Land by force, seeing the Spaniards had no other title but force, (the Pope's donation excepted) considering also that they had got a possession there divers years since my possession for the crown of England, for were not Guiana his Majesties, then might I as well have been questioned for a thief, for taking the Gold out of the King of Spain's mines, as the Spaniards do now call me a peace breaker; for, from any territory that belongs to the King of Spain, it is no more lawful to take Gold, then lawful for the Spaniards to take tin out of Cornwall, were this possession of theirs a sufficient Bar to his majesty's Right, the Kings of Spain may as well call themselves Dukes of Britain, because they held Blewet, and fortified there; and Kings of Ireland because they possessed Smereck and fortified there, and so in other places.  
That his Majesty was well resolved of his right there, I make no kind of doubt, because the English both under Master Charles Leigh and Master Harecourt had leave to plant and inhabit the Country.  
The Orrenoque itself, had long ere this had 5000. English in it, I assure myself, had not my employment at Cales, the next year after my return from Guiana, and after that our journey to the Islands hindered me, for those two years after with Tirones Rebellion, made her Majesty unwilling that any great number of Ships or men should be taken out of England, till that rebellion were ended, and lastly, her majesty's death, my long imprisonment gave time to the Spaniards to set up a town of sticks covered with leaves of trees upon the bank of Orronoque, which they call St. Thome, but they have neither reconciled nor Conquered any of the Cassiques or natural Lords of the Country, which Cassiques are still in arms against them, as by the governor's Letter to the King of Spain, may appear: That by landing in Guiana there can be any breach of peace, I think it (under favour) impossible, for to break peace where there is no peace, it cannot be; that the Spaniards give us no peace there, it doth appear by the King's Letters to the governor, that they should put to death all those Spaniards and Indians that trade, Con los Engleses Enemigos with English enemies: yea those very Spaniards which we encountered at St. Thome, did of late years murder six and thirty of Master Hales' men of London, and mine, who landed without weapon, upon the Spaniards faith to trade with them, Master thorn also in Tower-street in London besides many other English were in like sort murdered in Orrenoque, the year before my delivery out of the Tower.  
Now if this kind of trade be peaceable, there is then a peaceable trade in the Indies, between us and the Spaniards, but if this be cruel war and hatred, and no peace, than there is no peace broken by our attempt; again, how doth it stand with the greatness of the King of Spain, first to call us enemies, when he did hope to cut us in pieces, and then having failed, to call us peace breakers: for to be an enemy and a peace breaker in one and the same action is impossible.  
But the King of Spain in his Letters to the governor of Guiana, dated at Madrill the 29 of March, before we left the Thames, calls us Engleses enemigos, English enemies.  
If it had pleased the King of Spain to have written to his Majest. in seven months' time, for we were so long in preparing, and have made his Majesty know, that our landing in Guiana would draw after it a breach of peace, I presume to think, that his Majesty would have stayed our enterprise for the present.  
This he might have done with less charge, then to levy three hundred soldiers and transport ten pieces of Ordnance from Portarico, which soldiers added to the Garrison of St. Thome: had they arrived before our coming, had overthrown all our raw companies, and there would have followed no complaints.  
For the main point of landing near St. Thome, it is true, that we were of opinion, that we must have driven the Spaniards out of the town, before we could pass the thick woods upon the mountains of the mine, which I confess I did first resolve upon, but better bethinking myself, I reserved the taking of the town, to the goodness of the mine, which if they found to be so rich, as it might persuade the leaving of the Garrison, then to drive the Spaniards thence, but to have burnt was never my intent, neither could they give me any reason why they did it, upon their return I examined the sergeant-major and Keymis why they followed not my last directions for the trial of the mine before the taking of the town, and they answered me, that although they durst hardly, go to the mine leaving a Garrison of Spaniards, between them and their Boats, yet they offended their latter directions, and did Land, between the town and the mine.  
And that the Spaniards without any manner of parley set upon them unawares, and charged them, calling them Perros Ingleses, & by Skirmishing with them, they drew them on to the very entrance of the town before they knew where they were, so that if any peace had been in those parts, the Spaniards first broke the peace, and made the first slaughter, for as the English could not but Land to seek the mine, being come thither to that end, so being first reviled, and charged by the Spaniards, they could do no less than repel force by force; lastly it is a matter of no small consequence to acknowledge that we have offended the King of Spain by landing in Guiana.  
For first it weakens his majesty's title to the Country or quits it; Secondly, there is no King that hath ever given the least way to any other King or State in the traffic of the lives or goods of his Subjects, to wit in our case, that it shall be lawful for the Spaniards tomurther us, either by force or treason, and unlawful for us to defend ourselves and pay them with their own coin, for this superiority and inferiority is a thing which no absolute Monarch ever yielded to, or ever will.  
Thirdly, it shows the English bears greater respect to the Spaniard, and is more doubtful of his forces, then either the French or Dutch is, who daily invade all parts of the Indies with not being questioned at their return, yea at my own being at Plymouth, a French Gentleman called Flory went thence with four sail, and three hundred Land men, with Commission to land and burn, and to sack all places in the Indies that he could master, and yet the French King hath married the daughter of Spain.  
This is all that I can say, other than that I have spent my poor estate, lost my son, and my health, and endured as many sorts of miseries, as ever man did, in hope to do his Majesty acceptable service; And have not to my understanding committed any hostile act, other than entrance upon a territory belonging rightly to the crown of England, where the English were first set upon and slain by the usurping Spaniards, I invaded no other parts of the Indies, pretended by the Spaniards.  
I returned into England with manifest peril of my life, with a purpose not to hold my life, with any other than his majesty's grace, and from which no man, nor any peril could dissuade me; To that grace, and goodness, and kingliness I refer myself, which if it shall find that I have not yet suffered enough, it yet may please to add more affliction to the remainder of a wretched life.  

Sir Walter Raleigh his answer to some things at his Death.  
I Did never receive any direction from my Lord Carew to make any escape, nor did I ever tell Stukely any such thing. I did never name my Lord Hay and my Lord Carew to Stukley in other words or sense, then to my honourable friends, among other Lords. I did never show unto Stukely any Letter, wherein there was 10000 named or any one pound, only I told him, that I hoped to procure the payment of his debts in his absence. I never had Commission from the French King, I never saw the French King's hand or seal in my life. I never had any plot or practise with the French directly or indirectly, nor with any other Prince or State unknown to the King. My true intent was to go to a mine of Gold in Guiana, it was not feigned, but it is true, that such a mine there is within three miles of St. Thome, I never had in my thought to go from Trinidado, and leave my Companies to come after to the savage Island, as Hatby Fearne hath falsely reported. I did not carry with me an hundred pieces, I had with me sixty, and brought back near the said number, I neve● spoke to the French Manering any one disloyal word, or dishonourable speech of the King; nay if I had not loved the King truly, and trusted in his goodness somewhat too much, I know that I had not new suffered death.  
These things are most true as there is a God, and as I am now to appear before his tribunal seat, where I renounce all mercy, and salvation, if this be not the truth. At my death  
W. R.   
FINIS.