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THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 SIR WALTER RALEIGH ; 
 
 CONTAINING HIS 
 
 ADVENTURES BY SEA AND LAND, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 VARIOUS DISCOVERIES HE MADE} 
 
 ALSO, 
 
 OJ ACCOUNT OF HIS CONDUCT DURING HIS APPREHENSION 
 A AND CONFINEMENT IN THE TOWER, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 INTERESTING PARTICULARS 
 
 RESPECTING 
 
 HIS TRIAL AND EXECUTION. 
 
 NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY KNEVETT, ARLISS, 4 BAKEll, 
 
 JUVENILE LIBRARY, 
 
 Bartholomew Close, West Stnithfield. 
 

LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
 
 THIS illustrious ornament of his country, who 
 united in his character the hero, the patriot, the 
 privy-counsellor, and the man of letters, was the son 
 of Walter Raleigh, or Ralegh, Esq ; a descendant of 
 an ancient and respectable famity in Devonshire. His 
 mother was the daughter of Sir Philip Champernon, of 
 Modbury, and relict of Otho Gilbert, Esq ; of Cemp- 
 ton in Devonshire, wh^n she became the third wife of 
 our patriot's father, to whom she bore two sons, Carew 
 and Walter ; the latter, whose eminent services to his 
 country have immortalized his name, was born at Bud- 
 ley, in Devonshire, in 1552; and at fourteen years of 
 age, was sent to finish his education at the university of 
 Qxtbfd, where he became a gentleman commoner of 
 Oriel-college. Here he distinguished himself by the 
 strength and vivacity of his genius, and by his close ap- 
 plication to his studies; notwithstanding which, a dis- 
 position for more active scenes of life frequently dis- 
 covered itself in his .conversation; and his father finding 
 A •; 
 
2 THE LIFE OF 
 
 that the thirst of fame was his ruling passion, resolved to 
 place him in the road to it, by introducing him into the 
 military service; he therefore remained only three years 
 at Oxford, and in 1569, being then only seventeen 
 years old, he was one of the troop of an hundred gen» 
 tlemen volunteers, whom queen Elizabeth permitted 
 Henry Champernon to transport into France for the 
 service of the protcstent princes. Mr. Raleigh had here 
 a good opportunity of acquiring experience in the art of 
 war, of improving himself in the knowledge of the mo- 
 dern languages, and of acquiring all the accomplish- 
 ments of a gentleman ; he did not return till the end of 
 the year 1575, having spent six years in France. 
 
 The activity of his temper did not suffer him to rest 
 long at home, for in 1578, he went into the service of 
 the prince of Orange, against the Spaniards. 
 
 Soon after this, he had an opportunity of trying his 
 fortune at sea; his half-brother, Sir Humphry Gilbert, 
 having obtained a patent to plant and settle some northern 
 parts of America, not claimed by any nation in alliance 
 with the queen of England, Mr. Raleigh engaged with 
 a considerable number of gentlemen in an expedition to 
 Newfoundland; but this proved unsuccessful, for divi- 
 sions arising among the volunteers, Sir Humphry, the 
 general, was, in 1579> obliged to set sail with only a 
 few of his friends ; and, after various misfortunes at 
 -sea, returned with the loss of one of his ships in an en- 
 gagement with the Spaniards, in which Mr. Raleigh was 
 exposed to great danger. 
 
 The next year, 15S0, upon the descent of the Spanish 
 and Italian forces into Ireland, under the pope's banner, 
 for the support of the Desmonds in rebellion in the pro- 
 vince of Munster, he obtained a captain's commission; 
 where, under the command of Thomas Earl of Ormond, 
 governor of Munster, he surprised the Irish Kerns at 
 Rakele, and having inclosed them, took every rebel 
 upon the spot ; among them wasone loaded with withes, 
 ;vho being asked, what he intended to have done with 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 3 
 
 them ? rudely answered, to have hung up the English 
 churls; upon which captain Raleigh said, they should 
 now serve for an Irish Kern, and ordered him lo be 
 hanged immediately. He assisted likewise at the siege 
 of Fort Del Ore, which the Spanish succours under San 
 Josephs their commander, assisted by their Irish con- 
 federates, had built and fortified as a place of retreat. 
 The lord-deputy himself besieged this fort by land, Sir 
 "William Winter, the admiral, attacked it by sea, and 
 captain Raleigh commanded in the. trenches; it was, 
 however, obliged to surrender at discretion, on the 9th 
 of November, 1580 ; when, by order of the lord-deputy, 
 the greatest part of the garrison were put to the sword, 
 the execution of which fell to the share of the captains 
 Raleigh and Mackworth, who first entered the castle. 
 
 During the winter of this year, captain Raleigh had 
 his quarters assigned him at Cork; when observing the 
 seditious practices of David lord Barry, and other ring- 
 leaders of the rebellion in those parts, to distress the 
 peaceable, and to excite the disaffected to an insurrec- 
 tion, he took a journey to Dublin, and remonstrated to 
 the lord-deputy on the dangerous consequences of these 
 practices, in su strong a manner, that his lordship gave 
 him full commission to seize the lands of lord Barry, and 
 to reduce him to peace and subjection, by such means 
 as he should think proper ; for which purpose, he was 
 furnished with a party of horse; but during this interval, 
 that lord himself burnt the castle to the ground, though 
 it was his principal seat, and laid waste the country 
 round it with greater outrage and "destruction, than 
 even the zeal of his enemies would have extended to. 
 
 Captain Raleigh, in his return to Cork, was attacked 
 by Fitz-Edmonds, an old rebel of Barry's faction, at a 
 fort between Youghaland Cork ; he was inferior to Fitz- 
 Edmonds in number, yet he forced his way through the 
 enemy, and got over the river ; but a gentleman of his 
 company being by some accident thrown in the middle, 
 between the fear of drowning and being taken, called out 
 a 2 
 
4 THE LIFE OF 
 
 to the captain for help; who, though he had escaped 
 both dangers, yet ventured into them again to rescue 
 his companion, who in the haste and confusion of re- 
 mounting, over-leaped his horse, and fell down on the 
 other side into a deep mire, where he must have been 
 suffocated, if the h 4 umane Raleigh had not recovered 
 him a second time, and brought him to land. He now 
 waited on the opposite bank, with a staff in one hand 
 a"nd a pistol in the other, for the rest of his company 
 who were yet to cross the river; but though Fitz- 
 Edmonds had got a recruit of twelve, men, yet finding 
 captain Raleigh stand his ground, he only exchanged a 
 few rough words with him, and retired. 
 
 In 1581, the Earl of Ormond going to England, his 
 government of Munster was given to captain Raleigh, in 
 commission with sir William Morgan and captain Peers. 
 Raleigh resided for some time at Lismore; but after- 
 wards, returning with his little band of eighty foot and 
 eight horse, to his old quarters at Cork, he received in- 
 telligence, that Barry was at Cove with several hundred 
 men: upon which he resolved to pass through that town, 
 and offer hi ni combat; and accordingly, at the town's 
 end, he met Barry with his forces, whom he charged 
 with prodigious bravery? and put to flight : as he pur- 
 sued his journey, he overtook another company of the 
 enemy in a plain, by a wood side, whom he likewise 
 attacked, though he had only six horsemen with him, 
 expecting probably that his company would soon join 
 him. But the rebels, who had greatly the advantage of 
 numbers, being cut off frcm the wood, and having no 
 other relief, faced about, and fought very desperately, 
 killing five of the horses belonging to Raleigh's company, 
 and amongst these his own; and he was in extreme 
 danger himself of being over-powered by numbers, if his 
 servant Nicholas Wiight had not interposed; who, per- 
 ceiving his master's horse mortally wounded with darts, 
 encountered six of the enemy at once, and killed one of ' 
 them ; while Patrick Fagaw, one of his soldiers, rescued 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 5 
 
 Raleigh after it had been unsuccessfully attempted by 
 James Fitz-Richard, who was then over-powered by the 
 enemy; which Raleigh seeing, he would not suffer 
 Wright to fight by him any longer; but ordered him to 
 assist Fitz-Richard, which he immediately did, by 
 rushing into the throng of the enemy, and dispatched 
 him who pressed upon Fitz-Richard, he rescued the 
 latter from the most imminent danger. In this sharp 
 skirmish many of the rebels perished, and two were 
 carried prisoners to Cork, where Raleigh performed 
 several other signal services, for which he received a 
 grant from the crown of a large estate in England. But 
 a misunderstanding between Raleigh and lord Grey, the 
 lord-deputy of Ireland, prevented his rising in the army ; 
 and therefore, when the rebels were reduced, he follow- 
 ed lord Grey to England, where pursuing his disputes 
 with that nobleman, the subject of their contest, which 
 was kept a profound secret, was heard before the privy- 
 counci! ; and though particulars did not transpire, it is 
 on record, that Raleigh defended his cause with so 
 much eloquence and ability, that it greatly recommend" 
 ed him, and served, with his other accomplishments, 
 to introduce him to the notice of the court. 
 
 But Raleigh, not content with the smiles of courtiers, 
 was very attentive to gain the royal favour; and an op- 
 portunity soon offered, which shewed that gallantry was 
 not the least of the necessary qualifications he possessed 
 for pushing his fortune at court. " The queen taking 
 the air, in a walk, stopped at a plashy place, in doubt 
 whether to go on; when Raleigh, dressed in a gay and 
 genteel habit of the times, immediately cast off, and 
 spread his new plush-cloak on the ground ; on which her 
 Majesty, gently treading, was conducted over clean 
 and dry. This adventure, joined to a handsome person, 
 a polite address, and ready wit, could not fail to recom- 
 mend him to a female sovereign ; accordingly, coming 
 to court soon after, and meeting with a reception which 
 a 3 
 
O THE LIFE OF 
 
 seemed to favour his ambition, he took an opportunity 
 of writing with a diamond upon a window, in a conspi- 
 cuous manner, the following line — 
 
 " Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall," 
 
 which the queen elegantly turned to a couplet, which 
 contained a hint, that ii he did not rise, it would be his 
 own fault. 
 
 " If thy heart fail thee, climb not at all." 
 
 After such a poetic challenge, it is no wonder Raleigh 
 made such a rapid progress in her Majesty's favour, a 
 proper introduction being all he wanted, his merit in- 
 suring future success. 
 
 In 15S2, he was one of those persons of distinction, 
 who by the queen's command accompanied the duke. of 
 Anjou to the Netherlands ; and, on his return, he 
 brought letters from the prince of Orange to her Majes- 
 ty. In 1583, he engaged in a second expedition with 
 his brother Sir Humphry Gilbert, to Newfoundland; 
 but having been two or three days at sea, a contagious 
 distemper seized his whole crew, and he was obliged 
 to return to port ; however, by this accident, he es- 
 caped the misfortunes of that expedition, in which Sir 
 Humphry, after having taken possession of Newfound- 
 land in right of the crown of England, in his return 
 home, unfortunately perished : but ill-success could 
 not divert Raleigh from a scheme, which he thought was 
 of such importance to his countryfhe~tkerefore drew 
 up an account of its advantages, and laid it before the 
 ■queen and council, who were so well satisfied with it, 
 that her Majesty granted him letters patent in favour of 
 his project; " containing free liberty to discover such 
 remote heathenish and barbarous lands, as were not 
 actually possessed by any Christian, or inhabited by 
 Christian people." 
 
 Immediately upon this grant, captain Raleigh fitted 
 
SIR WALTER RALEl GH. 7 
 
 out two vessels, which reached the gulph of Florida the 
 beginning of July : they sailed along the shore about one 
 jiundred and twenty miles, and at last debarked, on a 
 low land, which proved to be an island called Wokoken. 
 After taking a formal possession of this country in the 
 name of the queen, he carried on a friendly correspond- 
 ence with the natives, who supplied them with provisions, 
 and gave them furs and deer-skins in exchange for trifles ; 
 thus encouraged, eight of their crew went twenty miles 
 up the river Occam, and next day came to an island 
 called Roanok, the residence of the Indian chief, whose 
 house was built of cedar, and fortified round with sharp 
 pieces of timber. His wife came out to them, and 
 ordered her people to carry them from the boat on their 
 backs, and shewed them many civilities to express her 
 friendly intentions towards them, in the absence of her 
 husband. After having gained the best information they 
 could of the strength of the Indian nations, and of their 
 connections, alliances, and contests with each other, 
 they returned to England, and made such an advantage- 
 ous report of the fertility of the soil, and healthfulness 
 of the climate, that the queen favoured the design of 
 settling a colony in that country, to which she gave the 
 name of Virginia. 
 
 About two months after captain Raleigh's return, in 
 1584-, he was chosen knight of the shire for his native 
 county of Devon; and the same year, the queen, who 
 was extremely cautious and frugal in bestowing of ho- 
 nours, as a distinguishing token of her favour conferred 
 on him that of knighthood ; her Majesty, at the same 
 time, granted him a patent to licence the vending of 
 wines by retail throughout the kingdom ; which was, in 
 all probability, a very lucrative one. And this is the 
 origin of wine-licences. 
 
 Sir Walter was so intent upon planting his new colony 
 in Virginia, that, in 1585, he sent out a fleet of seven 
 sail, under the command of his cousin, Sir Richard 
 Grenville, a gentleman who acquired the highest degree 
 
8 THE LIFE OF 
 
 of reputation, both in the land and sea service, and died 
 in the bed of honour, of a wound received on board his 
 ship, in an engagement with the Spaniards in 159 '• Sir 
 Richard, upon his landing, sent a deputation to the 
 king of the Indians, whose name was Wingina, and who 
 resided at Roanok, requesting permission to establish a 
 friendly intercourse witn the inhabitants, and to visit 
 the country; which being granted, he went with a select 
 company to view several Indian towns, and was civilly 
 treated ; but at one. of them, an accident happened, 
 which greatly disconcerted his plan. An Indian stole a 
 silver cup, which Sir Richard's people resented by set- 
 ting fire to the town, and destroying the corn in the 
 fields; for this rash action, the Indian king threatened 
 to fall upon the English with their whole force ; but by 
 a timely submission and some presents, the affair was 
 terminated amicably ; and Sir Richard, after leaving one 
 hundred and seven persons to settle the colony of Vir- 
 ginia, set sail for England; and, on his passage, he took 
 a. Spanish prize, estimated at 50,0001. 
 
 This was not the only circumstance of good fortune 
 which happened to Sir Walter this year; the rebellion in 
 Ireland being now totally suppressed, her Majesty 
 granted him twelve thousand acres of the forfeited 
 lands; and this great estate he planted at his own ex- 
 pence. 
 
 Sir Walter, encouraged by this noble grant, fitted 
 out a third fleet for Virginia; where the colony, having 
 suffered great distresses, had procured a passage to Eng- 
 land by Sir, Francis Drake, who had visited it in his 
 return from his conquest of St. Domingo, Carthagena, 
 and St. Augustine. Raleigh, in the spring of the year, 
 had sent a ship of one hundred tons to the succour of his 
 new colony; but not arriving before the people had left 
 it, she returned with all her lading to England. 
 
 About fifteen days after, Sir Richard Grenville 
 arrived at Virginia with three ships more, well stored, for 
 the company of planters which he had left there in 1585 ; 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 9 
 
 but, finding neither them, nor the-last-mentioned ship, 
 Sir Richard, unwilling to lose the possession of so fine a 
 country, landed fifteen men on the island of Roanok, 
 leaving them provisions for two years, then set sail for 
 England, and, in his return, took some Spanish prizes. 
 
 A bout this time, Sir Walter Raleigh was concerned in 
 other plans, for the improvement of the navigation' and 
 commerce of his country ; particularly, in captain 
 Davis's expedition, for discovering the north-west pas- 
 sage; on which account, a promontory in Davis's 
 Streights is called Mount Raleigh. To indemnify him 
 in some measure, for the expence of these patriotic 
 undertakings, the queen gave him additional grants of 
 land, and further emoluments on his wine-licences. 
 
 The latter end of the year 1586, her Majesty made 
 him senschal of the duchies of Cornwall and Exeter, 
 and lord-warden of the stannaries in Devonshire and 
 Cornwall; but these preferments exposed him to the envy 
 of those who were much his inferiors in merit; and even 
 the earl of Leicester, who had once been his friend, 
 grew jealous of him, and set up, in opposition to him, 
 his nephew, the young earl of Essex ; but neither the 
 factions of the court, nor the aspersions of the people, 
 whom Raltigh could never condescend to flatter, could 
 deter him from attending to the duties of his several em- 
 ployments. 
 
 Jn the year 1587, Sir Waiter prepared anew colony 
 of one hundred and fifty men for Virginia; appointing 
 Mr. John White governor, and with him twelve assist- 
 ants ; and incorporated them by the name of the governor 
 and assistants of the city of Raleigh in Virginia. 
 
 On their arrival at Hattarass, the governor dispatched 
 a strong party to Roanok, expecting to find the fifteen 
 men that were left there; but they sought them in vain. 
 They afterwards found that several of them had been 
 murdered by the savages, and the rest driven to a remote 
 part of the country. This new colony having entered 
 into an alliance with the natives, considered that they 
 
10 THE LIFE OP 
 
 should want fresh supplies of provisions ; and, wanting 
 an agent to go to England, prevailed on their governor 
 to undertake that office, who returned with his ships in 
 the latter end of the year. 
 
 Sir Walter, solicitous for the safety of the colony, 
 prepared a fleet to assist them ; but the apprehensions of 
 an invasion from Spain, in 1588, prevented their sailing; 
 so that (governor White could only obtain two small pin- 
 naces, which had the misfortune to be so thoroughly 
 rifled by the enemy, that they were obliged to return 
 back without performing the voyage, to the distress of 
 the planters abroad, and the great regret of their patron 
 at home. 
 
 About this time, Sir Walter was advanced to the post 
 of captain of her Majesty's guard, and was one of the 
 council of war appointed to consider of the most effectual 
 methods for the security of the nation; upon which oc- 
 casion he drew up a scheme which was a proof of his 
 judgment and abilities. But he did not confine himself 
 to the mere office of giving advice; he raised and dis- 
 ciplined the militia of Cornwall ; and, having performed 
 all possible services at land, joined the fleet with a 
 squadron «f volunteers, and had a consid< j rble share in 
 the total df feat of the Spanish armada; when his merit, 
 upon so important a crisis, justly raised him stiil higher 
 in the queen's favour, who now made him gentleman of 
 her prtvy-chamber. 
 
 In i>8,9, Don Antonio, king of Portugal, being ex- 
 pelled from his dominions by Philip II. of Spain, queen 
 Elizabeth contributed six men of war, and threescore 
 thousand pounds, in order to reinstate him, and en- 
 couraged her subjects to concur in that design. Sir 
 Walter Raleigh, with Sir Francis Drake, and Sir John 
 Norris, accompanied that prince to Portugal; and, in 
 this expedition, took a great number ot hulks belonging 
 to the Hanstowns, laden with Spanish goods, provisions, 
 and ammunition, for a new invasion of England ; and 
 Ibis conduct in the whole affair was so satisfactory to her 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 11 
 
 Majesty, that she honoured him, as well as the other 
 commanders, with a gold chain. 
 
 Raleigh had now formed a design against the Spaniards 
 in the West Indies, in order to intercept the Plate-fleet, 
 and fitted out a maritime force for that purpose, con- 
 sisting of thirteen ships of his own and fellow-adventurers; 
 to which the queen added two men of war, the Garland 
 and Foresight, giving him a commission as general of 
 the fleet, the post of lieutenant-general being conferred 
 on Sir John Burgh. 
 
 He set sail in February, 1592; but the winds proved 
 so contrary, that he could not leave the coast of England 
 till the 6th of May; and the next day, Sir Martin Fro- 
 bisher followed and overtook him with the queen's letters 
 to recall him ; but, imagining his honour engaged in 
 the undertaking, he pursued his course, though he was 
 informed that the king of Spain had ordered that no 
 ships should said that year, nor any treasure be brought 
 from the West-Indies. However, on the 11th of May, 
 meeting with a storm off Cape Finisterre, he divided his 
 fleet into two squadrons, committing one to Sir John 
 Burgh, and the other to Sir Martin Frobisher, with 
 orders to the latter, to lie off the South-cape, to keep 
 in and terrify the Spaniards on their coasts, while the 
 former lay at the Azores for the caracs from the West- 
 Indies; and then returned home. 
 
 The success of these directions was answerable to the 
 excellent judgment that formed them; for the Spanish 
 admiral, collecting his whole naval power to watch 
 Frobisher, left the caracs unguarded, and the Mad re de 
 Dios, then esteemed the richest prize ever brought to 
 England, was seized by Sir John Burgh. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh's enemies, envious of his prevailing 
 influence over the queen, employed every means to work 
 his disgrace. Tarleton, a comedian, was encouraged by 
 Essex and his party, to introduce into his part in a play, 
 at which the queen was present, an allusion to Sir 
 Walter, comparing him to the knave, which in certain 
 
12 THE LIFE OF 
 
 games at cards, " governs the queen;" her Majesty, 
 however, was highly displeased, and forbad Tarletou, 
 and all her jesters, to approach her table. In the next 
 place, as his religious tenets were not strictly orthodox, 
 and he had rendered himself obnoxious to the clergy by 
 his being in possession of some church-lands, granted to 
 him by the queen; a libel was published against him at 
 Lyons, by one Parsons, a Jesuit, aspersing him with 
 being an Atheist, on account of his tract, intitled, "The 
 School of Atheists;" in which Sir Walter only attacks 
 the old school divinity. But the queen was made to 
 believe it was an impious performance, which reflected 
 dishonour on her lather's memory; upon which she 
 chided him severely, and he was ever after branded with 
 the title of Atheist.. 
 
 Soon after, another incident had well nigh ruined him 
 for ever, in the queen's esteem ; having seduced the 
 daughter of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, one of the queen's 
 maids of honour ; and the natural consequence of the 
 amour discovering the intrigue, her Majesty ordered him 
 to be confined for several months, and dismissed the lady 
 from her attendance ; to whom he afterwards made the 
 most honourable reparation he could, by marriage; in 
 which state they became examples of conjugal affection 
 and fidelity. 
 
 While Sir Walter Raleigh was under her Majesty's 
 displeasure, he projected the discovery of the extensive 
 empire of Guiana, in South-America, which the Span- 
 iards had then only visited, and to this day have never 
 conquered. Sir Walter having provided a squadron of 
 ships, at a very great ex pence, the lord high-admiral 
 Howard, and Sir Robert Cecil, conceived so good an 
 opinion of the design, that they both concurred in it. 
 
 He set sail on the 6th of February, 1595, and arrived 
 at the isle ot Trinidado on the 2 2d of March ; where he 
 made himself master of St. Joseph, a small city, and 
 made the Spanish governor prisoner. Then, quitting 
 his ship, he ? with an hundred men 3 in several little barks^ 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. IQ 
 
 sailed four hundred miles up the river Oronoque, in 
 search of Guiana; but the heat of the weather, and the 
 Jorrents, obliged him to return; which he did the latter 
 end of the summer. 
 
 The following year, he was so far restored to favour, 
 that he was engaged in the important expedition to 
 Cadiz ; wherein the earl of Essex, and the lord high- 
 admiral Howard, were joint commanders. On the 20th 
 of June they arrived before Cadiz. The lord hhm- 
 admiral was of opinion, that the land-forces should attack 
 the town first, that the fleet might not be exposed to the 
 fire of the ships, of the city, and of the adjacent forts ; 
 and the council of war concurred in this opinion; but, 
 as the carl of Essex was putting his men into boats, in 
 order to land them, Sir Waiter, not happening to have 
 been present at the council of war, went directly to the 
 carl, and offered such convincing reasons against it, and 
 for their first falling upon the galleons, and ships in the 
 harbour, that the earl saw the necessity of altering his 
 scheme, and desired Sir Walter to dissuade the admiral 
 from that of landing. Me did so; the admiral was con- 
 vinced; and, by Sir Walter's advice, deferred the attack 
 tiil the next day. 
 
 For the particulars of this attack, in which Sir Walter 
 Raleigh distinguished himself by his bravery and his pru- 
 dence, and which was attended with such wonderful 
 success, we must refer our readers to Dr. Birch's account 
 of it. It is sufficient in this place to mention, that the 
 city was taken and plundered; many of the principal 
 ships belonging to the Spaniards were run ashore; and 
 the galleons, with all thehf treasure, were burnt by the 
 enemy, to prevent their falling into the hands of the 
 English. 
 
 Sir Walter continued in a state of personal banishment 
 from the. queen's presence till 1 5p7, and then was in- 
 tirely restored to favour, and pertormed several ether 
 signal services. In i601, he attended the queen in her 
 progress: and in the last parliament of. tlris reign, he 
 
 B 
 
14 THE LIFE OF 
 
 signalized himself, by opposing some bills brougbt in to 
 oppress the lower classes of the people : bnt the death of 
 this princess proved a great misfortune to Sir Walter; 
 for her successor king James I. had been greatly preju- 
 diced against him by the earl of Essex ; yet he did not 
 discover his disgust for some time, but treated him with 
 great kindness: however, his Majesty's pacific genius 
 could not relish a man of so martial a spirit. He had 
 not been long upon the throne before Sir Walter was 
 dismissed from his post of captain of the guards; and, 
 soon after, was charged with being engaged in a plot 
 against the king, and with carrying on a secret corres- 
 pondence with the king of Spain ; but no clear evidence 
 •was produced of his having been engaged in any treason- 
 able act whatever, though he was brought in guilty, and 
 condemned for high treason. 
 
 The trial was carried on with the usual rancour by the 
 crown-lawyers, who have generally made treason, where 
 none was to be found, whenever a state-prisoner has 
 rendered himself so obnoxious to the sovereign, that 
 his death has been before determined in the cabinet- 
 council. 
 
 To the eternal disgrace of his memory, that able 
 lawyer, and celebrated law-writer Sir Edward Coke, 
 the attorney-general, made use of the grossest abuse, 
 in opening the false accusation against our renowned 
 patriot. He stigmatized the great Sir Walter Raleigh 
 with the opprobrious titles of " Traitor, Monster, Viper, 
 and Spider of Hell." 
 
 But the true cause of this shameful court-conspiracy 
 against Sir Walter was, the very active part he had taken 
 against the Scotch interest. Apprehensive that his 
 country would be over-run by Scotchmen, and that all 
 the posts of honour and emolument would be engrossed 
 by them, to the exclusion of Englishmen, he had pro- 
 posed in council, a short time before the death of queen 
 Elizabeth, that the king of the Scots should be tied 
 down by the strongest contract that could be drawn up, 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 15 
 
 to bring into England only a limited number of his 
 countryman, upon his accession to the British throne. 
 This proposition was over-ruled, but it was never for- 
 given by James, and his Scotch minions. And it must 
 be confessed, that Sir Walter did not endeavour to abate 
 their malice by temporizing; on the contrary, when he 
 found that his prophetic fears were realized, and none 
 but Scotchmen countenanced at court, he boldly ex- 
 claimed against this partiality in their favour; and 
 thus he wrought his own disgiace. 
 
 But even thus circumstanced, the crafty Scots could 
 not have completed his ruin, if there had not been 
 found two degenerate Englishmen, base enough to for- 
 ward their designs upon the life of this great man : 
 these were, Sir Robert Cecil, secretary of state, induced 
 to it by motives of jealousy; for he knew that Ra- 
 leigh's political talents might one day or other render 
 his services so essentially necessary to the king and tq 
 the nation, that he must be brought into administration, 
 and supplant him. As to Coke, the attorney-general, 
 he appears to have been Sir Walter's enemy by profes- 
 sion, and to have considered the blackening his charac- 
 ter, as a recommendation to the first vacancy upon the 
 bench. 
 
 Indignant as he must have been at the proceedings, 
 as well as wearied with the persecution of the court, 
 Sir Walter is said to have accompanied the sheriff to 
 the prison with admirable erection, yet in such sorfras 
 a condemned man should do. Shortly afterward, he 
 addressed the following letter to the king : 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh to Kino James I. 
 
 " The life which I had, most' mighty Prince, the 
 
 law hath taken from me, and I am now but the same 
 
 earth and dust out of which I was first framed. If my 
 
 offences had any proportion with your Majesty's mercy, 
 
 B 2 
 
16 THE LIFE OF 
 
 I should not despair; or if my crime had any quantity 
 with your Majesty's immeasurable goodness, I may yet 
 have hope — but it is your Great Majesty that must 
 judge of both, and not I. Blood, name, gentry, or es- 
 tate have I now none, no not so much as a being; no, 
 not so much as vita plantee. I have only a penitent 
 soul in, a body of iron, which moveth toward the load- 
 stone of death, and cannot be withheld from touching 
 it, except your Majerty's mercy turn the point toward 
 me which expelleth. Lost I am for hearing a vain 
 man, for hearing only, and never believing or approv- 
 ing. And so little account I made of that speech of his 
 which was my condemnation (as the living God doth 
 truly witness!) that I never remembered any such 
 thing, till it was at my trial objected against me. So 
 did he repay my care, who cared to make him good ; 
 which (now too late) see no care of man can effect; 
 
 But God, for mine offences toward him hath laid 
 this heavy burthen upon me; miserable and unfortunate 
 wretch that I am ! But not for loving you, my Sove- 
 reign, hath God laid this sorrow on me. For He 
 knoweth with whom I may not dissemble, that I ho- 
 noured your Majesty by fame, and loved and admired 
 you by knowledge. So, whether I live or die, your Ma- 
 jesty's true and loving servant, and loyal subject, I will 
 live and die. 
 
 " If I now write what doth not become me, most 
 merciful Prince, vouchsafe to ascribe it to the counsel 
 of a dead heart, and to a mind which sorrow hath bro- 
 ken and confounded. But the more my misery is, the 
 more is your Majesty's mercy if you please to behold 
 it; and the less I can deserve, the more liberal your 
 Majesty's gift shall be. God only shall imitate your 
 Majesty herein, both in giving freely, and by giving to 
 such a one as from there can be.no more retribution, 
 but only a deign to repay a lent life with the same great 
 love, which the same great goodness shall please to be- 
 stow it. 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 17 
 
 *' This being the first letter that ever your Majesty 
 received from a dead man, I humbly submit myself to 
 the will of my Supreme Lord, and shall willingly and 
 patiently suffer whatsoever it shall please your Majesty 
 to impose upon me. 
 
 " Walter Raleigh." 
 
 Sir Walter was confined at Winchester for nearly a 
 month, and probably lived during the greater part of 
 this period in the daily expectation of death. In a let- 
 ter to Mr. Winwood, Cecil writes that the king pretend- 
 ed to forbear Sir Walter Raleigh for the present, until 
 the Lord Cobham's death had given some light how far 
 he would make good his accusation. His execution 
 was afterwards fixed to take place on December the 
 12th; three days previously to which he was reprieved, 
 and ordered to be committed prisoner, as well as Grey 
 and Cobham, to the Tower of London during pleasure. 
 It was in the interval of suspence that Sir Walter ad- 
 dressed the following interesting letter to his wife : 
 
 Sir Walter to Lady Raleigh. 
 
 " You shall now receive, my dear wife, my last 
 words in these my last lines. My love I send you, that 
 you may keep it when I am dead ^ and my counsel, 
 that you may remember it when I am no more. I 
 would not, by my will, present you with sorrows, dear 
 Bess ; — let them go into the grave with me, and be bu- 
 ried in the dust. And seeing it is not the will of God 
 that ever I shall see you more in this life, bear it pa- 
 tiently, and with a heart like thyself. 
 
 *•* First, I send you all the thanks which my heart can 
 conceive, or my words can express, for your many tra- 
 vails and care taken for me; which though they have 
 not taken effect as you wished, yet my debt to you is 
 cot ibe less. But pay it 1 never shall in this world. 
 S3 
 
18 THE LIFE OF 
 
 " Secondly, I beseech you for the love you bear me 
 living, do not hide yourself many days after my death. 
 But, by your travails, seek to help your miserable for- 
 tunes, and the right of your poor child. Thy mourn- 
 ings cannot avail me, I am but dust. 
 
 " Thirdly, you shall understand that my land was 
 conveyed bona fide to my child. The writings were 
 drawn at Midsummer was twelve months. My honest 
 cousin, Brett, can testify so much, and Dalberrie, too, 
 can remember somewhat therein. And I trust my blood 
 will quench their malice that have thus cruelly murder- 
 ed me, and that they will not seek also to kill thee and 
 thine with extreme poverty. To what friend to direct 
 thee I know not, for all mine have left me in the true 
 time of trial, and I plainly perceive that my death was 
 determined from the first day. Most sorry I am, God 
 knows, that, being thus surprised with death, I can 
 leave you in no better estate. God is my witness I 
 meant you all my office of wines, or all that I could 
 have purchased by selling it; half my stuff and all my 
 jewels, but some one for the boy. But God hath pre- 
 vented all my resolutions, even that Great God that 
 ruleth all in all. But if you can live free from want, 
 care for no more; the rest is but vanity. Love God, 
 and begin betimes to repose yourself on him; and there- 
 in shall you find true and lasting riches, and endless 
 comfort. For the rest, when, you havo travailed, and 
 wearied your thoughts over all sorts of worldly cogita- 
 tion, you shall but sit down by sorrow in the end. 
 Teach your son also to love and fear God, while he is 
 yet young, that the fear of God may grow up with him. 
 And then God will be a husband to you, ami a father 
 to him ; a husband and a father which cannot be taken 
 from you. 
 
 " Bayly oweth me £200, and Adrian Gilbert £600. 
 In Jersey, also, I have much money owing me. Be- 
 side, the arrearages of the wines will pay my debts; 
 and, howsoever you do, for my soul's sake, pay all 
 poor men. 
 
SIH WALTER ItALElGH. \Q 
 
 " When I am gone, no doubt you shall be sought to 
 by many, for the world thinks that I was very rich. But 
 take heed of the pretences of men, and their affections. 
 For they last not, but in honest and worthy men; and 
 no greater misery can befal you in this life, than to 
 become a prey, and afterward to be despised. I speak 
 not this, God knows, to dissuade you from marriage; 
 for it will be best for you, both in respect of the world 
 and of God. As for me, I am no more yours, nor you 
 mine. Death has cut us asunder; and God hath di- 
 vided me from the world, and you from me. 
 
 " Remember your poor child, for his father's sake, 
 who chose you and loved you in his happiest time. -Get 
 those, letters, if it be possible, which I writ to the lords, 
 wherein I sued for my life. God is my witness, it was 
 for you and yours that I desired life. It is true that I dis- 
 dain myself for begging it ; for, know it, dear wife, that 
 your son is a true man, and one who, in his own re- 
 spect, despiseth death, and all his mishappen and ugly 
 forms. 
 
 *' I cannot write much. God, he knoweth,how hard- 
 ly I steal this time while others sleep. And it is also 
 high time that 1 should separate my thoughts from the 
 world. Beg my dead body, which, living, was denied 
 thee. And either lay it at Sherborne, if the land con» 
 tinue, or in Exeter church, by my father and mother. 
 I can siy no more, time and death call me away. 
 
 " The everlasting, powerful, infinite, and omnipotent 
 God, who is goodness itself, the true life and true 
 light, keep thee and thine, have mercy on me, and 
 teach me to forgive my' persecutors and accusers, and 
 send us to meet in his glorious kingdom. My dear wife, 
 farewell ! Bless my poor boy, pray for me, and let my 
 good God hold you both in his arms '• 
 
 " Written with the dying hand of, sometime thy hus- 
 band, but now, alas! overthrown 
 
 " Yeur's that was, but now not my own, 
 
 " Walter Raleigh." 
 
20 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Sir Walter was removed to the Tower on the 15th 
 of December, with little apprehension, probably, what- 
 ever his feelings may have been, that he should remain 
 immured within those walls for above twelve years. In 
 l60i a grant was made of his goods and chattels, for- 
 feited by his attainder, to John Shelbery and Robert 
 Smyth (trustees appointed by himself), for the benefit 
 of his family and creditors. Upon the earnest solicita- 
 tion likewise, of Lady Raleigh, she obtained permission 
 to accompany Sir Walter in prison; and in the latter 
 part of this or the beginning of the following year, she 
 was delivered of her second son, Carew, after an infe- 
 cundity (as far as record goes) of ten years. 
 
 The life of a prisoner, however eminent, like that of 
 a secluded scholar or a monk, affords but little which 
 can interest posterity. The anecdotes transmitted to us 
 of Sir Walter Raleigh's imprisonment, are peculiarly 
 scanty; and we have now a long period of time to run 
 over, with very little ia proportion to it to detain our 
 attention. 
 
 His Sherborne-estate had been settled by Sir Walter 
 upon bis elder son, toward the close of Queen Eliza- 
 beth's reign; and, notwithstanding his attainder, the 
 king had granted him his life- interest in it. The 
 knight's enemies were, however, ill satisfied, as long as 
 any part of his ruin remained incomulete. The con- 
 veyance, formerly made by Sir Vicary, was scrutinized 
 with malignant diligence and referred to Sir John Pop- 
 ham, lord chief justice of the King's Bench. His lord- 
 ship, in a letter written in August, 1G05, gave it as his 
 opinion, that the deed, wanting some essential words, 
 could in law convey nothing; yet owned, that the<omis- 
 sion of those words was plainly occasioned by the inat- 
 tention of the clerk who engrossed the deed. Some 
 time afterward, Robert Car, belter known by his sub- 
 sequent title of Earl of Somerset, attracted the favour of 
 his Majesty, by those personal accomplishments, which, 
 on this occasion, were so welJ calculated to ensure him 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 21 
 
 success. Young and fortuneless as he was, he was pro- 
 bably without much difficulty persuaded to take ad- 
 vantage of the flaw in Sis Walter's conveyance, and t6 
 solicit Sherborne of the king. It was on this occasion 
 that Sir Walter addressed the following letter to Car, 
 which in one or two old copies bears date December 
 
 160s. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh to Car, afterward Earl 
 of Somerset. 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 " After some great losses and many years sorrows (of 
 both which I have cause to fear I was mistaken in the 
 pud) it is come to my knowledge, that yourself, whom 
 I know not but by an honourable fame, hath been per- 
 suaded to give me and mine our last fatal blow, by ob- 
 taining from his Majesty the inheritance oi my children 
 and nephews, lost in the law for want of a word. This 
 done, there remaineth nothing with me but the name 
 of life, despoiled of all else but the title and sorrow 
 thereof. His Majesty, whom I never offended, for I 
 hold it unnatural and unmanlike to hate goodness, stay- 
 ed me at the grave's brink ; not, as I hope, that he 
 thought me worthy of many deaths, and to behold all 
 mine cast out of the world with myself, but as a king, 
 who judging the poor in truth, hath received a promise 
 from God that his throne shall be established for ever. 
 
 " And for yourself, Sir, seeing your fair day is but 
 now in the dawn and mine drawn to the evening, your 
 own virtues and the king's grace assuring you of many 
 favour^ and much honour, I beseech you not to begin 
 your first building upon the ruins of the innocent ; and 
 that their sorrows, with mine, may not attend your first 
 plantation. I have been ever bound to your nation, as 
 well for many other graces, as for the true report of my 
 trial to the King's Majesty. Against whom, had 1 been 
 found malignant, the hearing of my cause would not 
 
22 THE EIFE OF 
 
 have changed enemies into friend, malice Into compas- 
 sion, and the minds of the greatest number then present 
 into the commiseration of mine estate. It is not the 
 nature of foul treason to beget such fair passions. Nei- 
 ther could it agree with the duty and love of faithful 
 subjects, especially of your nation, to bewail his over- 
 throw who had conspired against their most natural 
 and liberal lord. I therefore trust, Sir, that you will 
 not be the fiist that shall kill us outright, cut down 
 the tree with the fruit, and undergo the curse of them 
 that enter the fields of the fatherless. Which, if it 
 pleases you to know the truth, is far less in value than 
 in fame. But that so worthy a gentleman as yourself 
 ■will rather bind us to you (being, Sir, gentlemen not 
 base in birth and alliance) who have interest therein. 
 And myself, with my uttermost thankfulness, will ever 
 remain ready to obey your commands. 
 
 " Walteh Raleigh." 
 
 This letter appears, however, to have had no effect upon 
 Car; and the solicitations of Lady Raleigh on her 
 knees, with her children, to the king, were only an- 
 swered by, "I mun have the land, I mun have it for 
 Car." Among his friends and pitiers in this his adverse 
 fortune were the queen and the celebrated Henry prince 
 of Wales. An attachment of peculiar strength, height- 
 ened probably by a strong and mutual sense of peculiar 
 merit, appears to have subsisted between the latter and 
 Raleigh. " No king but my father would keep such a 
 bird in a cage," was a saying of that glory of the Stu- 
 arts, the darling of the nation while he lived, the just 
 object of her sincere and universal lamentation by his 
 untimely death. 
 
 But, though he had the queen's protection, and prince 
 Henry for his patron, during the height of the earl of 
 Somerset's favour, yet he could not obtain his liberty 
 till after the condemnation of that favourite, for the 
 murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. At length, by means 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. £3 
 
 of fifteen hundred pounds given to a relation of the new- 
 favourite Sir George Villiers, he procured his liberty, 
 in March lfjl6, after above twelve years confinement in 
 the tower. 
 
 Sir Walter being now at large, had an opportunity of 
 prosecuting his old scheme of settling Guiana, and his 
 Majesty granted him a patent for that purpose, at least 
 under the privy-seal, if not under the great seal of Eng- 
 land ; which Sir Francis Bacon, on being applied to, 
 assured him implied a pardon for all that was passed, as 
 the king had made him admiral of his fleet, and given 
 him the power of martial law over his officers and sol- 
 diers. 
 
 The whole expence of this expedition was defrayed 
 by Sir Walter Raleigh and his friends. In their passage, 
 they met with various disappointments; however, in 
 November, they came in sight of Guiana, and anchored 
 five degrees off the river Caliana. 
 
 Here Raleigh was received with the utmost joy by the 
 Indians, who offered him the sovereignty of the country, 
 which he declined. His extreme sickness preventing his 
 attempting the discovery of the mines in person, he de- 
 puted captain Keymis to that service, ordering five ships 
 to sail into the river Oronoque; but, three weeks after, 
 landing by night nearer a Spanish town than they ex- 
 pected, thay were set upon by the Spanish troops, who 
 were prepared for their reception. 
 
 This unexpected attack soon threw them into confu- 
 sion ; and, had not some of the leaders animated the 
 rest, they had all been cut to pieces : but the others, by 
 their example, soon rallying, they made such a vigor- 
 ous opposition, that they forced the Spaniards to re- 
 treat. 
 
 In the warmth of the pursuit, the English found 
 themselves at the Spanish town before they knew where 
 they were. Here the battle was renewed, and they were 
 assaulted by the governor himself, and four or five cap- 
 tains, at the head of their companies, when captain 
 
24 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Raleigh, the eldest son of Sir Walter, hurried on by the' 
 heat and impatience of youth, not waiting for the mus- 
 keteers, rushed forward, at the head of a company of 
 pikes, and having killed one of the Spanish captains, 
 was shot by another; but, pressing still forward with 
 his sword, upon the captain who had shot him, the 
 Spaniard, with the butt-end of his musket, felled him to 
 the ground, and put an end to his life; when his Ser- 
 jeant immediately thrust the Spanish captain through 
 the body with his halbert, Two other captains, and the 
 governor himself, fell in this engagement. 
 
 The Spanish leaders being all thus dispatched, the 
 private men fled ; some took shelter about the market- 
 place, from whence they killed and vyounded the. Eng- 
 lish at pleasure ; so that there was no way left for safety 
 but by firing the town, and driving the enemy to the 
 woods and mountains. 
 
 Captain Keymis had now an opportunity of visiting 
 the mine, which he attempted with captain Thornhurst, 
 Mr. W. Herbert, Sir John Hamden, and others; but, 
 upon their falling into an ambuscade, in which they lost 
 many of their men, they returned to Sir Walter, without 
 discovering the mine, alledging the reason mentioned 
 above.- 
 
 As some mitigation of their ill success, and as an in- 
 ducement to further hopes, Keymis produced two ingots 
 of gold, which they had found in the town, together 
 with a large quantity of papers found in the governor's 
 study. Among these were fourletteis, which discovered 
 not only Raleigh's whole enterprize to have been be- 
 trayed, but his life hereby put into the power of the 
 Spaniards. These letters also discovered the prepara- 
 tions made by the Spaniards to receive Raleigh. 
 
 To the just indignation which he conceived upon this 
 occasion, was added the mortification of finding that 
 Keymis had not proceeded to the mine. lie reproached 
 that captain with having undone him, and wounded his 
 credit with the kit g past recovery. This affected Key- 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 25 
 
 mis so sensibly, that he retired to his cabin, where he 
 shot himself; but, finding the wound not mortal, he 
 dispatched himself with a knife, which he thrust into his 
 heart. 
 
 The ill state of Sir Walter's health would not suffer 
 him to repair Keymis's neglect. He was incapable of 
 such a voyage, and, at the same time, was in continual 
 apprehension of being attacked by the Spanish armada, 
 sent out on purpose to lay wait for and destroy him ; 
 but the enemy missed him, by staying in the wrong 
 « place. 
 
 To the eternal dishonour of James I. let it be recorded, 
 that to his shameful duplicity, and dastardly fears, the 
 honour of the nation, the success of the expedition, the 
 lives of many brave men, and the military reputation of 
 Raleigh, were sacrificed. For while he encouraged 
 Raleigh, by granting him a special commission for this 
 enterprise, henot.wnly disavowed it by his ministers to 
 the Spanish ambassadors, but, as a proof that he did 
 not wish well to the design, he suffered them to give the 
 ambassader the particulars of Raleigh's force and desti- 
 nation; which being forwarded to the court of Spam, 
 occasioned the vast preparations he ibund ready on his 
 arrival, to oppose him. Sir Walter could not forbear 
 reproaching the court for this infamous conduct, in a 
 letter from St. Christopher's, to the secretary of state; 
 and this determined the ministry to take him off, as the 
 only method of extinguishing the hopes of the people, 
 who wished for a war with Spain. 
 
 Accordingly, on Sir Walter's return home, he found 
 that king James had published a proclamation, declaring 
 his detestation of his conduct, asserting that his Majesty 
 had, by express limitation, restrained and forbid Raleigh, 
 from attempting any act of hostility against his dear 
 brother of Spain; yet it is evident, that the commission 
 contained no such limitation. 
 
 This proclamation, however, did not deter Sir Walter 
 from landing at Portsmouth, in July lrJlS, bring re- 
 c 
 
26 THE LIFE OP 
 
 solved to surrender himself into the king's hands, to 
 whom, and his favorite, he wrote the following letters in 
 defence of himself : 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh to King James I. 
 
 " May it please your excellent Majesty! 
 
 " If in my journey outward-bound I had my men 
 murdered at the islands, and yet spared to take revenge; 
 if I did discharge some Spanish barks taken, without 
 spoil — if I forebore all parts of the Spanish Indies, 
 ■wherein I might have taken twenty of their towns on 
 the sea-coasts, and did only follow the enterprize I un- 
 dertook for Guiana (where, without any directions from 
 me, a Spanish village was burnt which was new set-up 
 within three miles of the mine) by your Majesty's fa- 
 vour, I find no reason why the Spanish ambassador 
 should complain of me. 
 
 " If it were lawful for the Spaniards to murder twen- 
 ty-six Englishmen, tying them back to back and then 
 cutting their throats, when they had traded with them 
 a whole month, and came to them on the land without 
 so much as one sword ; and it may not be lawful for 
 your Majesty's subjects, being charged first by them, 
 to repel force by force — we may justly say, " O! mi- 
 serable English I" 
 
 !" If Parker and Mecham took Campeachy and other 
 places in the Honduras, seated in the heart of the Spa- 
 nish Indies, burnt towns and killed the Spaniards, and 
 had nothing said unto them at their return ; and my- 
 self, who forebore to look into the Indies because I 
 would not offend, must be accused— I may as justly 
 say, " O ! miserable Raleigh !" 
 
 *' If I have spent my poor estate, lost my son, suf- 
 fered, by sickness, and otherwise, a world of hardships; 
 if I have resisted, with manifest hazard of my life, the 
 robberies and spoils with which my companions would 
 have made me rich ; if when I was poor 1 could have 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 27 
 
 made myself rich ; if when I had gotten my liberty, 
 which all men and nature itself do much prize, I vo- 
 luntarily lost it; if when I was sure of my life I ren- 
 dered it again; if I might elsewhere have sold my ship 
 and goods, and put five or six thousand pounds in my 
 purse, and yet brought her into England ; I beseech 
 your Majesty to believe that all this I have done, be- 
 cause it should not be said that your Majesty had given 
 liberty and trust to a man, whose end was but the reco- 
 very of his liberty, and who had betrayed your Majes- 
 ty's trust. 
 
 " My mutineers told me, that if I returned for Eng- 
 land I should be undone; but 1 believed in your Ma- 
 jesty's goodness more than in all their arguments. Sure 
 I am the first, that being free and able to enrich myself, 
 yet hath embraced poverty and peril. And as sure I 
 am that my example shall make me the last. But your 
 Majesty's wisdom and goodness I have made my judges, 
 who have ever been and shall ever be, 
 
 *' Your Majesty's humble vassal, 
 
 " Walter Raleigh." 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh to the Marquis of 
 Buckingham. 
 
 " If I presume too much, I humbly beseech your 
 Lordship to pardon me, especially in presuming to 
 write to so great and worthy a person who hath been 
 told that I have done him wrong. I heard it but of 
 late ; but most happy had I been, if I might have dis- 
 proved that villany against me, when there had been no 
 suspicion that the desire to save my life had presented 
 my excuse. 
 
 " But, my worthy Lord, it is not to excuse myself 
 
 that I now write. I cannot, for 1 have now offended 
 
 my sovereign lord. For all past, even all the world 
 
 and my very enemies have lamented my loss ; whom 
 
 c 2 
 
23 THE LIFE OF 
 
 now, if his Majesty's mercy alone do not lament, I am 
 lost. 
 
 " Howsoever, that which cloth comfort my soul in 
 this offence is, that even in the offence itself I had no 
 other intent than his Majesty's service, and to make his 
 Majesty know that my late enterpii>e was grounded up- 
 •n a truth. And which with one ship speedily set out, 
 I meant to have assured or to have died ; being resolved, 
 as it is well known, to have done it from Plymouth, had 
 J not been restrained. Hereby 1 hoped not only to re- 
 cover his Majesty's gracious opinion, but have destroyed 
 all those malignant reports which had been spread of 
 me. That this is true, that gentleman whom I so much 
 trusted (my keeper) and to whom I opened my heart, 
 cannot but testify; and wherein, if I cannot be believed 
 living, my death shall witness. Yea, that gentleman 
 cannot but avow it, that when we came back toward Lon- 
 don, I desired to save no other treasure than the exact 
 description of those places in the Indies. That I meant 
 to go hence as a discontented man, God, I trust, and 
 my own actions, will dissuade his Majesty (whom nei- 
 ther the loss of my estate, thirteen years imprisonment, 
 and the denial of my pardon, could beat from his ser- 
 vice, and the opinion of being accounted a fool, or ra- 
 ther distract, by returning as I did unpardoned, ba- 
 lanced with my love to his Majesty's person and estate) 
 had no place at all in my heart. 
 
 " It was the last severe letter from my lords for the 
 speedy bringing of me up and the impatience of disho- 
 nour, that first put me in fear of my life, or enjoying it 
 in a perpetual imprisonment never to recover my repu- 
 tation lost. Which strengthened me in my late, and 
 too-late-lamented resolution if his Majesty's mercy do 
 not abound ; if his Majesty do not pity my age, and 
 scorn to take the extremest and utmost advantage of 
 my errors; if his Majesty, in his great charity, do not 
 make a difference between offences proceeding from a 
 life-saving, natural impulsion without all ill-intent, and 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. €9 
 
 those of an ill heart ; and that your lordship, remarka- 
 ble in the world for the nobleness of your disposition, 
 do not vouchsafe to become my intercessor. Whereby 
 your lordship shall bind an hundred gentlemen of my 
 kindred to honour your memory, and bind me, for all 
 the time of that life which your lordship shall beg for 
 me, to pray to God that you may ever prosper, and 
 ever bind me to remain, 
 
 " Your most humble servant, 
 
 "W. Raleigh. 7 
 
 He was arrested on the road to London, by Sir Lewis 
 Stewkeley, vice-admiral of Devonshire, and his relation, 
 who acted a most base and treacherous part, after his 
 arrival with his prisonor at London. For, Sir Walter 
 being allowed to remain a prisoner at his own house, 
 Stewkeley continually informed him how greatly the 
 court was exasperated against him, by the complaints of 
 Gonilimar the Spanish ambassador; he hinted that his 
 life was at stake, and then countenanced, it' he did not 
 suggest the design Raleigh had now formed of making 
 his escape to France, which he afterwards attempted ; 
 but being betrayed all along by Stewkelej', he was seized 
 in a boat below Woolwich, and, on the 10th of August, 
 was committed to the tower. 
 
 But though his death had been absolutely resolved 
 upon, yet it was not easy to find a method to compass if, 
 since his conduct in his late expedition, could not be 
 stretched in law to such a sentence; it was resolved 
 therefore to sacrifice him to Spain, (in a manner that has 
 justly exposed the court to the abhorrence of all succeed- 
 ing ages) by calling him down to judgment on his former 
 sentence, passed fifteen years before. Thus, by a strange 
 contrariety of proceedings, he, who had been condemned 
 for being a friend to the Spaniards, now lost his life for 
 being their enemy. 
 
 In consequence of this resolution, having the day 
 before received notice to prepare himself for death, he 
 c3 
 
30 THE LIFE OF 
 
 was, on the 28th of October, taken out of his bed, in 
 the hot fit of an ague, and carried to the King's-Bench 
 Bar, at Westminster, where the chief-justice, Sir Henry 
 Montague, ordered the record of his conviction and 
 judgment in 1603, to be read; and then demanded, what 
 he had to offer why execution should not be awarded 
 against him? To this Sir Walter pleaded his commis- 
 sion for his last voyage, which implied a restoring life 
 to him, by giving him power, as marshal, on the life 
 and death of others. He then began to justify his con- 
 duct in that voyage; but the court refused to hear him, 
 and execution was instantly awarded ; and a warrant 
 produced for it to take place the next day ; which had been 
 signed and sealed before-hand, that no delay might arise 
 from the king's absence, who retired into the country, 
 the day before he was arraigned. And on the very ne.xt 
 day, though it was the lord-mayor's day, being the 2£th 
 of October, l6l8, Sir Walter was conducted from the 
 prison of the Gate-house (where he had been lodged 
 over-night) by the sheriffs of London and Middlesex, 
 to a scaffold erected in Old Palace-yard, Westminster. 
 
 He had eat his breakfast heartily on the morning of 
 execution, smoaked his pipe, and made no more of death 
 than if he had been to take a journey ; he ascended the 
 scaffold with a chearful countenance, and saluted the 
 lords, knights, and gentlemen there present. After 
 which, a proclamation was made for silence, and he 
 addressed himself to the people in this manner: 
 
 " I desire to be borne withal, for this is the third day 
 of my fever ; and, if I shall shew any weakness, I be- 
 seech you to attribute it to my malady, for this is the 
 hour in which it is wont to come." 
 
 Then pausing a while, he sat, and directed himself 
 towards a window, where the lords of Arundel, North- 
 ampton, and Doncaster, with some other lords and 
 knights, sat, and spoke as followeth : 
 
 " I thank God, of his infinite goodness, that he hath 
 brought me to die in the light, and not in darkness*" 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. Sf 
 
 But, by reason that the place where the lords, &c. sat, 
 was at some distance from the scaffold, that he perceived 
 they could not well hear him, he said, " I will strain 
 my voice, for I would willingly have your honours hear 
 me." 
 
 But lord Arundel said, " Nay, we will rather come 
 down to the scaffold;" which he and some others did. 
 Where being come, he saluted them severally, and then 
 continued his speech. 
 
 " As I said, I thank God heartily, that he hath 
 brought me into the light to die; and, that he hath not 
 suffered me to die in the dark prison of the tower, where 
 I have suffered a great deal of misery and cruel sickness ; 
 and, I thank God that my fever hath not taken me at 
 this time, as I prayed to God it might not. There are 
 two main points of suspicion that his Majesty, as I hear r 
 hath conceived against me; wherein his Majesty cannot 
 be satisfied, which 1 desire to clear up, and to resolve 
 your lordships of: 
 
 " One is, that his Majesty hath been informed, that I 
 have often had plots with France; and his Majesty hath 
 good reason to induce him thereunto. One reason that 
 his Majesty had to conjecture so, was, that, when I 
 came back from Guiana, being come to Plymouth, I 
 endeavoured to go in a bark to Rochelle; which was, 
 for that I would have made my peace before I had come 
 to England. 
 
 "Another reason was, that, upon my flight, I did intend 
 to fly into France, for the saving of myself, having had 
 some terror from above. 
 
 " A third reason, that his Majesty had reason to 
 suspect, was, the French agent's coming to me. Besides, 
 it was reported, that 1 had a commission from the 
 French king at my going forth. These are the reasons 
 that his Majesty had, as I am informed, to suspect 
 me. 
 
 *' But this I say, for a man to call God to witness to 
 a falshood at the hour of death, is far more gricvoub and 
 
32 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 impious; and that a man that so doth cannot have sal- 
 vation, for he hath no time for repentance. Then what 
 shall I expect, that am going instantly to render up my 
 account ? I do therefore call God to witness, as I hope 
 to be saved, and as I hope to see him in his kingdom, 
 which I hope I shall within this quarter of this hour, I 
 never had any commission from the French king, nor 
 ever saw the French king's hand-writing in all my life ; 
 neither knew I that there was a French agent, nor what 
 he was, till I met him in my gallery, at my lodging, un- 
 looked for. If I speak not true, O Lord, let me never 
 enter into thy kingdom. 
 
 " The second suspicion was, that his Majesty had 
 been informed, that I should speak dishonourably and 
 disloyalty of my sovereign; but my accuter was a base 
 Frenchman, and a runnagate fellow; one that hath no 
 dwelling; a kind of chymical fellow; one that I knew 
 to be perfidious ; for, being by him drawn into the 
 action of accusing myself at Winchester, in which I con- 
 fess my head was touched, he, being sworn to secrecy 
 over-night, revealed it the next morning. 
 
 " But this I speak now, what have I to do with kings? 
 I have nothing to do with them, neither do I fear them ; 
 1 have only now to do with my God, in whose presence 
 I stand ; therefore to tell a lie, were it to gain the king's 
 favour, were vain. Therefore, as I hope to be saved aj^ 
 the last judgment-day, I never spoke disloyally, or dis- 
 honestly, of his Majesty in all my life; and therefore I 
 cannot but think it strange that that Frenchman, being 
 so base and mean a fellow, should be so far credited as 
 he hath been. I have dealt truly, as I hope to be saved; 
 and I hope I shall be believed. I confess I did attempt 
 to escape; I cannot excuse it, but it was only to save 
 my life. And I do likewise confess, that I did feign 
 •myself to be ill-disposed and sick at Salisbury; but I 
 hope it was no sin, for the prophet David did make him- 
 self a fool, and suffered spittle to fall down upon his 
 beard, to escape hum the hatids of his enemies, and it 
 
 i 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 33 
 
 was not imputed unto him : so, what I did, I intended 
 no ill, but to gain and prolong time until his Majesty 
 came, hoping tor some commiseration from him. But I 
 forgive this French-man, and Sir Lewis Stewkeley, with 
 all my heart; for I have received the sacrament this 
 morning of Mr. dean of Westminster, and I have forgiven 
 all men; but, that they are perfidious, 1 am bound in 
 charity to speak, that all men may take heed of them. 
 
 " Sir Lewis Stewkeley, my keeper and kindsman, hath 
 affirmed that I should tell him, that my lord Carew, and 
 my lord of Doncaster here, did advise me to escape ; 
 but I protest, before God, I never told him any such 
 thing; neither did thalords advise me to any such thing; 
 neither is it likely that 1 should tell him any such thing 
 of two privy-counsellors; neither had 1 any reason to tell 
 him, or he to report it; for it is well known, he left me 
 six, seven, eight, nine, and ten days together alone, to go 
 whither I listed, whilst hero de himself about the country. 
 
 " He further accused me, that I should shew him a 
 letter, whereby I did signify unto him, that I would give 
 him ten thousand pounds for my escape; but God cast 
 my soul into everlasting lire, if I made any such proffer 
 of ten thousand pounds, or one thousand ; but, indeed, 
 I shewed him a letter, that, if he would go with me, 
 there should be order taken for his debts when he was 
 gone; neither had I ten thousand pounds to give him ; 
 for, if I had had so much, I could have made my peace 
 with it better another way, than in giving it to Stewkeley. 
 
 "Further, when I came to Sir Edward Pelham's 
 house, who had been a follower of mine, and who gave 
 me good entertainment, he gave out, that I had received 
 some dram of poison; when I answered him, I feared 
 no such thing, for I was well assured of them in the 
 house, and therefore wished him to have no such thought. 
 Now God forgive him, for 1 do ; and I desire God to 
 forgive him. 1 will not say, God is a God of revenge; 
 but I desire God to forgive him, as I do desire to be tor- 
 given of God." 
 
34 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Then looking over his note of remembrance, "Well," 
 said he, " thus far have I gone; a little more, a little 
 more, and I will have done by and by. 
 
 " It was told the king that 1 was brought per force 
 into England, and that I did not intend to come again; 
 but Sir Charles Parker, Mr. Tresham, Mr. Leake, and 
 divers know how I was dealt withal by the common sol- 
 diers, which were one hundred and fifty in number, who 
 mutinied, and sent for me to come into the ship to them, 
 for unto mc they would not come; and there I was 
 forced to take an oath that I would not go into England 
 till that they would have me; otherwise they would 
 have cast me into the sea; and therewithal they drove 
 me into my cabin, and bent all their forces against 
 me. 
 
 " Now, after I had taken this oath, with wine and 
 other things, such as I had about me, I drew some of 
 the chicfest to desist from their purposes; and, at length, 
 1 persuaded them to go into Ireland; which they were 
 willing unto, and would have gone into the north parts 
 of Ireland; which I dissuaded them from, and told them 
 that they were Red-shanks that inhabited there; and 
 with m*ich ado I persuaded them to go into the south 
 parts of Ireland, promising them to get their pardons, 
 and was forced to give them one hundred and twenty- 
 five pounds at Kinsale, to bring them home, otherwise 
 1 had never got from them. 
 
 " I hear likewise, there was a report that I meant not 
 to go to Guiana at all, and that I knew not of any mine, 
 nor intended any such think or matter, but only to get 
 my liberty, which I had not the wit to keep. 
 
 " But I protest it was my full intent, and for gold ; 
 for gold.; for the benefit of his Majesty and myself, and 
 of those that ventured and went with me, with the rest 
 of mv countrymen'; but he that knew the head of the 
 of the mine, would not discover it, when he saw my sun 
 was slain, but made away with himself." 
 
 Then turning (o the earl of Arundel, he said, u My 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. S5 
 
 lord, being in the gallery of my ship, at my departure, 
 I remember your honour took me by the hand, and 
 said, you would request one thing of mc; which was, 
 that, whether I made a good voyage or a bad, I should 
 not fail but to return again into England; which I then 
 promised you, and gave you my faith 1 would; and so 
 I have." To which my lord answered, " It is true, I do 
 very well remember it, they were the very last words I 
 spake unto you." 
 
 ** Another slander was raised of me, that I would have 
 gone away from them and left them at Guiana. But 
 there was a great many worthy men that accompanied 
 me always; as my serjeant-major, George Raleigh, and 
 divers others, which knew my intent was nothing so. 
 
 " Another opinion was held of mc, that I carried with 
 me to sea sixteen thousand pieces, and that was all the 
 voyage I intended, only to get money into my hands. 
 As 1 shall answer it before God, I had not in all the 
 world in my hands, or others to my use, either directly, 
 or indirectly, above a hundred pounds; whereof, when I 
 went, I„gave my wife twenty-five pounds; but the error 
 thereof came, as I perceived, by looking over the scri- 
 vener's books, where they found the bills of adventure 
 arising to a great sum, so raised that false report. 
 
 " 1 will only borrow a little time of Mr. Sheriff to 
 speak of one thing, that doth make my heart to bleed to 
 hear that such an imputation should be laid upon me ; 
 for, it is said, that I should be a persecutor of the death 
 of the earl of Essex; and, that I stood in a window over- 
 against him, when he suffered, and puffed out tobacco 
 in disdain of him. God I take to witness, I shed tears 
 for him when he died; and, as 1 hope to look God in 
 the face hereafter, my lord of Essex did not see my face- 
 when he suffered, for I was afar off in the armor) 7 , where 
 I saw him, but he saw not me. 
 
 " I confess indeed I was of a contrary faction, but I 
 knew my lord of Essex was a noble gentleman, and that 
 it would be worse with me when he was gone, for 1 got 
 
36 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the hate of those which wished mc well before, and those 
 that set me against him, afterwards set themselves against 
 me, and were my greatest enemies; and my soul hath 
 many times been grieved that I was not nearer him when 
 he died; because, as I understand afterwards, he asked 
 for me at his death to have been reconciled unto me. 
 And these be the material points I thought good to speak 
 of; and I »m now, at this instant, to render up an 
 account to God; and I protest, as I shall appear before 
 him, this that I have spoken is true; and I hope I shall 
 be believed." 
 
 Our illustrious patriot concluded with desiring the 
 astonished spectators to join with him in prayer to God, 
 " whom," said he, " I have most grievously offended, 
 being a man full of vanity, who has lived a sinful life, 
 in such callings as have been most inducing to it. For 
 I have been a soldier, a sailor, and a courtier; which 
 are all courses of wickedness -and vice." 
 
 Then proclamation being made, that all men should 
 depart the scaffold, he prepared himself for death; giving 
 away his hat, his cap, and some money, to such as he 
 knew, who stood near him. He next took leave of the 
 lords, knights, gentiemen, and others of his acquaint- 
 ance; and, amongst the rest, lord Arundel, whom he 
 thanked for his company, and entreated him to desire 
 the king, that no scandalous writing to defame him 
 might be published after his death ; adding, " I have a 
 long journey to go, and therefore I will take my leave." 
 Then putting off his doublet and gown, he desired the 
 executioner toshew him the axe; which not being done 
 readily, he said, " I pr'ythee let me see it. Dost thou 
 think that I am afraid of it?" So it being given unto 
 him, he felt along upon the edge of it; and, smiling, 
 spake unto Mr. Sheriff, saying, " this is a sharp medicine, 
 but it is a physician that will cure, all diseases." After 
 which, going to and fro upon the scaffold on every side, 
 he entreated the company to pray to God to give him 
 strength. 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 37 
 
 Dr. Robert Tounson, at that time Dean of Westmin- 
 ster, and afterward Bishop of Salisbury, attended Sir 
 Walter in his last hours. A letter of his to a friend, 
 descriptive of the knight's last behaviour, has fortunate- 
 ly been preserved, and is here presented to the reader : 
 
 Dit. Tounson to Sir John Isham, of Lamport, 
 
 NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 " Sir, Westminster College, Nov. £>, \6 1 8. 
 
 " The last week was a busy week with me, and the 
 Week before that was more. 1 would gladly have writ 
 unto you, but could find no time. Yet I hope you 
 had the relation of Sir Walter Raleigh's death, for so 
 I gave order, that it should be brought unto you. 
 
 " I was commanded by the Lords of the Council to 
 be with him, both in prison and at his death, and so 
 set down the manner of his death as near as I could. 
 There be other reports of it, but that which you have 
 from mc is true. One Crawford, who was sometime 
 Mr. Rodcknight's pupil, hath penned it prettily, and 
 meancth to put it to the press, and came to me about 
 it, but I hear not that it is come forth. 
 
 " The sum of that which he spake at his death you 
 have I suppose already; when he never made mention 
 of his offence for which he died (namely his former 
 treason) but only desired to clear himself of new impu- 
 tations there mentioned. Privately he told me in pri- 
 son,, that he was charged to have broken the peace with 
 Spain, but he put that he said out of the count of his 
 offences, saving that he heard the king was displeased 
 at it. For how could he break peace with him, who- 
 within these four years, as he said, took divers of his 
 men and bound them back to back, and drowned them ? 
 And for burning the town, he said it stood upon the 
 king's own ground, and therefore he did no wrong in 
 that. 
 
 " He was the most fearless of death that ever wa# 
 D 
 
38 THE LIFE OF 
 
 known ; and the most resolute and confident, yet with 
 reverence and conscience. When I began to encourage 
 him against the fear of death, he seemed to make so 
 light of it that I wondered at him. And when 1 told 
 him that the dear servants of God, in better causes than 
 his, had shrunk back and trembled a little, he denied 
 not; but yet gave God thanks he never feared death, 
 and mi(eh less then. For it was but an opinion and 
 imagination, and the manner of death, though to others 
 might seem grievous, yet he had rather die so than of a 
 burning fever. With much more to that purpose, with 
 such confidence and cheerfulness, that I was fain to di- 
 vert my speech another way ; and wished him not to 
 flatter himself, for this extraordinary boldness I was 
 afraid came from some false ground. If it sprang from 
 the assurance he had of the love and favour of God, of 
 the hope of his salvation by Christ, and his own inno- 
 cency, as he pleaded, I said he was an happy man. 
 But if it were out of an humour of vain glory, or care- 
 lessless, or contempt of death, or senselessness of his 
 own estate, he were much to be lamented, &c. For I 
 told him, that heathen men had set as little by their 
 lives as he could do, and seemed to die as bravely. He 
 answered that he was persuaded, that no man that knc^| 
 God and feared him could die with cheerfulness and 
 courage, except he were assured of the love and favour 
 of God unto him. That other men might make shews 
 outwardly, but they felt no joy within; with much 
 more to that effect very christianly, so that he satisfied 
 me then, as I think he did all his spectators at his 
 death. 
 
 " After he had received the communion in the morn- 
 ing, he was very cheerful and merry ; and hoped to 
 persuade the world that he died an innocent man, as he 
 said. Thereat I told him, that he should do well to ad- 
 vise what he said ; men in these days did not die in that 
 sort innocent, and his pleading innocency was an ob- 
 lique taxing of the justice of the realms upon him. He 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 39 
 
 confessed justice had been done, and by course of law 
 he must die; but yet I should give him leave, he said, 
 to stand upon his innocency in the fact ; and he 
 thought both the king, and all that heard his answers, 
 thought verily he was innocent for that matter. 
 
 " I then pressed him to call to mind what he had 
 done formerly. And though perhaps in that particu- 
 lar for which he was condemned he was clear, yet for 
 some other matter it might be he was guilty, and now 
 the hand of God had found him out ; and therefore he 
 should acknowledge the justice of God in it, though at 
 the hands of men he had but hard measure. And here 
 I put him in mind of the death of my Lord of Essex, 
 how it was generally reported that he was a great in- 
 strument of his death, which, if his heart did charge 
 him with, he should heartily repent and ask God for- 
 giveness. To which he made answer as is in the former 
 relation, and said moreover that my Lord of Essex was 
 fetched off by a trick, which he privately told me of. 
 
 "■ He was very cheerful that morning he died, eat his 
 breakfast heartily, and took tobacco, and made no more 
 of his death than if he had been to take a journey. And 
 left a great impression in the minds of those that be- 
 held him, insomuch that Sir Lewis Stukely and the 
 Frenchman grow very odious. 
 
 " This was the news a week since, but now it is 
 blown over, and he almost forgotten." 
 
 The rapid succession of conspicuous circumstances in 
 the life of a celebrated public character does not al- 
 ways afford us the leisure which we require for the due 
 notice of other objects of biographical attention. Thus, 
 although in the preceding chapters we have accompa- 
 nied Sir Walter Raleigh, as far as obtainable records 
 have enabled us, through the eventful part which hu 
 supported on the theatre of public life, some attention 
 i>2 
 
40 THE LIFE OF 
 
 is still due to his more private hours, as well as toother 
 points of biographical interest, before we close the 
 scene; and which, perhaps, could less conveniently 
 have been afforded them in any other place. 
 
 Of the manner in which many of these hours were 
 employed, particularly those of his long imprisonment, 
 we have very conspicuous testimonies in such of Sir 
 "Walter's writings as have been committed to the press; 
 among which the most extensive is his History of the 
 World. It was published, as has been already observ- 
 ed, in the year 16 14; and the eleventh and last edition, 
 which is the best, was edited by Oldys, in folio, in 
 1736". Beginning with the creation, Sir Walter lias in 
 this work given us the flower of recorded story to the 
 end of the second Macedonian war: and having re- 
 viewed the three first monarchies of the world, he leaves 
 Home triumphant in the fourth, about a century and a 
 half before the birth of our Saviour, comprehending a 
 period of nearly 4000 years. Ranking in that class of 
 historians who prefer the exercise of judgment in selec- 
 tion to that of genius in adorning, his industry and pe- 
 netration are highly conspicuous, and his stile elegant 
 and the best model of his age. His superior manner of 
 treating Greek and Roman story excites our regret that 
 he has devoted so many pages to Jewish and Rabbinical 
 learning, and that he has not permitted himself a greater 
 latitude in those more fascinating subjects. 
 
 The subjects on which Sir Walter exercised his pen, 
 arc not less various than the characters he united in 
 himself; and beside the large historical work already 
 noticed, he has bequeathed us many shorter pieces on 
 miscellaneous topics. When we view his actions, we 
 are astonished at the number of his writings : viewing 
 his writings, we wonder he found time for so much 
 action. 
 
 Of the greater part of sir Walter's miscellaneous pieces, 
 sundry collections have been made at different periods; 
 among which, that published by Dr. Birch in two 
 
SIE -WALTER KALEIGH, 41 
 
 volumes, octavo, in the year 1751, is justly the best 
 Esteemed. 
 
 By the paintings extant of sir Walter Raleigh, his 
 stature was about six feet and his person well propor- 
 tioned. " He had in the outward man (says Naunton) 
 a good presence in a handsome and well-compacted 
 person, a strong natural wit and a better judgment, 
 with a bold and plausible tongue, whereby he could set 
 out his parts to the best advantage." His profusion in 
 dress on particular occasions, was perhaps in conformity 
 with the custom of his age. We are told that in Queen 
 Elizabeth's reign he possessed a suit of clothes beset with 
 jewels to the value of sixty thousand pounds ; and the 
 Jesuit Drexeltius informs us, that the precious stones 
 on his court-shoes exceeded six thousand six hundred 
 pieces of gold in value. 
 
 Elizabeth, the only wife of sir Walter, appears, by an 
 extant portrait of her, to have been a lady of considcr- 
 blc beauty. She is supposed to have been about eighteen 
 years younger than the knight, and she survived hint 
 twenty-nine years. Two sons, Walter and Carew, are 
 the only fruits of this marriage with which posterity are 
 acquainted. Her strong and faithful attachment to her 
 husband through life, it appears was confirmed by her 
 not entering again into wedlock after his death. 
 
 Walter was born in 1594, and killed at twenty-three 
 years of age, at St. Thome. At the age of twenty he 
 was obliged to fly the kingdom, on account of a duel in 
 which he had been engaged; and in the skirmish in 
 which he lost his life, he appears to have behaved with 
 great bravery. 
 
 Carew was born in 1 604-5, educated at Wad ham - 
 college, Oxford, and came to court about five years 
 after his father's death under the patronage of the Earl 
 of Pembroke. King James disliking him, and saying 
 he appeared to him like the ghost of his father, the Ear* 
 advised him to travel till the king's death, which t 
 place about a year afterward. Mr. Raleigh then 
 D 3 
 
42 THE LIFE OF 
 
 tioned parliament to be restored in blood. But, when 
 his petition had been twice read in the house of lords, 
 King Charles sent for him, received him kindly, and 
 told him, that in his father's reign he had, for a consi- 
 deration of 10,0001. promised the Earl of Bristol (for- 
 merly sir John Digby) to secure his title to Sherborne 
 against sir Walter Raleigh's heirs ; therefore, unless he 
 resigned all right to that estate, he could not pass the 
 bill for his restoration. The inconveniences attending 
 his situation, promises of preferment, &c. induced the 
 friendless and fortuneless Carew to submit to the king's 
 will. An act was passed for his restoration, Sherborne 
 was settled on the Earl of Bristol, and a pension of 4001. 
 a-year granted for his life to Mr. Raleigh after the death 
 of his mother, who received that sum for her life in lieu 
 of jointure. 
 
 He married Lady Philippa, relict of sir Antony 
 Ashley, a rich young widow, by whom he had two sons 
 and three daughters. He died in 1666, and was buried, 
 with his father's head in his coffin, at West Horsley, in 
 Surrey, where he bad a seat. 
 
 Abstract of a Letter from Mr. Thomas Lorkin, to Sir 
 Thomas Puckering, Bart, giving some account of the 
 Extcution of Sir Walter Raleigh. 
 
 Upon Wednesday, therefore, he was brought to West- 
 minster, to receive sentence anew from the lord chief- 
 justice, to comply with certain formalities, as I hear, 
 in law, for that those who pronounced it were dead. 
 Being presented at the bar, he demanded for what 
 ■ offence he was proceeded against. Answer was made it 
 •"as his Majesty's pleasure to take his life for the first, 
 that the cause of hie coming again to the bar now, 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 43 
 
 was to declare the former condemnation to stand still in 
 force. He offered to speak somewhat for himself, but 
 it was not permitted. The attorney told him that he 
 had lived like a star, and like a star must fall when it 
 troubled the firmament. There he was delivered into 
 the sheriff's charge, and by him carried from thence to 
 the gate-side, and the day following, (which was by all 
 good token's the lord-mayor's-day) in the Old Palace-yard 
 executed. His warning was short, for he had no word 
 to prepare himself for death till that very morning he 
 was convened before the judge. He sued for four or 
 five days longer, under pretence of having somewhat to 
 communicate with his Majesty by writing for his behoof 
 and service, which in so short a time could not be per- 
 formed; and something I hear he hath written to the 
 king to that purpose. Yet it was conceived as a devise 
 to gain time, that his friends might the more effectually 
 intercede for his pardon : so as that suit would not be 
 granted. Thereupon he prepared himself for death. 
 In all the time he was upon the scaffold, nor before, 
 there appeared not the least alteration in him, either in 
 his voice or countenance ; but he seemed as free from all 
 manner of apprehension, as if he had been come thither 
 rather to be a spectator than a sufferer ; nay, the behold- 
 ers seemed much more sensible than did he. So that 
 he hath purchased here in the opinion of men such 
 honour and reputation, as it it thought his greatest ene- 
 mies are they that are most sorrowful for his death, 
 which they see is like to turn so much to his advantage. 
 Stukcley notwithstanding, hath been at court since, of- 
 fering to his Majesty, by way of his own justification, to 
 take the sacrament upon it, and what he laid to Sir 
 Walter Raleigh's charge was true ; and to produce two 
 other witnesses, free from all exception, that would do 
 the like. Why then, replied his Majesty, the more mali 
 cious he to utter those speeches at his death. But Sir 
 Thomas Badger, who stood by and heard it, let the King, 
 said he, take offStukelei/'s head, as he hath dune the others. 
 
44 THE LIFE OF 
 
 # -■ 
 
 and let him at his death take the sacrament and his oath 
 upon it, and I'll believe him : but otherwise I shall credit 
 Sir Walters bare affirmative before a thousand oj his oaths. 
 
 A Declaration of the Demeanour and Carriage of Sir 
 Walter Raleigh, Knight, as well in his Voyage, as in, 
 and since his Return, and of the true Motives and In- 
 ducements which occasioned his Majesty to proceed in 
 doing Justice upon him, as hath been done. 
 
 Although kings be not bound to give an account of 
 their actions to any but God alone, yet such are his 
 majesty's proceedings, as he hath always been willing 
 to bring them before* sun and moon, and carefully to 
 satisfy all his good people with his intentions and 
 courses, giving as well to future times, as to the pre- 
 sent, true and undisguised declarations of them ; as 
 judging, that for actions not well founded, it is advan- 
 vantage to let them pass in uncertain reports; but for 
 actions, that are built upon sure and solid grounds, 
 such as his Majesty's are, it belongeth to them, to be 
 published by open manifests : especially as his Majesty is 
 willing, to declare and manifest to the world his pro- 
 ceedings, in a case of such a nature, as this which fol- 
 loweth his ; since it not ^>nly concerns his own people, 
 but also a foreign prince and state abroad. 
 
 Accordingly, therefore, for that which concerneth Sir 
 Walter, late executed for treason, leaving the thoughts 
 of his heart, and the protestations that he made at his 
 death to God that is the searcher of all hearts, and 
 judge of all truth ; his Majesty hath thought fit to ma- 
 nifest unto the world how things appeared unto himself, 
 and upon what proofs and evident matter, and the exa- 
 mination of the commanders that were employed with 
 him in the voyage (and namely of those which Sir Wal- 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 4.5 
 
 tor Raleigh himself, by his own letter to secretary Win- 
 wood, had commended for persons of worth and credit, 
 and as most fit for greater employments) his Majesty** 
 proceedings have been grounded, whereby it will evi- 
 dently appear how agreeable they have been in all 
 points to honour and justice. 
 
 Sir Walter having been condemned of high-treason, 
 at his Majesty's entrance into this kingdom, and for 
 the space of fourteen years, by his Majesty's princely 
 clemency and mercy, not only spared from his execu- 
 tion, but permitted to live, as in libera custodia in the 
 Tower, and to enjoy his lands and living, till all was 
 by law evicted from him upon another ground, and not 
 by forfeiture; (which, notwithstanding, his Majesty out 
 of his abundant grace gave him a competent satisfaction 
 for the same) at length he fell upon an enterprise of a 
 gulden mine in Guiana. 
 
 This proposition of his was presented and recom- 
 mended to his Majesty by Sir Ralph Winwood, then 
 secretary of state, as a matter not in the air, or specu- 
 lative, but real and of certainty : for that Sir Walter 
 Raleigh had seen of the ore of the mine with his eyes, 
 and tried the richness of it. It is true that his Majesty, 
 in his own princely judgment, gave no belief unto it; 
 as well, for that his Majesty was verily persuaded, that 
 in nature there are no such mines of gold entire, as 
 they described this to be; and, if any such had been, 
 it was not probable that the Spaniards, who were so in- 
 dustrious in the chace of treasure, would have neglect- 
 ed it so long: as also, for that it proceeded from the 
 person of Sir Walter Raleigh, invested with such circum- 
 stances both of his disposition and fortune. Bu), never- 
 theless, Sir Walter Raleigh had so enchanted the world, 
 with his confident asseveration ©f that which every man 
 was willing to believe, as his Majesiy's honour was, in 
 a manner engaged, not to deny unto his people the ad- 
 venture and hope of so great riches, to be sought and 
 atchieved, at the charge of voluntaries; especially for 
 
46 THE LIFE OF 
 
 that it stood with his Majesty's politick and magnani- 
 mous courses, in these his flourishing times of peace, to 
 nourish and encourage noble and generous enterprises for 
 plantations, discoveries, and opening of new trades. 
 
 Hereupon the late Spanish ambassador, the count de 
 Gundamore, took great alarm, and represented unto his 
 Majesty by loud and vehement assertions, upon iterated 
 audiences, that he knew and had discovered the inten- , 
 tion and enterprise of Sir Walter Raleigh to be but hos- 
 tile and piratical, and tending to the breach of the 
 peace between the two crowns, and danger and destruc- 
 tion of the King his master's subjects in those parts ; 
 protesting, in a sort, against the same. To which his 
 Majesty's answer always was, that he would send Sir 
 Walter Raleigh with a limited confession, and that he 
 durst not, upon peril of his head, attempt any such 
 matter; and, if he did, he would surely do justice up- 
 on him, or send him bound hand and foot into Spain, 
 and all the gold and goods he should obtain by robbery, 
 and bring home, were they never so great. And, for 
 further caution, his Majesty enjoined secretary Win- 
 wood to urge Sir Walter Raleigh upon his conscience 
 and allegiance to his Majesty to deal plainly, and ex- 
 press himself, whether he had any other intention, but 
 only to go to those golden mines in Guiana, which he 
 not only solemnly protested unto the said Sir Ralph 
 Winwood, but by him writ a close letter to his majes- 
 ty, containing a solemn profession thereof, confirmed 
 with many vehement asseverations, and that he never . 
 meant or would commit any outrages or spoils upon the 
 king of Spain's subjects. But, notwithstanding his Ma- 
 jesty acquainted the Spanish ambassador with this his 
 protestation, yet the said ambassador would never recede 
 from his former jealousy, and importuning his Majesty 
 to stay his voyage, alledging, that the great number of 
 ships that Sir Walter Raleigh had prepared for that 
 voyage, shewed manifestly that he had no such peaceable 
 intent ; and offering, upon Sir Walter Raleigh's answer 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 47 
 
 thereunto, that those ships were only provided for his 
 safe convoy, that, if Sir Walter Raleigh would go with 
 one or two ships only to seek the said mine, that he 
 would move the king of Spain to send two or three ships 
 with him back again, for his safe convoy hither with all 
 his gold ; and the said ambassador's person to remain 
 here in pledge for the king his Majesty's performance 
 thereof. But such were the constant fair offers of the 
 said Sir Walter Raleigh, and specious promises, as his 
 Majesty in the end rejected the importunate suit of the 
 said Spanish ambassador for his stay, and resolved to 
 let him go; but therewithal took order, both that he, 
 and all those that went in his company, should find 
 good security to behave themselves peaceably towards 
 all his Majesty's friends and allies, and to observe 
 strictly all the articles of the commission, which his 
 Majesty, for that cause, had the greater care to have it 
 well and clearly penned and set down. And, that his 
 Majesty's honest intention may herein the better appear, 
 the words of the commission are here inserted, as fol- 
 loweth : 
 
 " JAMES, by the grace of God, &c. to all to whom 
 these presents shall come, to be read, heard, or seen, 
 awd to every of them greeting. 
 
 Whereas Sir Walter Raleigh, knight, intendeth to un- 
 dertake a voyage by sea and shipping, unto the south 
 parts of America, or elsewhere within America, pos- 
 sessed and inhabited by heathen and savage people, to 
 the end to discover and find out some commodities and 
 merchandises in those countries, that be necessary and 
 profitable for the subjects of these our kingdoms and 
 dominions, whereof the inhabitants there make little or 
 no use or estimation; whereupon also may ensue, by 
 trade and commerce, some propagation of the christian 
 faith and reformed religion amongst those savage and 
 idolatrous people. And whereas we are credibly in- 
 formed, that there are divers merchants and own- 
 
4S THE LIFE OF 
 
 ers of ships, and olhers, well disposed to assist the 
 said Sir Walter Raleigh in this his enterprise, had 
 they sufficient assurance to enjoy their due parts 
 of the profits returned, in respect of the peril of law, 
 wherein the said Sir Walter Raleigh now standeth. 
 And, whereas, also, we are informed, that divers other 
 gentlemen, the kinsmen and friends of the said Sir Wal- 
 ter Raleigh, and divers captains and other commanders 
 are also desirous to follow him, and to adventure their 
 lives with him in this his journey, so as they might be 
 commanded by no other than himself. 
 
 Know ye, that we, upon deliberate consideration had 
 of the demises, being desirous by all ways and means 
 to work and procure the benefit and good of our loving 
 subjects, and to give our princely furtherance to the 
 said Walter Raleigh, his friends and associates therein, 
 to the encouragement of others in the like laudable 
 journies and enterprises, to be hereafter prosecuted and 
 pursued ; and especially in advancement and further- 
 ance, as well of the conversion of savage people, as of 
 the encrease of the trade, traffics, and merchandises 
 used by our subjects of this our kingdom, being most 
 famous throughout all nations. Of our special grace, 
 certain knowledge, and mere motion, have given and 
 granted, and by these presents, for us, our heirs, and 
 successors, do give and grant unto the said Sir Walter 
 Raleigh full power and authority, and free licence and 
 liberty, out of this our realm of England, or any other 
 our dominions, to have, carry, take, and lead, for and 
 towards his said intended voyage into the said south 
 parts, or other parts of America, possessed and inhabit- 
 ed as aforesaid, and to travel thither, all such, and so 
 many of our loving subjects, or any others, strangers, 
 that will become our loving subjects, and live under 
 our obeyance and allegiance, as shall willingly accom- 
 pany im, with sufficient shipping, armour, weapons, 
 ordnance, ammunition, powder, shot, habiliments, vic- 
 tuals, and such wares and merchandises, as are esteem- 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 49 
 
 ed by the wild people in those parts, clothing, imple- 
 ments, furniture, cattle, horses, and marcs, and all other 
 such things as he shall think most necessary for his 
 voyage, and for the use and defence of him and his 
 company, and trade with the people there; and in pass- 
 ing and returning to and fro, and in those parts, to give 
 away, sell, barter, exchange, or otherwise dispose of 
 the same goods, merchandises, and premises to the most 
 benefit, and at the will and pleasure of the said Sir Wal- 
 ter Raleigh and his company, and such other person, or 
 persons, as shall be adventurers or assistants with, or> 
 unto him in this his intended voyage, and from thence 
 to return, import, convey, and bring into this our king- 
 dom, or any other our dominions, such gold, silver, 
 bullion, or any other wares, or merchandises, or com- 
 modities whatsoever, as they shall think most fit and 
 convenient; and the same being so returned, imported, 
 conveyed, and brought into this our kingdom, or any 
 other our dominions, to have, take, keep, retain, and 
 convert to the only proper use, benefit, and behoof of 
 the said Sir Walter Raleigh, and his said company, and 
 other persons, adventurers and assistants with or to him 
 in this voyage, without the lett, interruption, molesta- 
 tion, and disturbance of us, our heirs or successors, or 
 any the officers or ministers of us, our heirs or succes- 
 sors whatsoever, paying and answering unto us, our 
 heirs and successors, the full fifth part in five parts to 
 be divided, of all such gold, and silver, and bullion, 
 and ore of gold or silver, and pearl, and precious stone, 
 as shall be so imported, over and besides, and together 
 with such customs, subsidies, and other duties, as shall 
 be due for, or in respect of any other goods, wares, or 
 merchandises whatsoever, to be imported by the true 
 meaning of these presents. And to the end the said Sir 
 Walter Raleigh may be the more encouraged to go for- 
 ward in this his enterprise, and all our loving subjects 
 desirous to be adventurers with him, or assistant unto 
 him, may be the more incited to further his proceed- 
 
 E 
 
50 THE LIFE OF 
 
 ings : We do hereby, in terbo Regio, for us, our heirs 
 and successors, covenant, promise, and grant, to and 
 with the said Sir Walter Raleigh, and all other persons 
 that shall accompany him, or to be attendant upon 
 him, or to be adventurers, or assistants, with or to him 
 in this his voyage, that no gold, silver, goods, wares, or 
 merchandises whatsoever, of what kind or sort soever, 
 by him or them, or any of them, to be imported into 
 this our kingdom of England, or any other our domi- 
 nions, fiom any the said south or other parts of Ame- 
 rica, possessed or inhabited as aforesaid, shall be at- 
 tached, seized, or taken by us, our heirs or successors, 
 or to the use of us, our heirs or successors, or by any 
 the officers or ministers of us, our heirs or successors, 
 whatsoever; but that the same, and every of them (the 
 fifth part of the said gold, silver, or bullion, and ore of 
 gold, and silver, and pearl, and precious stone, and 
 other the customs and duties aforesaid, being duly an- 
 swered and paid) shall be and remain to the sole proper 
 use and behoof of the said Sir Walter Raleigh, and his 
 said company, and such persons as shall be adventurers 
 with him, or assistant to him in this his voyage, any 
 law, statute, or act of parliament, proclamation, pro- 
 vision, or restraint, or any right, title, or claim of us, 
 our heirs or successors, or any other matter or thing 
 whatsoever to the contrary, in any wise notwithstand- 
 ing. And further, of our more especial grace, certain 
 knowledge, and mere motion, we do hereby for us, our 
 heirs and successors, ordain, constitute, and appoint the 
 said Sir Walter Raleigh, to be the sole governor and 
 commander of all persons that shall travel, or be with 
 him in the said voyage, to the said south, or other parts 
 of America, so possessed and inhabited as aforesaid, or 
 in returning from thence. And we do hereby give unto 
 him full power and authority to correct, punish, par- 
 don, govern, and rule them, or any of them, according 
 to such order, ordinances, constitutions, directions, and 
 instructions, as by the said Sir Walter Raleigh shall be 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 51» 
 
 from time to time established, as well in cases capital 
 and criminal, as civil, both marine and other; so al- 
 ways as the said statutes, ordinances, and proceedings, 
 as near as conveniently may be, be agreeable to the 
 laws, statutes, government, and policy of this our realm 
 of England, and not against the true christian faith now 
 professed in the church of England. And because that, 
 in such and the like enterprises and voyages, great in- 
 conveniences have grown by the mutinous and disor- 
 derly carriage of the mariners and sailors employed in 
 the same, for want of sufficient authority to punish 
 them according to their offences : We do therefore by 
 these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, give full 
 power and authority to the said Sir Walter Raleigh, in 
 case of rebellion, or mutiny by sea or land, to use and 
 exercise martial law (upon just ground and apparent 
 necessity) in as large and ample manner as our lieute- 
 nant-general by sea or land, or lieutenants in our coun- 
 ties, within our realm of England, have had, or ought 
 to have by force of their commission of lieutenancy. 
 And we do further, by these presents, give full power 
 and authority to the said Sir Walter Raleigh, to collect, 
 nominate, and appoint such captains, and other inferi- 
 or commanders and ministers under him, as shall be re- 
 quisite for the better ordering and governing of his com* 
 pany, and the good of the voyage. And further, we 
 do by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, 
 streightly charge and command the warden of our cinque 
 ports, and all the customers, comptrollers, surveyors, 
 searchers, waiters, and other officers and ministers of 
 us, our heirs and successors, for the time being, that 
 they, and every of them, do quietly permit and suffer 
 the said Sir Waller Raleigh, and all person and persons 
 that shall be willing to travel and adventure with him in 
 this voyage with their ships, ammunition, goods, wares, 
 and merchandises whatsoever out of this our realm, or 
 any other our dominions, to pass into the said south 
 E2 
 
52 THE LIFE OF 
 
 or other parts of America, possessed and inhabited as 
 aforesaid, and from thence to return and import into 
 this realm, or any other our dominions, any goods, 
 wares, or merchandises whatsoever, and there to sell, 
 or otherwise to dispose of the same, to the best benefit 
 and advantage, and to the only use and behoof of the 
 said Sir Walter Raleigh, and his company, and such 
 other persons as shall be adventurers with him in this 
 voyage, paying the fifth part of all gold and silver, 
 bullion, and ore of gold and silver, and of pearls and 
 precious stone imported, and other the customs and 
 duties aforesaid. And these presents, or the enrollment 
 thereof, shall be unto the said warden of the cinque- 
 ports, customers, comptrollers, and other the officers 
 and ministers aforesaid, for the time being, a sufficient 
 warrant and discharge in that behalf. And our will 
 and pleasure is, and by these presents, for us, our heirs 
 and successors, we do grant unto the said Sir Walter 
 Raleigh, that these our letters patents, or the enrollment 
 thereof, and all and singular grants, clauses, and things 
 therein contained, shall be firm, strong, sufficient, and 
 efficient in law, according to our gracious pleasure, and 
 meaning herein expressed; any law, statute, act, provi- 
 sion, ordinance, or restraint, or any other matter or 
 thing to the contrary thereof, in any wise notwithstand- 
 ing. Although express mention, &c. In witness where- 
 of, &€. Witness ourself, at Westminter, the six-and- 
 twentieth day of August, in the fourteenth year of our 
 reign of England, France, and Ireland, and of Scot- 
 land, the fiftieth. 
 
 Per breve de privato Sigillo, 
 
 This commission so drawn and framed, as' you see, 
 his Majesty himself did oft peruse and revise, as fore- 
 seeing the future events ; the tenor whereof appeared to 
 be far from giving Sir Walter Raleigh warrant, or co- 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 53 
 
 lout, to invade any of the territories, occupied and pos- 
 sessed by the Spaniards, as it tended to a direction, ra- 
 ther of commerce than spoil, even towards the savages 
 themselves. And the better to contain Sir Walter Ra- 
 leigh, and to hold him upon his good behaviour, his 
 Majesty denied, though much sued unto for the same, 
 to grant him pardon for his former treasons, both to 
 disauthorisc him with those that were under his com- 
 mand, in case he should attempt to exceed his commis- 
 sion, and to reserve him to the justice of the law, if, by 
 new offences, he should make himself indign of former 
 mercies. And as for the good security which his Ma- 
 jesty ordered to be taken, for their good and peaceable 
 behaviour in the voyage; his Majesty never heard any 
 thing to the contrary but that it was performed till they 
 were upon their parting ; and then was it told him, that 
 every one of the principals, that were in the voyage, 
 had put in security one for another, which, if his Ma- 
 jesty had known in time, he would never have accepted 
 of. 
 
 But, howsoever the commission was penned, and 
 whatsoever the cautions were which his Majesty intend- 
 ed or used, and whatsoever the protestations and pro- 
 mises were, that Sir Walter Raleigh made or exhibited, 
 it appeareth plainly, by the whole sequel of his ac- 
 tions, that he went his own way, and had his own ends: 
 First, to procure his liberty, and then to make new for- 
 tunes for himself, casting abroad only this tale of the 
 mine as a lure to get adventurers and followers, having 
 in his eye the Mexico fleet, the sacking and spoil of 
 towns planted with Spaniards, the depredation of ships, 
 and such other purchase ; and making account, that, if 
 he returned rich, he would ransom his offences, little 
 lookkig into the nature and character of his Majesty's 
 justice and government; and, if otherwise, he would 
 seek his fortune by flight, and new enterprises in some 
 foreign country. 
 Io execution, therefore, of these his designs, Sir Wal- 
 
 E 3 
 
54 THE LIFE OF 
 
 ter Raleigh, carrying the reputation of an active, witty, 
 and valiant gentleman, and especially of a great com- 
 mander at sea, by the enticement of this golden bait of 
 the mine, and the estimation of his own name, drew 
 unto him many brave captains, and other knights and 
 gentlemen of great blood and worth, to hazard and ad- 
 venture their lives, and the whole, or a great part of 
 their estates and fortunes in this his voyage, whose ruins 
 and decays following, remain as sad and grievous relics 
 and monuments of bis unfortunate journey and unfaith- 
 ful proceedings. 
 
 But, before he went from London, he was not so re- 
 served nor so constant unto his pretence of the mine, 
 but that some sparks broke forth of that light, which 
 afterwards appeared. For he cast forth some words to 
 some particular friends of his company, that he knew a 
 town in those parts, upon which he could make a sav- 
 ing voyage in tobacco, though there were no other 
 spoil. Nevertheless, to make the better faith of that 
 he had given out touching the mine, he promised his 
 company at London, that, when he came to Plymouth, 
 he would take a great company of pioneers out of the 
 west, where the best workmen are of that kind, and he 
 maintained this his pretence so far, as he billited the 
 said pioneers for several ships; but, when he came into 
 the west, this vanished. For it is testified of all parts, 
 and by himself confessed, that he carried none at all, 
 excusing it, that there were many other tall men of 
 the mariners, and common soldiers, that he would have 
 made fall to work, which is a slender excuse of omit- 
 ting so principal a point. As for pickaxes, mattocks, 
 and shovels, for the working of the mine, it is true, he 
 carried some small quantity for a show, but, by the 
 judgment of all that were in his company, nothing near 
 sufficient for that which had been requisite for the woik- 
 ing of the mine, which lie excused only by saying, that 
 his men never saw them unpacked, and that the mine 
 was not past a foot and a half under ground. 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 65 
 
 After, when he was once at sea, he did not much la- 
 bour to nourish and maintain the belief, that he meant 
 to make his voyage upon the profit of the mine, but 
 fell a degree, as if it were sufficient to bring home cer- 
 tainty and visible proofs, that such a mine there was, 
 though he brought not the riches of it. For, soon after 
 his setting forth from Ireland, he professed, that if he 
 brought home but a handful or basketful of ore, to shew 
 the king, he cared for no more, for it was enough to 
 save his credit; and, being charged therewith, he con- 
 fessed the speech, with this argument, and inference, 
 that, if there had been a handful of the mine, it follow- 
 ed there was a mine to be confessed ; as if so many 
 ships, so many lives of men, such charge of provisions, 
 and such an honourable commission, had been but for 
 an experiment. 
 
 About the same si me, likewise, he began to forget his 
 commission, as well as his pretences of the mine; for he 
 did declare himself to divers of his company, that he 
 meant to take St. Thome, and that he would male his 
 voyage good upon that town, for that it was very rich ; 
 so as, whereas it was blown abroad, that the assault 
 of St. Thome was enforced by a kind of necessity, fur 
 that our troops were first assailed, it appeareth mani- 
 festly, both by his speech at London, of a town inde- 
 finitely, and by this his speech early in his voyage at 
 sea, of St. Thome, by name, that it was an original de- 
 sign of his from the beginning; and yet, it is confessed 
 by all, that the parts of Guiana, where St. Thome was 
 situate, were planted by Spaniards, who had divers 
 towns in the same tract, with some Indians intermixed, 
 that are their vassals, so as it is plain, both place and 
 persons were out of his commission. 
 
 And that this was well known to him it appears no~ 
 tably in a letter of his own hand, written since his re- 
 turn from his voayage, wherein he complains, that the 
 Spaniards of the same place did murder divers of his 
 men, which came in peace to tracts with them, some 
 
56 THE LIFE OF 
 
 seven years past; neither doth he in that letter any way 
 decline his knowledge, that those parts were inhabited 
 by the Spaniards, but stands upon a former title, which 
 he would needs now have strengthened by a new pos- 
 session; notwithstanding that this his pretence is no way 
 compatible with his commission, and that himself, before 
 his going, made no overture, or allegation, of any such 
 pretext, nor so much as intimated, or insinuated, any 
 such design or purpose. 
 
 And Sir Walter Raleigh himself being charged with 
 these speeches, confessed the words, but saith, that in 
 time, they were spoken aTter the action of the mine was 
 defeated ; and that it was propounded by him, to the 
 end to keep his men together, and if he spake it before, 
 it was but discourse at large. 
 
 After, when he began to be upon the approaches of 
 his pretended design of the mine, and was come to Tri- 
 nidad, he fell sick in some extremity, and in doubt of 
 life (as was thought) at what time he was moved by some 
 principal persons about him, upon two points, in case 
 he should decease : the one, that he would nominate a 
 general to succeed him; the other, that he would give 
 some direction for prosecution of the action of the mine. 
 To the first he made answer, that his commission could 
 not be set over, and therefore left them to agree of that 
 among themselves: but for the mine, he professed he 
 could give them no direction ; and stayed not there, but 
 told them, there was another course (which he did par- 
 ticularize unto them to be a French commission) where- 
 by they might do themselves most good upon the Span* 
 iards. 
 
 When he was upon recovery, he dispatched the lord- 
 forces pretended or the mine, and had designed captain 
 Saintleger to command in that expedition : but by reason 
 of Saintleger's infirmity at that time, he resorted to his 
 kinsman captain George Raleigh, who was his serjeant- 
 major ; in whose written commission which he gave 
 him, he was wary enough not to express the taking of 
 St. Thome, but only inserted a clause of commandment; 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 57 
 
 that they should in all things obey him, as they would do 
 to himself 'in person: yet in private directions and instruc- 
 tions, he did open himself to divers of his company, that 
 in case they should not receive some advertisement, that 
 the town was reinforced by new supplies of men (whereby 
 the enterprise might be of too great hazard for their 
 number) they should take the town first, telling them, 
 that the mine was but three miles distant short of the 
 town, and inferring (as Keymis expounded it afterward) 
 that it was in vain to meddle with the mine, except the 
 town were first taken, and the Spaniards chased ; for 
 that otherwise, they should but discover it, and work 
 it for the Spaniards; and when he had opened himself 
 thus far, some of his company, of the more intelligent 
 and- dutiful sort, did in plain terms turn it upon him, 
 setting before him, that the taking of the town, would 
 break the peace, and that they should go against the 
 commission: whereupon most falsely and scandalously 
 he doubted not with confidence to affirm, that he had 
 order by word of mouth from the king and his council, 
 to take the town, if it were any hindrance to the digging 
 of the mine. 
 
 But the event did sufficiently expound and manifest 
 the direction ; and yet that kind of interpretation little 
 needed, for that young Mr. Raleigh, (who was likest to 
 know his father's secret) when he led his soldiers upon 
 the town, used these or the like words, come on my hearts, 
 here is the mine that ye must expect, they that look for 
 any other mine, arejools ; and with this did well concur 
 that which followed, in the prosecution of the mine after 
 the town was taken; for this mine was not only imagi- 
 nary, but moveable, for that which was directed to be 
 three miles short of St. Thome, was after sought thirty 
 miles beyond St. Thome. 
 
 All this while Sir Walter stayed at Pont de Gallo, by 
 the space of some nine weeks, during which time it was 
 much noted by those that remained with him, that the 
 speech of the mine was dead, (whereas men in expect- 
 
i>8 THE LIFE OF 
 
 ationdo commonly feed themselves with the talk of that 
 they long to hear of;) nay, more, after he had received 
 news of the taking of the town, which had been the 
 riitcst time to pursue the enterprise of the jnine, (in re- 
 gard the town that might have been the impediment, 
 was mastered) he never entertained any such design, but 
 contrarywise, having knowledge at the same time, that 
 his son was slain, (who, as it seems, was his only care 
 among the land soldiers) he did move very inhumanly, 
 to remove not a little from Pont de Gallo to Port Her- 
 cule in respect of the danger of the current, (as he pre- 
 tended) but to go for the Caribees many leagues off; ac- 
 counting (as it seemeth) the land soldiers, but asfmgcs 
 consumere natos, and having his thoughts only upon sea- 
 forces, which how they should have been employed, 
 every man may judge. And whereas some pretence 
 is made him, as if he should leave some word at Pont de 
 Gallo of direction, to what place the land soldiers should 
 follow him ; it is plain, he knew them at that time so dis- 
 tressed for victual, as famine must have overtaken them, 
 before they could overtake him; at which time one of 
 his captains told him, that he had delivered out fifty-two 
 men to that service, which were then at the enterprise 
 on land, whose lives he held at a dear rate, and that he 
 would not weigh anchor, as long as he had a cable to 
 ride by, or a cake of bread to eat : so Sir Walter Raleigh 
 finding no consent it that which he propounded, that 
 cruel purpose was diverted. 
 
 It was also much observed, that after that unfortunate 
 return of Keymis, notwithstanding Sir Walter Raleigh 
 did publickly give out, that he would question him for 
 failing to prosecute the mine, he had him at dinner and 
 supper, and used him as familiarly and as kindly as 
 before. And to George Raleigh, the serjeant-major, to 
 whom he did use the like discountenances in public, 
 who took it more tenderly, and complained, and brake 
 with him about it; he did open himself more plainly, 
 telling him that he must seem to do as much as he did, 
 to give satisfaction. 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 59 
 
 After all this, when the prosecution of this imaginary 
 mine vanished and was defeated, and that his company 
 cast a sad eye homeward, finding they were but abused, 
 Sir Walter Raleigh called a council of his captains, and 
 held the same in his cabin, where he propounded to them, 
 that- his intention and design was, first, to make to the 
 Newfoundland, and there to revictual and refresh his 
 ships ; and thence to go to the Western Islands, and there 
 to lie in wait to meet with the Mexico-fleet, or to sur- 
 prise some caracs; and so having gotten treasure, which 
 might make him welcome into any foreign country, to 
 take some new course for his future fortunes, valuing 
 himself as a man of great enterprise, and fame abroad ; 
 but then and at divers times he did directly and openly 
 declare, that it was no coming for England, for that he 
 knew not how things would be construed, and that he 
 (for his part) would never put his head under the king's 
 girdle, except he first saw the great seal for his pardon. 
 
 At which time, his cogitations embracing east and 
 west, rather than any return into his country, he did in 
 particular make promise in a principal commander in 
 his company, to give him a ship to go into the East 
 Indies, if he would accompany him thither. But, ac- 
 cording to his first project, he went to the Newfoundland, 
 which he needed not to have done, if his purpose had 
 been for England, (for that he had victuals enough, and 
 to spare, for that journey), and there at Newfoundland 
 his other company having formerly dispersed and forsaken 
 him, his own company which was in his own ship began 
 likewise to mutiny. And although some old pirates, 
 either by his inciting, or out of fear of their own case, 
 were fierce and violent for the sea, and against the return, 
 yet the far greater number were for the return ; at which 
 time himself got a-land, and stood upon the sea-bank, 
 and put it to a question, whether they should return for 
 England, or land at Newfoundland ; whereupon there 
 was a division of voices, the one part to the starboard, 
 and the other to the larboard: of which that part which 
 
60 THE LIFE OF 
 
 was for the return for England, -was two parts of three, 
 and would by no means be drawn to set foot on land, 
 but kept themselves in the ship, where they were sure 
 they were masters ; which he perceiving, for fear of far- 
 ther mutiny, professed in dissimulation, that he himself 
 was for the return into England, and came and stood 
 among them that had most voices; but, nevertheless, 
 after that he despaired to draw his company to follow 
 him farther, he made offer of his own ship (which was 
 of great value) to his company, if they would set him 
 aboard a French bark. The like offer he made, when 
 he came upon the coast of Ireland, to some of his chief 
 officers there. 
 
 But about the time of his arrival upon the coast of 
 Ireland, the forcing and sacking of Saint Thome, and 
 the firing of the town, and the patting the Spaniards to 
 the sword, was noised abroad in all parts, and was by 
 special advertisement come unto the knowledge of the 
 Count De Gondomar, then ambassador for the king of 
 Spain with his Majesty, who thereupon prayed audienca 
 of his Majesty, and with great instance demanded jus- 
 tice against the persons and their goods (who had com- 
 mitted those outrages and made those spoils upon his 
 Majesty's subjects) according to his Majesty's promise, 
 and the treaty of peace. Whereupon his Majesty pub- 
 lished his royal proclamation for the discovery of the 
 truth of Raleigh's proceedings, and the advancement of 
 justice. Notwithstanding all which, his Majesty used 
 a gracious and mild course toward Sir Walter Raleigh, 
 sending down Sir Lewis Stukelcy, vice-admiral of the 
 county of Devon, to bring Sir Walter Raleigh in fair 
 manner, and as his health would give leave, by easy 
 journeys, to London. For about this time Sir Walter 
 Raleigh was come from Ireland to England, into the port 
 of Plymouth, where it was easy to discern with what 
 good will he came thither, by his immediate attempt to 
 escape from thence; for soon after his coming to Ply- 
 mouth, before he was under guard, he dealt with the 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 6l 
 
 Owner of a French bark, (pretending it was for a gen- 
 tleman a friend of his), to make ready his bark for a 
 passage, and offered him twelve crowns for his pains : 
 and one night he went in a little boat to have seen the 
 bark that should have transported him ; but the night 
 being very dark, he missed of the bark, and came back 
 again, nothing done ; wherein by the way appears, that 
 it was not any train laid for him by Sir Lewis Stukeley 
 or any other (as was voiced) to move or tempt him to an 
 escape, but that he had a purpose to fly and escape from 
 his first arrival into England. 
 
 But in this his purpose he grew to be more resolute 
 and fixed, after the lords of his Majesty's council, ob- 
 serving the delays in his coming up, had sent unto 
 Stukeley, some quick letters for the hastening thereof: 
 but thereupon, as his desire of escape increased, so did 
 the difficulty thereof increase also; for that Stukeley 
 from that time forth kept a better guard upon him, 
 whereof he took that apprehension insomuch as (knowing 
 Stukeley to be witty and watchful) he grew to an opinion 
 that it would be impossible for him to escape, except he 
 could win one of these two points; either to corrupt 
 Stukeley, or at least to gel to have some liberty, when 
 he came to London, of remaining in his own house ; 
 for guiltiness did tell him that upon his coming to Lon- 
 don, it was like he should be laid prisoner in the tower. 
 Wherefore he saw no other way, but in his journey to 
 London, to counterfeit sickness in such a manner, as 
 might in commiseration of his extremity, move his Ma- 
 jesty to permit him to remain in his own house, where 
 he assured himself ere long to plot an opportunity of an 
 escape : and having in his company one Mannourie, a 
 Frenchman, a professor of physic, and one that had many 
 chemieal receipts, he practised by crowns, and promised 
 fo draw him into his consort, the better to make faith of 
 his counterfeiting to be sick.- The story whereof Man- 
 nourie himself reporteth to have passed in this manner : 
 Upon Saturday, the 25th of July, Sir Walter Raleigh, 
 
 F 
 
£2 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Sir Lewis Stukelcy, and Mannourie went to lie at Mr. 
 Drake's, where the letters of commission from the privy 
 council were brought unto Sir Lewis Stukeley, by one 
 of his Majesty's messengers, which caused a sudden de- 
 parture, with much more haste than was expected 
 before : and the countenance of Sir Walter Raleigh was 
 much changed after Sir Lewis Stukeley had shewed the 
 commission ; fo Mannourie saw him from the stair-head, 
 (be -being alone in his chamber, the door standing half 
 open), how he stamped with his feet, and pulled himself 
 by the hair, swearing in these words, Gods wounds ! 
 is it possible my fortune should return upon me thus again ! 
 From Mr. Drake's they went on their journey to the 
 house of Mr. Horsey, distant from thence four miles, or 
 thereabout. It was iu that hour that Sir Walter Raleigh 
 began first to cause Mannourie to be sounded, what was 
 in his heart, by an old domestic of his, called Captain 
 King, who there began to discourse unto Mannourie of 
 the infortunity of his master, and among other things, 
 said thus, I -would we were all at Paris. To whom Man- 
 nourie answered, I would we were all at London ; aim! 
 what shall we do at Paris? Because, quoth King, that 
 as soon as we come to London, they will commit Sir Walter 
 to the Tower, and cut off his head: whereupon Man- 
 nourie answered, that he hoped better than so, and that 
 he was sorry for his ill fortune; and that according to 
 his small ability, he was ready to do him all honest ser- 
 vice he could, so it might be done without offence. 
 
 After dinner, it being Sunday, Sir Walter Raleigh 
 departed from Mr. Horsey's house, and went to Sher- 
 borne, and in the way when he came within view thereof, 
 turning to MaHnoune, and shewing him the place and 
 the territory about it, he said unto him, sighing, that all 
 that was his, and that the king had unjustly taken it 
 from him. He and Stukeley lay not at Sherborne, but 
 were invited to the house of old Mr. Parham ; Man- 
 nourie and their train went to lie at Sherborne, at the 
 sign of the Gcorgo. The next day, being Monday, tie 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 6*3 
 
 JFth of July, Mannourie went to them, and from thence 
 they took their way toward Salisbury, thirty-hve miles 
 from Sherborne; and arriving there, Sir Walter Raleigh 
 going on foot down the hill, addressed himself unto Man- 
 nourie, and asked him if he had any of his vomits or 
 other medicines; which he telling him that he had, he 
 prayed him to make one ready against the' next morning, 
 and to tell nobody thereof. / know, quoth he, that it 
 is giod for me to evacuate many bad humours, and by this 
 means I shall gain time to -work my friends, give order for 
 my affairs, and, it may be, pacify his Majesty before my 
 coming to London ; for I know well, that as soon as I 
 come there, I shall be sent to the Tower, and that they will 
 cut off my head, if I use no meatis to escape it ; which Ican- 
 not do, without counterfeiting to be sick, which your vomits 
 ■will effect without suspicio?u For which cause the same 
 evening, as soon as he arrived, he laid him down upon a 
 bed, complaining much of his head, and blaming his 
 great day's journey from Sherborne to Salisbury, (not- 
 withstanding he supped very well), but after supper he 
 seemed to be surprised with a dimness of sight, by a 
 swimming or giddiness in his head, and holding his hand 
 before his face, he rose from his bed, and being led by 
 the arm by Sir Lewis Stukeley, he staggered so, that 
 he struck his head with some violence against a post of 
 the gallery before his chamber, which made Sir Lewis 
 Stukeley think that he was sick indeed, in which belief 
 Man-sou rife left him for that time. 
 
 The next day, in the morning, he sent his lady his 
 wife, and most of his servants to London, and also Cap- 
 tain King; and Cuthbert and Mannourie, and Sir Lewis 
 Stukeley being in Stukeley's chamber, a servant of the 
 said Sir Walter, named Robin, came and told them that 
 his master was out of his wits, and that he was naked in 
 his shirt, upon all fours, scratching and biting the rushes 
 upon the planks, which greatly pitied Sir Lewis Stuke- 
 ley, who, rising in haste, sent Mannourie to him, who 
 when he came found him gotten again to. his bed, and 
 1-2 
 
64 THE LIFE OF 
 
 asking him what he ailed, he answered, he ailed nothing, 
 but that he did it of purpose. And Sir Walter Raieigh 
 asking him for his vomit, he gave it him, who made no 
 hones, but swallowed it down incontinently : at which 
 time Sir Lewis Stukeley coming in, Sir Walter began 
 again to cry and rave: then Mannourie went out of the 
 chamber, and the vomit which he had given him was 
 an hour and a half before it wrought: but in the mean- 
 time Sir Walter Raleigh began to draw up his legs and 
 arms all on a heap, as it had been in a fit of convulsions 
 and contractions of his sinews, and that with such vehe- 
 mence, that Sir Lewis Stukeley had much ado, with 
 the help of others, to pull out strait, sometimes an arm, 
 sometimes a leg, which, against all the strength they 
 had, he would draw up again as it was before; whereat 
 the said Sir Lewis Stukeley took great compassion, 
 causing him to be well rubbed and chafed, which Sir 
 Walter Raleigh himself afterward told unto Mannourie, 
 laughing that he had well exercised Sir Lewis Stukeley, 
 and taught him to be a physician. 
 
 This lained fit being thus past, Sir Walter Raleigh 
 called Mannourie, and when he came, he prayed him 
 to stay by him, and said he would take some rest. 
 Mannourie shut the door, and being alone with him, Sir 
 Walter Raleigh told him, that his vomit had done nothing 
 as yet, and said that he would take another more violent; 
 but Mannourie assuring him, that without doubt it 
 would work, he contented himself, and asked Mannou- 
 rie if he could invent anything that might make him 
 look horrible and loathsome outwardly, without offend- 
 ing the principal parts, or making him sick inwardly. 
 Mannourie studied a little, and then told him, that he 
 would make a composition presently, of certain things, 
 which would make him like a leper from head to foot, 
 •without doing him any harm, which at his entreaty he 
 effected speedily; at which time Sir Walter Raleigh 
 gave him the reason why he did it, telling him that his 
 being in. that case would make the lords of the council 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 65 
 
 afraid to come near him, and move them with more pity 
 to favour him. Soon after that, Mannourie had put 
 this composition upon his brow, his arms, and his breast, 
 Sir Lewis Stukeley came into the chamber, and Man- 
 nourie went away, and Sir Lewis Stukeley perceiving 
 the places where Mannourie. had put this composition 
 to be all pimpled, his face full of great blisters of divers 
 colours, having in the midst a little touch of yellow, and 
 round about like a purple colour, and all the rest of 
 his skin as it were inflamed with heat, he began to ap- 
 prehend the danger of the disease, that it was contagious, 
 and being very much astonished at the sudden accident 
 he asked Mannourie what he thought thereof; but Man- 
 nourie judged it fit to conceal it from him at that time, 
 seeing Sir Walter Raleigh had not yet told him, that he 
 meant to fly out of England, but that it was only to gain 
 time to satisfy his Majesty. 
 
 Upon Mannourie's uncertain answer to Sir Lewis 
 Stukeley, touching Sir Walter Raleigh's malady, Stuke- 
 ley resolved to go to my lord bishop of Ely, now of Win- 
 chester, to relate unto him in what case Sir Walter Ra- 
 leigh was, and brought unto Raleigh two physicians to 
 see and visit him ; who being come, could tell nothing 
 of what humour the said sickness was composed. There 
 came also a third, a bachelor in physic, who all could 
 not by all that they could do, discover the disease; only 
 they gave their opinion and advice, that the patient could 
 not be exposed to the air, without manifest peril of his 
 life, and thereof they made their report in writing, unto 
 "which Mannourie also set his hand. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh seeing that all these things fell out 
 according to his intention, was exceedingly contented 
 thereat, especially that in the presence of the said phy- 
 sicians the vomit began to work both upward and down- 
 ward. And because he doubted that the physicians 
 would ask to see his water, he prayed Mannourie to do 
 something to make it seem troubled and bad ; which to 
 content him (giving him the urinal into his bed) Man- 
 
 r3 
 
66 THE LIFE OF 
 
 nourie rubbed the inside of the glass with a certain drug, 
 which as soon as he had made water therein, the urine, 
 even in the hands of the physicians, turned all into an 
 earthy humour, of a blackish colour, and made the 
 water also to have an ill savour, which made the phvsi- 
 cians judge the disease to be mortal, and without remedy 
 but from heaven. 
 
 He made Mannourie also to tie his arms about with 
 black silk riband, which he took from his poniard, to 
 try if it would distemper the pulse, but that succeeded 
 not, as he thought it would. The day following he 
 called Mannourie, and prayed him to make some more 
 such blisters upon him, as upon his nose, his head, his 
 thighs, and his legs; which Mannourie having done, it 
 succeeded according to his desire, for which ha was very 
 jocund and merry with Mannourie, and said unto him, 
 that the evacuation which his physic had caused, had 
 so opened his stomach, that he was exceeding hungry, 
 and prayed Mannourie that he would go and buy him 
 some meat secretly; for, quoth he, jf I eat -publicly, it 
 "will be seen that I am not sick: so, according to his re- 
 quest, Mannourie went to the White Hart in Salisbury, 
 and bought him a leg of mutton and three loaves, which 
 he ate in secret, and by this subtilty it was thought that 
 lie lived three days without eating, but not without 
 drink. This he continued until Friday, the last of July, 
 seeming always to be sick in the presence of company • 
 and nevertheless, being alone, he writ his declaration or 
 apology, and prayed Mannourie to transcribe it, which 
 was since presented to his Majesty. 
 
 The same evening Sir Lewis Stukeley discoursing upon 
 his sickness, and whence it should proceed, Sir Walter 
 said in these words, as God save me, I think I have taken 
 poison Mere I lay the night before I came to this town : I 
 know that Mr. Parham is a great lover of the King of 
 Spain, and a papist, and that he keeps always a priest in 
 his house ; but I will not have any of you to speak of it ; 
 nor you, Monsieur, (quoth he) speaking to Mannoure, 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 67 
 
 Also, Sir Walter Raleigh, his chamber doors being 
 shut, walked up and down, and only Mannourie with 
 him, there naked in his shirt, and took a looking-glass, 
 and looking upon the spots in his face, whereat he took 
 great pleasure, and laughing, said unto Mannouiie 
 these words, we shall laugh well one day, for having thus 
 cozened and beguiled the king, his council, and the physi- 
 cians, and the Spaniards and all. 
 
 Upon the Saturday that his Majesty arrived at Salis- 
 bury, which was the 1st of August, Sir Walter Raleigh 
 desired to speak with Mannouiie. in secret, and seemed 
 to have a very great apprehension of something, and 
 having made him shut the doors, prayed him to give him 
 a red leather coffer, which was within another coffer, 
 which when he had, he was a good while looking in it, 
 and then called Mannouiie, and putting nine pieces of 
 Spanish money of gold into his hand, he said thus: 
 There is twenty crowns in pistolets, which I give you for 
 your physical receipts, and the victual you bought vie; 
 and I will give youjifty pound a-year, if' you will da that 
 which I shall tell you ; and if it happen that Sir Lewis 
 Stukelcy do ask you what conference you had with me, tell 
 him that you comfort me in mine adversity, and that I 
 make you no other answer than thus, as is here xvrittcn, 
 which he had already written with his own hand in a 
 little piece of paper for Mannourie's instruction, as i'ul- 
 loweth : 
 
 Vela M. Mannourie I'acceptance de tout mes travaus, 
 pertie de mon estat, $■ de monfds, mes maladies, fy doleurs. 
 Vela Uejfect de mon confidence au roy. Which paper, of 
 Raleigh's hand-writing Mannourie produced. 
 
 And now Sir Walter Raleigh began to practice with 
 Mannourie, and to tell him that he would fly and get 
 himself out of England, and that if Mannouiie would 
 Ktld him in his escape, it was all in his power, and that 
 ■•a- Lewis Stukeley trusted in nobody but Mannourie ; 
 whereupon Mannourie made him an overture, that at 
 his coming to London he should keep himself dost in u 
 
68 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 friend's house of Mannourie's in Shire-lane in London, 
 ^'hereunto he seemed to incline, and found Mannourie'sj 
 advice good for awhile; but in the end he told hira, 
 that he was resolved otherwise, and that he had already- 
 sent Captain King to hire him a bark below Gravescnd, 
 which would go with all winds, and another little boat 
 to carry him to it; For, quoth he, to hide myself in. 
 London, I should be always in fear to be discovered by the 
 general searches that are there; but to escape, I must get 
 leave to go to my house, and being tflere, 1 will handle the 
 matter so, that I will escape out if the hands of Sir Lewis 
 Stukelcy by a back door, and get me into the boat; for 
 nobody will doubt that I can go on foot, seeing me so 
 feeble as I seem to be. And then Raleigh having mused 
 awhile, without speaking, Mannouiie asked him, -Sir, 
 wherefore will you fly ? Your apology, and your last de- 
 claration, do not they justify you sufficiently? Then all 
 in choler, Raleigh answered him in English thus : Never 
 tell me more, a man that fears is never secure ; which 
 fashion of his put Mannourie to silence for that time. 
 
 Now there rested nothing but his Majesty's licence, 
 to permit him to go to his own house, without which, 
 he said, he could not possibly escape. This licence was 
 after granted him by the means of Mr. Vice-chaml er- 
 lain and Mr. Secretary Naunton; which being obtaiied, 
 Mannourie took occasion to say to him, that hereby one 
 might see, that his Majesey had no meaning to take his 
 life', seeing that he suffered him to go to his own house to 
 recover his health. No, quoth Raleigh, they used all 
 these kinds of flatteries, to the Duke of Byron, to draw 
 htm fairly to the prison, and then they cut off his head ; 
 I know that they have concluded among them, that it it 
 expedient that a man should die, to reassure the traffic 
 which I have broken in Spain. And thereupon brake 
 forth into most hateful, and traiterous words against the 
 King's own person, ending in a menace and bravery, 
 that if he could save himself for that time, he would plot 
 such plots as should make the king think himself happy to 
 
 ■ 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 6Q 
 
 setidfor him again, and render him his estate with advan- 
 tage ; yea, and force the King of Spain to -write into 
 England in his favour. 
 
 Mannourie at that time did ask him farther, if he 
 escaped, what should become of Sir Lewis Stukeley? 
 and whether he should be put to death for him or nut, 
 and whether he should lose his office and estate? Not 
 to death, quoth Raleigh, but he will be imprisoned for a- 
 while, but his lands the Icing cannot have, for that they are 
 already assuied to his eldest son ; and for the rest, it was 
 no part of his care. Mannoarie farther asked him, if it 
 were not treason in himself to be aiding to his <_scapc ? 
 No, quote he, for that you are a stranger ; nevertheless, 
 you must not be known of any thing, J or then you will be 
 sure to be put in prison. In conclusion, Mannourie de- 
 manded of him yet farther, but what if it be discovered, 
 that I had any hand in your escape ? Why, quoth he, 
 follow me into France, (that is your count ry, ) and quit all, 
 and J will make you amends for all. 
 
 After, Raleigh went on his journey to Andover, and 
 so to Hartford-bridge, and from thence to Staines, 
 during which time Sir Lewis Stuke'ey being mack' ac- 
 quainted by Mannourie with Raleigh's purpose to es- 
 cape, used extraordinary diligence in guards and watches 
 upon him; which Raleigh perceiving, said to Mannou- 
 rie, at Staines, I perceive well it is not possible for me to 
 escape by our two means alone, Stukeley is so watchful, and 
 sets such strait guard upon me, and will be too hard for us, 
 for all our cunnings ; therefore there is no way but to 
 make him of our counsel; and if we can persuade Kim to 
 let me save mysef, I will give him in hand two hundred 
 pounds sterling worth ; and thereupon drew forth a jewel, 
 and shewed it to Mannourie, and gave it into his hand, 
 made in the fashion of hail powdered with diamonds, 
 with a ruby in the midst, which he valued at a hundred 
 and fifty pounds sterling, and said, beside this jewel, he 
 shall have fifty pounds in money ; 1 pray you go tell him 
 
70 THE LIFE OF 
 
 so from me, and persuade him to it, I blow he will trust 
 you. 
 
 Mannourie went presently to Stukeley, and told him 
 as before, and concluded with him, that Mannouria 
 should report back to Raleigh, that he would accept of 
 his offer, and bade him tell Raleigh also, that he was 
 content to do as he desired; but he would chuse rather 
 to go away with him, than to tarry behind with shajne 
 and roproach ; and he bade Mannourie ask him farther, 
 how he thought he could do this, without losing his 
 office of vice-admiral, which cost him six hundred 
 pounds, and how they should live afterward ; and to 
 what place they should go, and what means he would 
 carry with him, to furnish this intended escape ; which 
 Mannourie did, and was answered by the said Raleigh, 
 and prayed to tell Stukeley, that if he would swear unto 
 him not to discover him, he would tell him his whole 
 intent. And that for the first point, though Stukeley 
 should lose his office, yet he should be no loser upon 
 the matter; and for afterward, as soon as he was gotten 
 into France or Holland, his wife was to send him a thou- 
 sand pounds sterling, and that he carried with him only 
 a thousand crowns in money and jewels to serve for the 
 present in his escape. But after supper, Raleigh said 
 unto Mannourie, 1 if I could escape without Stukeley, 
 I should do bravely ; but it is no matter, said he, I'll carry 
 him along, and afterward I'll dispatch myself of him well 
 enough. And after, Mannourie relating all that had 
 passed to Stukeley, brought them together, at which 
 time Raleigh shewed the jewel to Stukeley; and he mak- 
 ing shew to be content, prayed him a little respite to 
 dispose of his office ; whereupon Mannourie seeing them 
 so accorded upon the matter in appearance, took his 
 leave of them to go to London. And in the morning 
 Mannourie upon the taking of his leave, said to Raleigh, 
 that he did not think to see him again while he was in 
 England; whereupon Raleigh gave him a letter directed 
 to Mrs. Herrys of Radford, that she should deliver him 
 
SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 71 
 
 an iron furnace with a distillatory of copper belonging 
 unto it, and charged him to tell every man he met, that 
 he was sick, and that he left him ii< an extreme looseness 
 that very night. 
 
 But Raleigh having formerly dispatched a messenger 
 to London, to prepare him a bark for his escape, oime 
 at last to London, and having won nis purpose, (by these 
 f Jtmer devices of feigned sickness) to be spared from im- 
 prisonment in the tower, and to be permitted to remain 
 at his own house, till his better recovery, there fell out 
 an accident, which gave him great hopes and encourage- 
 ment speedily to facilitate his intended design for escape. 
 For as he came on his way to London, in his inn at 
 Brentford, there came unto him a Frenchman named 
 La Chesnay, a follower of Le Clerc, last agent here for 
 Ins Majesty's dearest brother the French king; who told 
 him that the French agent was very desirous to speak 
 with him, as soon as might be after his arrival at Lon- 
 don, for matters greatly concerning the said Sir Walter's 
 weal and safety ; as in effect it fell out, that the very 
 next day after his arrival at London, the said-Le Clerc and 
 La Che.snay came unto him to his house, and there did 
 the said Le Clerc offer unto him a French bark, which 
 he had prepared for him to escape in, and with him 
 letters recommendatory for his safe conduct and recep- 
 tion to the governor of Calais, and to send a gentleman 
 expressly that should attend and meet him there ; to 
 which offer of his Raleigh after sumie questions passed, 
 finding the French bark not to be so ready, nor so fit as 
 that himself had formerly provided, gave him thanks, 
 and told him that he would make use of his own bark, 
 but for his letters, and the rest of his offer, he should be 
 beholden to him, because his acquaintance in France 
 was worn out. So passionately bent was he upon his 
 escape, as that he did not forbear to trust his life, and to 
 communicate a secret importing him so near, upon his 
 first acquaintance, and unto a stranger, whom he hath 
 sines confessed that he never saw before. And thus after 
 
72 THE LIFE, &C. " 
 
 two nights stay, the third night he made an actual aV. 
 tempt to escape, and was in boat toward his ship, but 
 was by Stukeley arrested, brought back, and delivered 
 into the custody of the lieutenant of the tower. 
 
 For these his great and heinous offences, in acts of 
 hostility upon his Majesty's confederates, depredations, 
 and abuses, as well of his commission, as of his Ma- 
 jesty's subjects under his charge, impostures, attempts 
 of escape, declining his Majesty's justice, and the rest, 
 evidently proved or confessed by himself, he had made 
 himself utterly unworthy of his Majesty's farther mercy ; 
 and because he could not by law be judicially called in 
 question, for that his former attainder of treason is the 
 highest and last work of the law (whereby he was civiliter 
 mortuus) his Majesty was inforced-(except attainders 
 should become privileges for all subsequent offences) to 
 iesolve to have him executed upon his former attainder, 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 Knevett, Arliss, and Baker, Printers, 
 Bartholomew Close.