 Section 1 of Life of Sir Walter Raleigh. It is not always the men who have done most round whom the most interest gathers. There are some men whose individual character has had such force that the impression which they produced on those amongst whom they live has been handed down to the generations that have come after, and they have been remembered more for what they were than for what they did. The secret of the fame gained by such men lies in the fact that they have summed up in themselves some phase of human thought, or the tendencies of an age full of varied enterprise, or perchance of given the impulse which first directed human activity into a new channel. It is amongst such men that we must rank Sir Walter Raleigh. He is one of those who were great rather for what they were than for what they did. And this is not because he did nothing. On the contrary, he did so many things that we should find it hard to say in which part of his career he showed the greatest eminence, but the interest attaching to him will always lie in this, that he exhibits the tendencies of a great age, of an age when men were stirred to new vigor by a sudden burst of intellectual life. The men who gathered round Elizabeth were great in many ways, great estatesmen, soldiers, sailors, explorers, poets, and scholars. There was plenty of work for them all to do, and Elizabeth knew how to incite them to do it. She could put the right man in the right place, and make him do his best there. She made herself one with her people, and the secret of her strength lay in the fact that they felt she had made their interests hers. The people gathered round their queen, and in the dangers which threatened queen and people from without they learnt a new sense of national unity. To study Raleigh's character is to study the tendencies of his age. There was no field of activity then open to men into which he did not enter. There was no work undertaken in which he did not share. In an age remarkable for its varied forms of intellectual vigor, he represents with wonderful many-sidedness the different interests which then absorbed men's minds. Moreover whilst sharing so busily in the present, he looked on to the future and discerned the way in which his country could grow in wealth and power beyond what anyone at that time dreamed of as possible. Raleigh's mind delighted in far-reaching schemes, envious of the wealth gained by Spain from her colonies he wished to see his own country benefited in the same way. He realised the advantages that England would gain by planting offshoots of her power in the new countries with seemingly infinite resources which were being opened up to commerce. He saw that the position of England and the character of her people eminently fitted her for the work of extending her power into distant lands. He never ceased to urge this upon his countrymen. He spent all his own possessions and his own health and strength in doing what he could to help the first beginnings of colonisation. He gave the first impulse to the work which was afterwards carried out by others and which has helped so much to make the England of today. End of Section 1 Section 2 of Life of Sir Walter Raleigh by Louise Creighton. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Pamela Nagami. Chapter 1 Walter Raleigh's Youth Whilst Walter Raleigh was a boy, England was passing through years of great importance to her history. Even in his quiet Devonshire home there must have been much talk of what was going on in the outer world, of the Spanish marriage of Queen Mary, of the religious persecutions, of the new hope which filled men's minds at the accession of Elizabeth, of these and such like things he must have heard his elders talk, but we know nothing of the immediate influences which affected his boyhood. He was born at the Manor House of Hayes near Budley in the east of Devon in the year 1552. That of the house still stands and is now used as a farmhouse, a picturesque old place, with three gables, heavily mullioned windows, and a thatched roof with deep eaves surrounded by tall hedges and wooded hills. The Raleigh's were a good old family, but neither very rich nor very powerful. Walter's father, also called Walter, had been thrice married. Walter was the second son of the third wife, Catherine Champernoun. She had been married before, and her sons, Humphrey and Adrian Gilbert, Walter Raleigh's half-brothers, were in after years his associates in his schemes of adventure and discovery. Their names are remembered amongst the bravest of English seamen in the days of Elizabeth. Devon produced most of the bold sailors of those times, and its ports were filled with shipping and crowded with mariners returning from distant voyages, ready to tell long tales of their wondrous adventures. This cannot have been without influence upon the young Walter, for his home was not far distant from the sea. We can picture him as a boy, watching with delight the busy sir of the seaport towns, and listening with breathless interest to the sailor's talk. Sometime in 1566 when he was fourteen years old, Raleigh went to Oxford to study at Oriole College. Under Henry VIII much had been done for the improvement of Oxford, and the spirit of the new learning had given its studies fresh life. Erasmus and Colette had introduced the study of Greek, and Woolsey's magnificent foundation of the Great College of Christchurch had given a fresh encouragement to learning. Under Mary, however, learning had again decayed, to be once more revived, in the burst of new life and energy which greeted the accession of Elizabeth. Elizabeth herself was a fairly good scholar, and watched over the universities with fostering care. Just before Raleigh went to Oriole, Elizabeth had visited Oxford in state, and we are told that her visit stirred up the scholars to follow their studies with Newseal. She was met outside the city gates by the chancellor and doctors of the university, and was greeted by a flood of speeches in Greek and Latin. To one of these made in Greek, she answered after a show of bashfulness in the same tongue. The next day was Sunday, and after going to church, in the afternoon a Latin play called Marcus Gaminis was acted before her. Puritan feeling was not yet strong enough to make such an amusement to peer a profanation of the Sabbath. For four days the queen stayed at Oxford, and spent her time in visiting the colleges, listening to speeches, talking kindly to the students, and advising them as to their work. In the evenings the scholars acted before her and greatly pleased the queen and her courtiers. Raleigh himself came to Oxford just too late to see the queen, but no doubt he found the students still talking of her gracious behavior and of the kind words with which she had bidden them to vote themselves to their studies. He seems to have distinguished himself by the eagerness with which he studied and the rapid progress he made. We know as few particulars of his college life as we do of his early youth. Lord Bacon tells us one story about him. He writes, There was in Oxford a cowardly fellow that was a very good archer. He was grossly abused by another and moaned himself to Sir Walter Raleigh. Then a scholar and asked his advice what he should do to repair the wrong that had been offered him. Raleigh answered, why challenge him to a match of shooting. Raleigh left Oxford without taking a degree and went in 1569 to France that he might serve his apprenticeship in arms. By this time Protestantism had become a real power in Europe. The question which each nation had to decide in the midst of its internal struggles was which side it should take as a nation in the great conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism. In France the first struggles between the Huguenot as the Protestants were there called and the Catholics had been brought to a close by the Edict of Amboise, March 19, 1563. But in 1567 the Huguenot rose again. They were alarmed by the successes which Alva, the General of Philip II, King of Spain, the most bigoted champion of Catholicism in Europe, had gained over their Protestant brethren in the Netherlands. Their first attempt was a failure and for a time there was again peace. But in 1568 Alva offered to help the French King to put down the Huguenot and war begun once more. The Huguenot were aided in the struggle by the Protestants in the Netherlands and in Germany and Queen Elizabeth sent the money. Elizabeth would not just then venture an open war. Her own position was not strong enough for that. In France and the Netherlands for the time Catholicism was triumphant. At home Elizabeth was hampered by the presence of Mary Queen of Scots who had in May of 1568 fled over the border to seek safety in England from her own subjects. Elizabeth stood alone as the champion of Protestantism and her first care necessarily was not to endanger her own position. Still she was willing to help the Protestants as far as she could. She allowed her subjects, on their own responsibility, to fit out ships to attack Philip II in his own waters, plunder his vessels and even his colonies and bring home from the Spanish main great store of booty. She did not interfere to prevent bands of English volunteers joining the Huguenot forces in France. Raleigh went to France with one of these bands of gentlemen volunteers. He was present at the disastrous defeat of the Huguenot at Mancantour and must have seen much hard fighting both then and afterwards when the Huguenot in spite of defeats continued their stubborn resistance. They gained no successes, but they showed that they were too strong to be crushed and got good terms from the king at the peace of Saint Germain, 1570. How Raleigh spent the next few years we do not know. He stayed in France amongst the Huguenot till 1575 or 1576, sharing probably in the dusseltory fighting that went on from time to time. Peace between the Huguenot and Catholics never lasted for long and the terrible massacre of the Huguenot on Saint Bartholomew's Day, August 24, 1572, made a lasting peace more impossible than ever. After he came back from France Raleigh lived for a while in London. He made friends with many of the gay noblemen who crowded to Elizabeth's court, but he does not seem at this time to have frequented the court or drawn upon himself the notice of the queen. He was much interested in the schemes of colonization put forth by his half-brother Humphrey Gilbert. Humphrey Gilbert was one of the first to maintain that the love of adventure which was leading so many Englishmen to cross the Atlantic might be guided to some better purpose than merely the annoyance of the Spaniards and the acquisition of plunder. Gilbert saw what England might gain by planting colonies in some of those wondrously productive and fertile lands which he had visited on the other side of the Atlantic and how new openings to peaceful trade might in this way be found. Raleigh who was to do more than any other man of his time to encourage colonization from the first did all in his power to aid his half-brothers' plans. In June 1578 Queen Elizabeth granted Gilbert a charter to discover and possess any distant lands which did not as yet belong to any Christian ruler. He was to plant a colony which he was to hold under the Queen of England. Many gentlemen and Raleigh amongst the number joined Gilbert in his enterprise and he got together a fleet of eleven ships which carried five hundred gentlemen and sailors. But from the very first the same causes of failure showed themselves that ruined so many kindred enterprises. There was no central authority strong enough to control the fleet. Each of the gentlemen who had joined it wished to have his own way. The sailors were for the most part criminals who took to the sea to escape from justice, free living adventurers who cared only for piracy and objected to all rule and order. With such materials it was hard to persevere through all the hardships and difficulties which must attend such an undertaking as Gilbert's. Some of the ships separated from the fleet immediately on leaving Plymouth. Then new disputes arose. Gilbert wanted to go at once to the North American coast to plant his colony. Most of the others wished to begin by attacking and plundering the Spanish colonies. Gilbert was obliged to yield. On the way they met some Spanish ships, as always a battle followed, for though Elizabeth and Philip II might be nominally at peace, on the ocean at least there was ceaseless war between their subjects. In this struggle the English ships were worsted. The ships and the spirits of the men suffered so much by this discomforture that at last Gilbert to his bitter disappointment was obliged to give up the whole undertaking and return to England. He reached Plymouth in May 1579, just eight months after he had left it, having spent all his money in this futile attempt. How far the fleet actually got during these eight months and what Raleigh saw on his first cruise we have no means of knowing. For a time his mind was turned away from schemes of colonization to other interests. He was now twenty-seven years old and had already seen much of life. His daring love of adventure had already shown itself and that strong hatred of Spanish power and influence which inspired his whole life had taken root. After this we know more of the details of his life, for he began to draw men's attention upon him. Of these first twenty-seven years we know only the dim outlines. When he first comes clearly before us he comes as the fully formed man with strongly marked characteristics and well-defined tastes and interests. CHAPTER II Raleigh's restless spirit did not allow him to remain long quiet after his return from Sir Humphrey Gilbert's unfortunate expedition. In the beginning of fifteen-eighty we find him leading a company of a hundred men into Ireland to aid in the seemingly hopeless task of putting down the rebels. Ireland was at that time in a most disturbed condition. Never since the country had been first conquered in the days of Henry II had order been made to prevail over the land. The efforts of the English rulers had soon been confined to the attempt to keep some order within the English pale as the district immediately round Dublin was called. About the pale the native chiefs and the descendants of the Norman barons who had settled there when the island was first conquered kept up a continual warfare for supremacy. The Norman families had adopted the manners and customs of the native Irish and were as wild and uncivilized as they. Henry VII had tried to introduce some order, but he had hoped to persuade the most powerful of the native chiefs to own his authority by putting the government into their hands. The result naturally was that the English influence grew weaker than ever. Henry VIII could not rest content with such a state of things. He wished to make his power felt in the country by a firm and vigorous government and at the same time to win over the turbulent chiefs and make them adopt English civilization and order by seeing its advantages. This policy might in the end have met with success, but one great cause of the continual disorders in Ireland has been that no one policy has ever prevailed long enough to accomplish anything. The even advance of the firm though conciliatory policy of Henry VIII was disturbed by the reformation. As a matter of course, he introduced the same ecclesiastical changes into Ireland as he had introduced into England regarding both countries as politically one. No violent opposition was raised in Ireland either to the royal supremacy or to the dissolution of the monasteries, but when it came to changes in matters of doctrine the case was different. The spirit of the reformation had not influenced Ireland at all. The people clung to the old faith all the more vehemently because of the attempts made to force the new religion upon them. Religion was identified with patriotism and Protestantism and the English rule were regarded with equal hatred by the turbulent Irish chiefs. In Mary's days of course the attempt to force Protestantism upon the Irish was laid aside, but it was taken up again under Elizabeth and the religious question increased the difficulties of the Irish problem. There was no religious persecution, but it suited Philip II and the Catholic Party in Europe generally to suppose that there was and so to use Ireland as ground from which Elizabeth's power might easily be attacked. No means seemed more likely to bring order and civilization into Ireland than to encourage its colonization by English settlers. With this view confiscated estates in Ireland had been continually granted to Englishmen, but it was very difficult to get them to live on their estates and it could hardly be expected that they would do so unless some means existed to defend them from the turbulence of the native Irish. To maintain order in the country the presence of a large body of well-trained troops was necessary. This of course involved expense, and expense was the one thing which Elizabeth most dreaded. Economy was her passion, and though the result proved that her economy was most useful for the final good of England, yet at the time it often seemed to throw hindrances in the way of the wisest schemes of her servants. In Ireland especially, want of the necessary money prevented again and again the deputies from carrying out the steps necessary to subdue the rebels and introduced order. Of Elizabeth's deputies in Ireland none was so successful as Sir Henry Sidney, the father of Sir Philip Sidney. He took the office unwillingly, and in his efforts to do his duty as deputy he met with little encouragement from Elizabeth who on the contrary seemed always to throw hindrances in his way. He was at last successful in destroying the power of Shane O'Neill, a great chieftain who had done more than any other to endanger the English rule in Ireland, and who had ruled as an independent prince in the northwestern portion of the island. Elizabeth had clung to the hope that he might be won over to be a faithful subject and that she would be spared the expense necessary to subdue him. At last she was persuaded to allow vigorous measures to be adopted. O'Neill's entire overthrow and subsequent death gave Ireland some years of comparative peace, but soon new causes of disturbance began to appear in the south, in Munster, where a ceaseless feud raged between the two powerful houses of Desmond and Ormond. Elizabeth favoured the Earl of Ormond because he was a Protestant, and she hoped to find him a useful servant in Ireland. The Earl of Desmond had been dragged into a rebellion against the English rule by the promise of aid from Philip II. A force of about seven hundred Spanish and Italian troops had landed at Schmerich, in Cary, and there on the shore built a fort to which they gave the name Deloro. Jesuits were busy stirring up the people to revolt, and the whole country was in a ferment. This was the state of things which Raleigh found in 1580 when he landed at Cork with his force of a hundred men. He too had to suffer from Elizabeth's parsimony. We find him writing to the Lord Treasurer Burley, soon after his arrival, to complain that he had received no money to pay his troops and had been obliged to pay them out of his own private means. From the first Raleigh seems to have believed that nothing but the most vigorous measures and the most ruthless severity to the rebels would avail to bring order into Ireland. As it was, the Irish chieftains carried on a ceaseless war of pillage and spoliation against the English settlers. The English soldiers revenged their outrages whenever they could by worse crimes. There was no agriculture, no industry. All the resources of that fertile country were left undeveloped, and the English rule was once more seriously threatened by the great rebellion in the south under Desmond. Some months after his arrival in Ireland we find Raleigh at Cork, acting as one of the commissioners who tried and condemned to execution as a traitor, James, brother of the Earl of Desmond who had been captured in a chance skirmish. In August 1580 a new deputy, Lord Greater Wilton, arrived in Dublin. He was a stern and determined man and was by no means likely to shrink from severe measures. His first desire was to take the Fort of Del Oro, where a new force of Spanish and Italian soldiers had just landed. Their commanders did all they could to stir up the Irish to make still more extensive plans of rebellion. The English were in continual fear of the arrival of a more formidable Spanish force which they would be powerless to oppose on account of the small number of their troops. To destroy the Fort of Del Oro whilst it was still possible seemed the first thing needful. Raleigh was one of the captains who accompanied Lord Grey on his march dysmeric. It was a wild stormy autumn, but the severe weather and the hardships of the march did not destroy the courage of the soldiers nor the determination of their leaders. Whilst Grey attacked the Fort from the land, Sir William Winter attacked it from the sea. The Fort did not hold out for many days. Grey twice called upon the garrison to yield to mercy, but in vain. Raleigh was in the thick of the assault. On the three first days he led the attack and also on the last day when his troops managed to enter the castle and make a great slaughter. Then the garrison disparaged and hung out a white flag crying Misa Ricordia, Misa Ricordia. But Grey would hear of no treaty and of no mercy. And the garrison was forced to make an absolute surrender. Grey's own words in the dispatch which he sent to the English government best describe what followed. I sent straightway certain gentlemen, he writes, to see their weapons and armor laid down and to guard the munition and victuals that were left from spoil. Then put I in certain bands whose straightway fell to execution. There were six hundred slain, munition and victual, great store, though much wasted through the disorder of the soldiers, which in their fury could not be helped. It seems that no lives were saved except those of the officers of rank who were distributed amongst Grey's favorite officers that they might profit by their ransoms. The horrors of the massacre are a clear sign of the bitter hatred with which the English regarded the Spaniards in those days. It may seem hardly possible to find excuses for such cruelty. But we must remember how religious questions had irritated men's minds, how Jesuits in disguise plotted and schemed in England and Ireland, stirring up men's minds to disobedience and revolt against the government, even encouraging them to plot the assassination of their queen. In the excitement of their feelings, men believed the danger from Spain to be greater than it really was. They knew that the Spanish soldiers in Ireland and the Irish rebels themselves shrank from no outrage, however horrible, against the English. It was hardly to be expected that they themselves would treat the Spaniards leniently. It certainly seems strange to see a man like Raleigh, afterwards the refined courtier, the cultivated man of letters, engaged in such bloody work. It is only another sign amongst many how he entered into the busy life of those days in all its varied phases and gained experience of every kind. The fall of Deloro and the massacre of its garrison was a death blow to the hopes of the Irish rebels. Desmond was pursued by the Earl of Ormond, his hereditary foe, and Elizabeth's ally. His lands were wasted and pillaged, but he himself escaped pursuit for three years, when at last he was discovered hiding in a hobble and was murdered. After his active service at the siege of the Spanish fort, Raleigh was still employed in Munster, where in various skirmishes he had a great deal of severe fighting with the rebels. Munster was in a state of hopeless disorder, and Raleigh was disgusted with the inefficient means taken to bring about a better state of things. Active and clear-sighted, he was full of schemes for the better government of the province, but he and Lord Grey did not get on well together. Grey seems to have been jealous of Raleigh's abilities and unwilling to listen to the advice which Raleigh urged upon him in the tone of an equal rather than of an inferior. In December 1581 Raleigh was back again in England. He was not silent either to the Queen or to the Council about his views as to the State of Ireland and the inefficiency of the government there, but the suppression of the rebellion had cost large sums of money. Elizabeth was fearful of anything that might provoke another rebellion. Active resistance to the English rule was at an end for the time, but the condition of the country was no less miserable. Munster was utterly desolate. The corn had been burnt in the fields, the cattle had been slaughtered, the women and children burnt in their houses. Spencer thus describes the wretched condition of this part of the country. Notwithstanding that the same was a most rich and plentiful country, full of corn and cattle, yet ere one year and a half they were brought to such wretchedness as that any stony heart would have rude the same. Out of every corner of the woods and glens they came creeping forth upon their hands, for their legs would not bear them. They looked like anatomies of death, they spake like ghosts crying out of their graves, they did eat the dead carrions, happy where they could find them, yea and one another soon after, in as much as the very carcasses they spared not to scrape out of their graves, and if they found a plot of watercresses or shamrocks there they flocked as to a feast for a time, yet not able long to continue therewithal, that in short space there were none almost left, and most prosperous and plentiful country suddenly left void of man and beast. The power of the Desmond's was now at an end. Their lands, to the extent of half a million of acres, as sheeted to the crown, and were granted out to Elizabeth's favorites as a reward for their services. If these lands had now been regularly colonized and cared for by resident owners, the benefit to Ireland would have been great. The lands were very fertile and had great capabilities, but most of the owners were non-resident, and the colonization was irregular. Another golden opportunity for improving the state of Ireland was lost. Twelve thousand acres of this land was granted to Raleigh. He clearly realized the good that might come to Ireland from colonization, and the profits as the state might yield if carefully managed. He took care to get industry as tenants, importing some from Devonshire and Somerseture, and his lands were better cared for than most of those granted to Englishmen in Ireland. But Raleigh, too, was an absentee landlord. He paid occasional visits to his Irish estates, but his time went on, his varied pursuits and interests hindered him from giving much attention to them. In 1602 he sold nearly all his lands in Ireland to Richard Boyle afterwards Earl of Cork, in whose hands they became the most thriving estate in Ireland. It was on these lands that the first attempt at the cultivation of the estate was made. The colonists, whom Raleigh sent to Virginia, brought it back with them in 1596, and Raleigh, ever ready to profit by a new discovery, tried planting it first in Ireland, where it was to become such an important article of diet. End of Section 3 Section 4 of Life of Sir Walter Raleigh by Louise Creighton. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Pamela Nagami. Chapter 3 Raleigh at Court. Part 1 Before his return from Ireland Raleigh does not seem in any special manner to have attracted Elizabeth's attention. We do not know how he first won her favour, but in those days it was not difficult for any young man to gain access to the court. Once there a man's own wit and talents alone could gain him success. When Raleigh first appeared at court, Elizabeth was in her 48th year, but she had not lost her love of admiration. She was still as much a coquette as she had ever been, and demanded as imperiously as any young beauty the entire devotion of her courtiers. There must have been much tinsel and unreality about court life when Raleigh first made acquaintance with it. The personal devotion, which seemed natural enough when paid to a young queen of twenty-five, who was surrounded by difficulties and dangers, became absurd when directed to a woman of forty-eight. But exaggeration was the fashion, and no one could hope to get on at court who was not prepared to make believe at least by his words and actions that Elizabeth occupied the first place in his heart. To the courtiers their behaviour to the queen must have seemed a hollow mockery, a game which they were obliged to play, but which often became intolerably wearisome. We can well fancy how the gay young nobles who vied with one another in expressing their devotion and adoration to the queen must, when the restraint of her presence was removed, have laughed together at the heirs and graces of this faded beauty. Raleigh began his court life under the powerful protection of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. This man had long held the first place in Elizabeth's favour. He was said to have been born on the same day in the same hour as the queen. His appearance and manners were well fitted to charm her. She would have married him had she dared to marry a subject, and probably no other man ever touched her heart as he did. She called him her sweet robin and allowed him much influence in her counsels. She even forgave him what she regarded as an insult from any one of her courtiers and what in him was doubly bitter, his marriage with another. Leicester had twice married first Amy Robesart, whom he was suspected of having made away with, when he thought there was a chance of marriage with the queen. When this proved hopeless he married the Countess of Essex in 1578. The high position in which Leicester was placed necessarily made him unpopular and his arrogance did not tend to diminish his unpopularity. He was intensely ambitious and was willing to employ any means to gain his ends. It was said of him that he was prepared to poison or murder in some secret manner any man who stood in his way. Most likely he was suspected of more crimes than he actually committed, still it is true that at times people died most opportunely for his plans. He was supposed to have summoned a certain Dr. Giulio from Italy to instruct him in the art of poisoning and his victims appeared to die of natural causes. Leicester's person was handsome and commanding. His manners were polished and affable. He was no ruffian, but possessed an absolute command of temper and would have scorned to gain his ends by violence. His villainy was not that of the rough tootin, but of the astute and polished Italian. Such was the man who for some reason of his own was now willing to further Raleigh's interests at court. In his position as favorite, Leicester seems to have feared no rival, but in counsel he was continually met by the stubborn opposition of Burley. William Cecil, Lord Burley, was a man of very different stamp to Leicester. He was now sixty-two years of age, and since Elizabeth's succession, first as secretary, afterwards as Lord Treasurer, he had always been her chief advisor in state affairs. He was a prudent, cautious man who had the interests of his country sincerely at heart. He served his mistress with faithful devotion, which was never altered by the occasional harsh treatment which he met with at her hands. Elizabeth showed her wisdom very clearly in her choice of ministers, and she put great confidence in Burley. She respected his calm deliberate wisdom. She knew that in the main she and her secretary were of one mind in matters of politics, though her own caprice and temper often made her vent her wrath on him for the expression of views which her better judgment really approved. Burley himself had a high opinion of Elizabeth's capacities. He said of her that there was never so wise a woman born, for she spake and understood all languages, knew all estates and dispositions of all princes, and especially was so expert in the knowledge of her realm and estate, as no counselor she had could tell her what she knew not before. She had also so rare gifts as when her counselors had said all they could say, she would then frame out a wise counsel beyond theirs. There was never any great consultation, but she would be present herself to her great prophet and praise. To Burley it was intensely irritating to see how strong an influence might at times be exercised over the queen's mind by any one of the crowd of favorites who hovered round her throne. Raleigh introduced to the court by Lester must from the first have been an object of suspicion to the wise old minister. But Raleigh's appearance at court excited still more bitter feelings in the mind of another man who then occupied an important position about Elizabeth. This was Sir Christopher Hatton, now forty-two years of age, who had first of all attracted the queen's attention by his beautiful dancing at a mask in the temple. He was the one of all Elizabeth's favorites who seems to have been most sincere in his love for her. Many of his letters to her have come down to us. They are the letters of an ardent and successful lover to his mistress rather than those of a subject to his queen, and his love remained unchanged through his life. Elizabeth herself was extremely fond of him. Contrary to her custom with most of her favorites, she rewarded his devotion with one of the high offices of state, and appointed him Lord Chancellor. He was a conscientious and prudent man, and filled the office with credit. But no reward could make up to him for the loss of his mistress's love, and he saw himself with despair supplanted in her favor by Raleigh. Raleigh's natural gifts, his courage and strength of character, made him a formidable rival. Elizabeth was fully able to appreciate intellectual power, and a man who possessed ability as well as a fine person and an imperious manner, which grew soft and tender only to her, was sure to succeed with her. How rapid was Raleigh's progress in her favor may be judged by the fear and jealousy which he excited in Sir Christopher Hatton as early as October 25th, 1582, not a year after Raleigh's return from Ireland. Hatton was then away from court, and he commissioned Sir Thomas Henniege to bear a letter from him to the queen, and with the letter he sent three tokens. These were a little bucket which signified Raleigh whom the queen seems to have nicknamed water, a bodkin, and a book. Henniege had some little difficulty in finding a moment when Raleigh was not by to give the queen the letter and the tokens. He wrote to Hatton that she took them smiling, saying, There never was such another. She tried to fix the bodkin to her hair but it would not stay, and she gave it back to Henniege. After a while she read the letter with blushing cheeks and seemed to hesitate whether she should be angry or well pleased. She ended by sending a long message to Hatton veiled in the mysterious phraseology then fashionable. She said that if princes were like gods they would suffer no element so to abound as to breed confusion, and that Pecora Compe, her nickname for Hatton, was so dear unto her that she had bounded her banks so sure as no water, Raleigh, nor floods should be able to overcome them. As a token that he need fear no drowning she sent him a bird that brought the good tidings and the covenant that there should be no more destruction by water. But in spite of these and other reassuring messages Henniege ends by saying that water hath been more welcome than were fit for so cold a season. All this seems absurd when we think that Hatton was a man of forty-two and Elizabeth a woman of forty-eight, but his affection for her seems to have been sincere. Twice again as his jealousy of Raleigh increased did he send tokens and letters by Henniege to Elizabeth, and he is said to have died of grief for the loss of her love in fifteen ninety-one. There are many other striking figures about the court when Raleigh first made his appearance there, and many must have looked upon the new favorite with disgust and envy, but most men were too full of other thoughts to be much occupied with him just then. It was in that year that the Duke of Anjou came to Wu Queen Elizabeth, and all the world was busy with the festivities which were got up in his honor. This Duke of Anjou was the son of Henry II of France and Catherine de Medici, and was brother of Henry III, who then reigned over France. For some time there had been talk of a marriage between him and Elizabeth. When he came to England the Netherlands had just elected him as their sovereign, hoping that by this means they would gain the help of the King of France in their struggle for independence and religious freedom against Philip II of Spain. Once already in fifteen seventy-nine the Duke of Anjou had paid a flying visit to Elizabeth. The marriage negotiations then seemed to advance favorably, and filled many of Elizabeth's courtiers and advisers with alarm. Among others she asked the advice of Sir Philip Sidney on the point. He was the son of Sir Henry Sidney who had shown such wisdom in the management of Irish affairs, and nephew of Lester. He was the brightest ornament of the court, young, brave and accomplished, a poet and a soldier, one of the first writers of pure and elegant English prose, and what was rarest in those days, a noble and single-minded man without selfish ambition or personal aims. He now dared to speak out his mind to the Queen on the subject of the French marriage. He wrote her a long letter in which in the most earnest and outspoken manner he dissuaded her from a marriage with him whom he called the son of a Jezebel of our age. His language was unmeasured, and fear of the wrath which it might provoke probably made him absent himself from court for a time, but he was there again on the occasion of Anjou's second visit, and took part in the jousts and tournaments which celebrated it. CHAPTER III ELIZABETH really seems to have been very near marrying Anjou at one time, but though she professed to be very much in love with him, she can have been actuated only by motives of policy, by a hope that this marriage would strengthen her position against Spain. Anjou was twenty years younger than she. In person he was repulsive of puny stature with a face deeply marked by the smallpox and a swollen and distorted nose. His character was thoroughly despicable. Though ambitious he was mean and cowardly, although a bigot he had no deep convictions and played an utterly ignoble part in history. Yet Elizabeth coquetted with him and made love with him as though he had really touched her heart. He was treated with every mark of honor and of public respect. At one moment all seemed settled, and Elizabeth in the presence of her court, after a great festival, grew a ring from her finger and placed it on his. The opponents of the marriage were filled with alarm, but time passed on and nothing more was done. The Duke of Anjou spent three months in England in fruitless wooing and then had to go back to the Netherlands. Elizabeth showed great grief at his departure and herself went with him as far as Canterbury, where she parted with him with tears. She sent Lester with a splendid following of nobles to accompany him to Antwerp. Sydney and Raleigh were among the number, and fifteen vessels conveyed the Duke and his retinue to Vlessingen, where they were received by William the Silent, Prince of Orange, the great leader of the revolt of the Netherlands. On the seventeenth of February the Duke made his solemn entry into Antwerp. Splendid festivities followed, in the midst of which no doubt the English nobles found time to discuss deep and serious questions of politics with the great Netherlanders, who were maintaining so noble a struggle for liberty. Raleigh stated Antwerp some time after his English companions had departed. He had a special mission from the Queen to the Prince of Orange, and the young man must have learnt much from his intercourse with this great statesman. There was never again any prospect of Elizabeth's marriage with the Duke of Anjou. He behaved treacherously to the Netherlands by trying to set aside their liberties and make himself absolute ruler. He had to retire with ignominy after the failure of a perfidious attempt to seize Antwerp and died in Paris in 1584. After his return from the Netherlands Raleigh continued to rise in Elizabeth's favour, but she did not give him what would most have pleased his ambition and an active mind, some office in the state, in which his restless energy might have found occupation. It was not Elizabeth's custom to reward her favourites with such offices. Probably her wise ministers Burley and Walsingham exerted their influence in preventing her from so doing. Besides, she seems always to have been guided by her own better judgment in the choice of her ministers, and to have allowed herself to be influenced only by the sense of their fitness for the post to which they were to be appointed. She rewarded her favourites in a manner more harmful to the country at large than to her own administration or to the royal treasury. Her habit was to grant them monopolies, that is the exclusive right of buying and selling some particular article of trade. She gave Raleigh licenses for the export of broad cloths in four several years, and in 1584 she granted him the Farm of Wines, that is the sole right of granting licenses for the sale of wines throughout the kingdom. In 1585 he was appointed to the important office of Warden of the Stannery's. The Stannery's were the tin mining districts of Cornwall and Devon. The miners possessed special privileges. There were courts of the Stannery's in which all their disputes were judged. The Warden had to watch over their interests and sanction the regulations under which the mines were worked. Raleigh seems to have devoted much care to the duties of this office which was by no means an easy one. In 1587 Raleigh succeeded Hatton as captain of the Queen's guard. This gave him an important position about the court, and kept him constantly near the Queen's person. He received no pay but his uniform, the office being considered a sufficient reward in itself. The guard was composed of men chosen for their good looks, and the handsome uniforms in which they were dressed made them contribute greatly to the brilliancy of a court festival. Gorgeous liveries were greatly in fashion in those days. Each nobleman was waded upon at court by a troop of serving men in his own livery. The tilts and tournaments which were still the great amusement of the court gave the nobles plenty of opportunity for displaying their taste and fancy in dress. The courtiers rivaled one another not only in feats of arms, but also in the magnificence of the dresses in which they clothed their followers. Shows and pageants of all kind were in great favor. Queen Elizabeth was fond of making progresses through the country from the house of one noble to another, and each taxed his invention to discover some new way of amusing the Queen and her court. Elizabeth, though sparing in expenditure herself, liked her courtiers to be lavish in providing amusement for her. In 1583 she spent five days at Theobalds, Burley's country seat when Raleigh accompanied her. She was so pleased with the entertainment she received that she told Burley his head and his purse could do anything. Her own love of magnificence showed itself very greatly in her dress. In 1600 her wardrobe consisted of 1,075 dresses and mantles of different kinds without counting her coronation and parliamentary robes. Most of her dresses were embroidered all over with different devices, covered with jewels and adorned with lace of Venice gold and silver. She would appear first in a French dress, then in an Italian, changing the fashion of her dress every day. It was customary that the courtiers should make the Queen presents every new year. These, as a rule, consisted of articles for her personal adornment, either jewels or articles of dress. We find even the gentleman giving her embroidered silk petticoats and still stranger embroidered chemises of cambrick. Lawns and cambricks had only been brought into England in this rain and became exceedingly fashionable for ruffs and cuffs. These ruffs were one of the most monstrous fashions of the time. They were worn by men and women alike and were made of the finest lawn or cambrick. They were at least a quarter of a yard deep and were made to stick out stiffly round the neck, either by being starched or by being supported with an elaborate arrangement of wires. Stowe, a historian who lived at that time, says that he was held to be the greatest gallant or bow who had the deepest ruff and the longest rapier. At last Queen Elizabeth had to place grave-selected citizens at every gate to cut the ruffs and break the swords of all passengers if the former exceeded a yard wanting a nail in depth or the latter a full yard in length. The women distinguished themselves by their enormous farthinggales which were petticoats stuck out straight from their waists supported on structures of wicker. To make the structure more firm they stuffed it with rags, toe, wool and hair and the men stuffed out their breeches in the same way. The women covered their farthinggales with jewels and ornaments. The ruffs also were ornamented with embroidery and sometimes with gold and silver lace. Stubbs, a stern Puritan moralist of those days writes, the women seemed to be the smallest part of themselves, not natural women, but artificial women, not women of flesh and blood, but rather mommets, dolls, of rags and clouts compact together. Both men and women painted their faces and the bow wore jewels in their ears. Perfumes were exceedingly fashionable and perfumed gloves were introduced from abroad and became a favorite article of luxury. Raleigh, like the other courtiers, was fond of fine clothes and liked to show off his handsome person to good advantage. He was tall with a well-shaped but not too slender figure. He had a fine broad forehead and thick dark hair. His complexion was clear and ruddy but became bronzed and after years by his voyages in exposure to the sun and wind. He wore the pointed beard and mustache, then fashionable. His eyebrows, which were much arched and very strongly marked, gave his face a slightly scornful expression while his finely cut mouth showed decision and firmness. Several portraits of him still remain, in each of which he appears clothed with great magnificence and wearing many jewels for which he had a great fancy. A contemporary writer says that Raleigh's shoes were so protect with jewels that they were computed to be worth more than 6,600 gold pieces. In one of his portraits he wears a suit of silver armor and is richly adorned with diamonds, rubies, and pearls. Current gossip spoke much of his magnificence and of his favor with the Queen, but his haughty manners and his success at court did not tend to make him generally beloved. CHAPTER IV. Raleigh's First Schemes of Colonization. Part 1. The excitement of court life and his rapid rise in royal favor must have been very dazzling to a young man like Walter Raleigh, but the court did not absorb all his energies, and he continued to take part in Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Schemes of Colonization and to aid him as far as was possible. For some time the energies of English explorers had been devoted to the discovery of a northwestern passage to Cathay. About the wealth of this country of Cathay many wonderful stories had been told since the thirteenth century. It was a country to the northeast of China inhabited by an active and enterprising people. Some travelers had found their way thither by land and the wonderful stories they had told about the wealth which they had seen there had excited men's curiosity and stimulated their avarice. At last in the fifteenth century encouraged by the discoveries of Columbus men began to talk about the possibility of finding a northwestern passage by sea to Cathay. The first man who attempted this was Sebastian Cabot, who was the son of John Cabot of Anishin who came to Bristol as a merchant, and there, under the patronage of Henry the Seventh, engaged in voyages of discovery in the Atlantic. Columbus was at about the same time exploring the West Indies. John Cabot directed his great voyage of discovery in 1497, more northwards than did Columbus, and saw the mainland of America a year before Columbus first sighted it. After his death, Sebastian Cabot, his youngest son, who had been born at Bristol, carried on his father's schemes of exploration. Still in spite of the courage and energy of the English explorers they reaped no such rich fruits from their voyages to the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland as did the Spaniards in more southern regions. But Cabot was convinced as his father had been, that it would be possible to discover a new northwestern passage to Cathay and so open up a trade with that fabled land. His efforts to discover this passage failed as those of so many others have done since. Still men were not discouraged and others hoped for success where he had been unsuccessful. An attempt was also made to find a northeastern passage to Cathay. This led to the discovery by Richard Chancellor in 1553 of Archangel, the Russian port in the White Sea and the opening up of the trade with Russia. A company afterwards known as the Muscovy or Russia Company was founded by a charter of Queen Mary in 1555 to prosecute this trade, and much interest in Russia and its inhabitants was excited. Still no one had reached Cathay. Belief in its fabulous riches had this good result, that it enticed men to endure endless hardships and perils in their pursuit and led them to the discovery of new lands. It was desire to find the northwest passage which made Humphrey Gilbert first embark on his voyages. The scheme of finding out a passage to Cathay had been dropped for a time, but when he was only twenty-five years old Gilbert began to do all he could to revive it. At first he met with little encouragement, but in 1576 he published a discourse to prove a passage by the northwest to Cathay and the east Indies. This writing helped to fire Martin Frobisher with ambition. He undertook in all three voyages with this object and made many important discoveries in North America. Though Humphrey Gilbert had given the impulse to these voyages, he took no active part in them owing to disputes and jealousies amongst their organizers. His mind was in consequence directed to more useful schemes to those plans of colonization which we have seen him trying to carry out in 1578 with the aid of Raleigh and others. Since then the brilliant success of Drake's voyages had increased if possible the thirst for maritime adventure. On the 26th September 1580 Drake had sailed into Plymouth Harbor in the Golden Hind. He had been away three years and men had begun to despair of his return. When he came back everyone was filled with excitement at the story of his wondrous voyage, for he had sailed all round the world and returned laden with treasure which he had won from Spanish ships in Spanish waters. As England was then at peace with Spain these doings were no better than piracy, but in spite of the complaints of the Spanish ambassador Elizabeth took no steps to punish Drake. On the contrary, when he brought the Golden Hind to Depford she allowed him to entertain her on board at a splendid banquet and on that occasion knighted him for his great prowess. It is said that of the treasure brought home by Drake he was allowed to keep ten thousand pounds for himself whilst sixty thousand pounds in jewels and money was safely lodged in the tower. It is not strange that the wrath of the Spanish king Philip II was great at the loss of this treasure and at the insult offered to his power. Elizabeth affected to restrain, but in truth connived at the piratical expeditions of her subjects in the Spanish seas. English vessels sailed into Spanish ports in South America, plundered and burnt the ships lying in the harbors, and intercepted Spanish vessels bringing home treasure from the colonies. In all this the English ran terrible risks. If they failed they were treated as pirates as their queen was at peace with the Spanish king. They were killed without mercy or subjected to lingering tortures by the Spanish Inquisition. Still the gain was great enough to make men willing to face the risk and hatred to Spain was increased by the tales of the horrible sufferings inflicted upon English semen by the Spaniards. Elizabeth had difficulty in keeping the animosity of her subjects within bounds. She always hoped to prevent an open rupture with Spain or at least to put off as long as possible that in the meanwhile she might gain strength and increase her resources. Her policy was to play off France against Spain and to give enough help to the revolted Netherlanders to enable them to go on with their struggle so that Spain might be kept busy by them. In the meanwhile she allowed her subjects to help to fill her treasuries with Spanish gold so that she might have the means to prepare for the struggle if it should come. We have seen how some of the English semen were animated by a desire to discover a north-western passage to Cathay, others by hatred of the Spaniards and love of Spanish treasure, others again, though was yet only a small body, by a desire to found English colonies in America and so to open up a new trade which might be as profitable to England as the trade with New Spain was to the Spaniards. In 1583 Sir Humphry Gilbert made a second attempt to plant a colony in Newfoundland. He was not rich enough to undertake the expedition so will he at his own expense and so got others to share with him the risks and possible profits of the expedition. Raleigh contributed a vessel, the Bark Raleigh, and Gilbert sailed from Plymouth Harbor on the 11th of June 1583 with a little fleet of five vessels. Before leaving Gilbert received a letter from Raleigh who sent him a token from the Queen and anchor guided by a lady and conveyed to him her wishes for his welfare, adding that she desired him to leave his portrait for her. Gilbert had hardly left Plymouth when he was deserted by the Bark Raleigh on the plea of ill-health amongst the crew, which seems to have been only an excuse. The rest of the little fleet proceeded on their way. At first Gilbert seemed to meet with success, but his colony failed for the same reasons that so many other schemes of colonization failed in those days. The men were for the most part lawless adventurers, some of them, pirates and robbers. They wanted to make their fortunes at once. They lacked the perseverance, the industry, the patient endurance of hardships which alone can surmount the difficulties which beset the first planting of a colony. Everything went wrong, and at last the men clamored to be taken home. Gilbert was forced to consent and to abandon at least for a time his cherished scheme. He hoped to do a little in the way of exploring the coast on his way home and left one ship to carry the sick direct to England. Another of the ships struck on a rock and was lost with more than a hundred men. Then the rest of the men grew still more discontented and insisted on being taken home at once. Gilbert was in the smaller of the two ships left, a little vessel called the Squirrel of only ten tons burden. It was not thought to be seaworthy. Still he would not listen to any persuasions to leave it but answered, I will not forsake my little company going homeward with whom I have passed so many storms and perils. They met with very foul weather, but Gilbert kept up his spirits and when the other vessel the Golden Hind drew near the Squirrel cried out to its crew, we are as near to heaven by sea as by land. That night the Squirrel was on ahead when suddenly the crew of the Golden Hind saw her lights disappear and nothing more was ever seen or heard of Sir Humphrey Gilbert. The Golden Hind reached Falmouth on the 22nd September, some three months after the starting of the expedition. It was left to Sir Walter Raleigh to pursue his schemes of colonization alone. In March 1584 Elizabeth gave him a charter authorizing him and his heirs to discover and take possession of any lands not actually possessed of any Christian Prince. He and his heirs were to have the right of governing in perpetuity, any colony founded within the next six years. Raleigh did not turn his attention to the cold districts where Gilbert had tried to found his colony, he wished to explore more southern regions. He fitted out and dispatched two barks under captains Philip Amidus and Arthur Barlow, with orders to explore the coast north of Florida. The fertility of this district had been discovered some time before by the French. They had called it Carolina in honor of Charles IX and some French Uginot had tried to plant a colony there which had been destroyed by the Spaniards who massacred two hundred men, women and children. It was probably when engaged in the civil wars in France that Raleigh heard tell of the wondrous fertility of these lands and when he matured his schemes of founding a colony it was to this coast that he turned his attention. Amidus and Barlow had a very successful voyage of which they have left a narrative. As they drew near the coast they smelled so sweet and so strong a smell as if they had been in the midst of some delicate garden. For one hundred and thirty miles they sailed along the coast before they found an entrance. Then they landed on the island of Wolcoken, the southernmost of a group of islands in Pomlico Sound, and took possession of it in Queen Elizabeth's name. This island was so full of grapes that the very beating and surge of the sea overflowed them. The vines covered the ground everywhere and climbed toward the tops of high cedars. The island had also many goodly woods, full of deer and hares. The trees were chiefly cedars and all manner of spice-bearing trees. After three days some of the natives appeared and one came on board the ship willingly and without any fear. The next day many more came, very handsome and goodly people and in their bearing as mannerly and civil as any of Europe. They had friendly intercourse with the natives and trafficked with them, exchanging tin and copper dishes for skins and dyes. After some days a few of the English ventured further up the creek and found an island, Roanoke by name, where was a small native village. Here they were received most hospitably. The women washed their clothes and prepared a solemn banquet for them. Roanoke was sixteen miles long and there were many other islands in the group, all fertile and covered with goodly trees. The soil the most plentiful, sweet, fruitful and wholesome of all the world. Amidst and Barlow explored no further but returned to England about the middle of September and Raleigh was well satisfied with the report they brought him. Queen Elizabeth christened the new district, Virginia, that it might always bring back to men the memory of their virgin queen and Raleigh said bout at once to plan a larger expedition which was to plant a colony in his new possessions. Raleigh did not venture to lead this expedition himself. He was afraid to leave court, lest he should give his enemies opportunities to conspire against him. Lester, his former patron, had grown bitterly jealous of his favour with the queen. The expedition was therefore entrusted to Ray Flane and Sir Richard Grenville, both men who had led stirring lives and taken part in the Irish and Continental Wars. They left Plymouth on the 9th of April, 1585, taking with them Barlow and Amidst's pilots. Neither Grenville nor Lane were fitted for the arduous task before them. Grenville was bold and impetuous and had learned from the Spaniards to treat the natives with cruelty, regarding them only as people to be robbed. He wanted to grow rich, either by gaining booty from the Spaniards or by robbing the natives. On the way he loitered about the seas hoping to fall in with Spanish vessels, and when he reached Virginia, on the 26th of June, he did nothing to help the colonists. His treatment of the natives may be judged by the account left of this voyage in which after stating that they were well entertained by the natives, the writer goes on to add, One of our boats, with the admiral, was sent to demand a silver cup which one of the natives had stolen from us, and not receiving it according to his promise, we burnt and spoiled their corn and town, all the people being fled. Grenville also managed to quarrel with Lane and after spending seven weeks in exploring the coast returned to England. On the way back he captured a Spanish vessel of 300 tons, richly laden, and reached Falmouth on the 6th of October. Lane was left alone in Virginia with a hundred men. Grenville promised to return to them early in the next spring with new colonists and stores of provisions. Ray Flane was no better suited than Grenville to found a colony. He determined to establish himself on the island of Roanoke and built a fort which he called Fort Ferdinando, but he built no dwelling houses, he sowed no corn, and made no arrangements for supplying his colonists with provisions, but trusted to the Indians to do everything for them. He writes in enthusiastic terms of the island, calling it the goodliest aisle under the cope of heaven, so abounding with sweet trees that bring such sundry rich and pleasant gums, grapes of such greatness yet wild as France, Spain, nor Italy, have no greater. The climate so wholesome that we had not won six since we touched the land here. The people naturally are most courteous. Yet he made no attempt to profit by this extraordinary fertility. His one idea seems to have been to explore the country with a view of finding mines. He was led on by a tale told him by the natives of a country where a soft pale metal, either copper or gold, was to be found, in such quantities that the people beautified their houses with great plates of it. But he was obliged to return before he reached this land of promise on account of the failure of his provisions. He looked upon this as the most important part of his proceedings, for he said, The discovery of a good mine, by the goodness of God, or a passage to the South Sea, or some way to it and nothing else, can bring this country in request to be inhabited by our nation. This remark shows how unfit the adventurers were to found a colony by patient labor, even in a land where nature was most bountiful. Meanwhile the colonists who stayed at the fort whilst Lane explored had been ill treating the friendly natives. They behaved to them as though they were their slaves, and soon aroused their resentment. The natives too began to be less afraid of the white men, since they saw that their Lord God suffered them to sustain hunger. The chief friend of the colonists, amongst the natives, died, and the natives, wearied of the hard usage they received, plotted to destroy their task-masters. Their plan was to refuse, first of all, to supply them with provisions. They foresaw that want would disperse the white men in search of food when they would be more easily able to kill them. In truth, when the native supplies were withdrawn, the colonists were so hard pressed for food that Lane had to disband his company into sundry places to live upon shellfish. Lane's vigilance, however, prevented the plots of the natives from being successful. When it came to a trial of strength, their superior arms gave victory to the white men, and the natives fled, whilst their king was left amongst the slain. This happened on the 1st of June, 1586. But as Grenville had never returned with his promised stores, it would have gone hard with the colonists had not chance brought them a welcome friend. On the 8th of June, Lane was told that a fleet of 23 sail had been sighted, but whether friend or foe was not known. The next day it was discovered that Drake himself was the leader of this fleet. He was returning laden with booty from a piratical expedition to the southern seas, and touched at Roanoke to visit the English colony there. He was most friendly to his countrymen in their distress. At first Lane asked him to carry the weak men among the colonists to England, and leave him some new hands with provisions and shipping to carry them to England in August, by which time he hoped to have finished his exploration of the country. But a terrible storm seems to have frightened the colonists, and with one voice they asked Lane to beg Drake to take them all back to England with him. To this request Drake readily assented, and on the 19th of June they set sail and the colony was deserted. Very soon after their departure, a ship which Raleigh had sent off laden with provisions and stores for their relief arrived at Virginia. Not finding the colonists, it returned at once to England. A fortnight after it had left, Sir Richard Grenville arrived with three ships fitted out also for the relief of the colonists. He traveled into diverse parts of the country to see if he could hear any news of their colony, but he found the places which they had inhabited desolate. They had left all things confusedly, as if they had been chased from thence by a mighty army. And no doubt, so they were, adds the chronicler, of the voyage, for the hand of God came upon them for the cruelty and outrages committed by some of them against the native inhabitants of that country. Grenville was unwilling to lose the possession of that country which Englishmen had so long held, so he left fifteen men at Roanoke, furnished well with provisions, and set sail for England again. Sir Walter Raleigh's first attempt at a colony had failed, but he did not on that account give up his plans. Some among the men who had shared in the expedition were fully convinced of the advantages which might be reaped from colonizing Virginia. One of these, Thomas Harriet, wrote a long letter to tell men the truth about this enterprise, seeing that it had been very injuriously slandered. He sums up the causes of the failure of the expedition and makes them consist in the characters of the men who had undertaken it. Some, he says, after gold and silver were not so soon found, as was by them looked for, had little or no care of anything else but to pamper their bellies. Some had little understanding, less discretion, and more tongue than was needful or requisite. Others again because there were not to be found any English cities, nor such fair houses, nor at their own wish, any of their old accustomed dainty food, nor any soft beds of down or feathers. The country was to them miserable and their reports thereof accordingly. Harriet goes on to enumerate all the varied and rich products of Virginia. Amongst these products was one which once brought to England rapidly gained favor. There is an herb which is so depart by itself and is called by the inhabitants Ipawak. The Spaniards generally call it tobacco. The leaves thereof being dried and brought into powder, they used to take the fume or smoke thereof by sucking it through pipes made of clay into their stomach and head. We ourselves during the time we were there used to suck it after their manner, as also since our return and have found many rare and wonderful experiments of the virtues thereof of which the relation would require a volume by itself. The use of it by so many of late men and women of great calling as else and some learned physicians also is sufficient witness. Raleigh himself seems soon to have become fond of this new luxury. He used pipes of silver instead of pipes of clay. On one occasion it is said that a servant who was bringing him some ale was so terrified at seeing him smoking that he threw the ale over him and ran downstairs shouting that his master was on fire. We do not know whether Elizabeth ever tried the effects of tobacco herself, but she would sit by Raleigh whilst he smoked. One day she said to him that however clever he might be he could not tell the weight of smoke from his pipe. When Raleigh affirmed that he could do so, the queen remained incredulous and made a bet against him. Raleigh showed his ingenuity by weighing first a pipe full of tobacco, then when he had smoked the pipe he weighed the ashes that remained and demonstrated to Elizabeth that the difference between the two weights was the weight of the smoke. Elizabeth was convinced and paid the bet. But Raleigh believed that he could get more from Virginia than a new luxury. He had spent a great deal of money in these unsuccessful attempts, but the Spanish prizes brought home by Grenville more than compensated for the outlay. In 1587 he was ready to fit out a new expedition. He placed a certain Captain Charles White at the head of it and sent three ships with a hundred and fifty colonists on board, among whom were seventeen women and nine children. The presence of the women gave reason to hope that the colony might be more successful this time. For men who had their wives and children with them would be impressed with the need of settling down and making homes for themselves before they hunted for treasure. The expedition left Plymouth on the 8th of May 1587. From the first White seems to have been thoroughly an earnest about his task, but the men with whom he had to work were not always willing to obey and listen to him. His first object on reaching Virginia was to look for the fifteen colonists left there by Grenville on the island of Roanoke, but he found none of them nor any sign that they had been there. Saving only they found the bones of one of those fifteen. When they reached the spot where Lane had built his fort, they found the fort raised down, but all the houses standing unhurt, saving that they were overgrown with melons of diverse sorts and deer within them feeding on these melons. Then they gave up hope of ever seeing any of these fifteen men alive. White's intention had been to advance according to instructions given by Raleigh so far as Chesapeake Bay, rather further north, and settle down there, but a man named Ferdinando, who seems to have opposed White as much as possible in everything, and who had chief command of the vessels, refused to go any further with the colonists, and landed them all at Roanoke. So White gave orders that they should repair the houses already standing there and build some others. White was anxious to renew friendly relations with the natives, but they had been made suspicious by the behavior of the former colonists. At last, however, he succeeded in having a conference with some of them, who told him how the fifteen colonists left by Grenville had been surprised and killed. White thought it right to revenge the death of his fellow countrymen, and attacked and killed some of the natives, which did not tend to increase their friendly feelings to the White men. On the eighteenth of August, Eleanor Dare, White's daughter, and the wife of one of the colonists, gave birth to a daughter, who, as she was the first Christian child born in the colony, was named Virginia. The ships which had brought the colonists over now began to make ready to return to England. White wished to stay behind, but the colonists earnestly besought him to return to England that he might obtain supplies for them. He at last yielded to their entreaties and set sail for England which he reached on the fifth November. About this time, Raleigh's interest in his Virginia colony seems to have flagged a little. Possibly he had more important things to think about. His influence at court had increased and he must have found court intrigues very engrossing. Besides, all England was then an expectation of a Spanish invasion, and men were busy with preparations to meet it. But White had the interest of the colony where he had left his daughter sincerely at heart. He was, as he says himself, sundry times, chargeable and troublesome on Taraleigh for the supplies and reliefs of the planters in Virginia. All that White could at last obtain was that three vessels going out to gain wealth by piracy in the West Indies should take him with them to Virginia. But the ships refused to carry any supplies for the colonists, and took only White himself and his chest. He sailed from Plymouth on the 20th of March, 1590, and did not reach Virginia till the 17th August. Seeing a great fire near the shore, White writes, We sounded with a trumpet a call, and afterwards many familiar English tunes of songs. But there were no Englishmen there to be gladdened by the welcome sound. Only savages who fled at our approach. When White reached the group of houses where he had left the colonists, he found everything in a state of desolation. But he found no sign of distress, such as they had promised to leave, should they be driven to extremities. At last he found carved on a tree from which the bark had been partially removed, the word Croton, in fair capital letters. This he took to mean that the planters had departed to Croton. He found five chests which had been carefully hidden, but had been discovered and plundered by the savages who had found the contents for the most part of little good to them. They had consequently left them, books, maps, and pictures, lying about torn and rotted with the rain. White would gladly have gone on to Croton to search for the colonists, but he could not persuade the captains of the ships who had brought him to Virginia to do so, and so had to return to England with them. Raleigh fitted out no more expeditions to Virginia. It is indeed wonderful that with only the means of a private gentleman he should have persevered so long and so formidable a task. Already in 1589 he had transferred the patent given him by the Queen to a company of merchants. They made no use of it, but in 1602 it passed to a more energetic company, who at last in 1606 began the real colonization of Virginia for which Raleigh had paved the way. The new colonists heard that the people left by White had been miserably slaughtered. Some, however, had escaped and gone far inland, where they lived peaceably with the natives. It was reported that there were still seven English alive, four men, two boys, and one maid, but the new settlers never found them. End of Section 7 Section 8 of Life of Sir Walter Raleigh by Louise Creighton. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Pamela Nagami. Chapter 5 The Spanish Armada The time had now come when Philip II determined to make an open attack upon England. In 1587 Elizabeth had at last been persuaded to consent to the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. Since her flight from Scotland in 1568 Mary had been kept in prison in England for 19 years altogether, and she had been a center round which disc content could always gather. Plots had been formed with the object of restoring her to liberty, making her Queen of England and bringing back the Catholic religion. Philip II had often threatened to interfere on her behalf. By the execution of Mary Elizabeth removed the object of endless intrigues at home and abroad. Henceforth the real question of the day was clearly set before the minds of all Englishmen. But Mary's execution hurried on the plans of Philip II. So long as Mary lived Philip could only interfere in Mary's behalf. Now that she was dead he could go forth to conquer England in his own name. Hitherto he had hoped to reduce the Netherlands first and thence proceed to re-establish Catholicism in England, but he found England in the way of his plans. English help had encouraged the Ugano to carry on their resistance in France. English gold had helped Philip's revolted subjects in the Netherlands. English seamen had again and again robbed him of his treasure. Philip determined to alter his plans. England was the key to the Protestant resistance in Europe. England must be entirely crushed before he could succeed in striking a death blow to Protestantism. To Englishmen the problem was made simple by the attitude of Philip. English Catholics or other malcontents were willing enough to fight for Mary, Queen of Scots, but they would fight for Elizabeth rather than see their country crushed by Philip. Philip's preparations were delayed by the reckless daring of Drake who in 1587 led a fleet of twenty-five sail into the harbor of Coddith with the view of singeing King Philip's beard, as he said. There he found sundry great ships laden with provisions for the projected invasion of England. He sank some thirty-four ships and carried away four more with him and did other damage on the coasts of Spain and Portugal. So Philip's preparations were delayed, and though he set to work with New Vigor to fit out a mighty fleet, which should once for all crush these impudent islanders, it could not be got ready before June 1588. This fleet, the most fortunate and invincible armada, consisted of 132 ships, manned by 8,766 sailors, and 2,088 galley slaves, and carrying 21,855 soldiers. Alexander, Prince of Parma, who was now Spanish commander in the Netherlands and the greatest general of the age, was to join the fleet in the channel with 17,000 Spanish troops from the Netherlands so that there might be an army of 50,000 men for the invasion of England. Meanwhile, Elizabeth could not believe in the danger which was threatening her. It seems as if both she and Burley had hoped up to the last moment that they would be able to avert it by negotiations. Both the army and the navy were in a thoroughly unfit state to meet the invaders. The Lord High Admiral Lord Howard of Effingham was in despair and wrote to Walsingham and Burley begging for reinforcements and complaining bitterly of the condition of the navy. In one thing the English people were strong, and that was in their union. Mary of Scotland was dead and the country was no longer distracted with divisions. All, Protestants and Catholics alike, were ready to gather round their queen and do their utmost to keep out the foreigner. In the Royal Navy when all was done there were only 34 ships with 6,279 men, but every nobleman and gentleman who was able provided and manned ships at his own expense and the seaport towns sent out their vessels. In the end some 197 ships were got together, though many of them were only small barks and penises. In number they exceeded the Spanish fleet but their tonnage only amounted to 30,144, whilst that of the Armada was 59,120. In all his preparations Lord Howard was aided by the advice of the great English seaman Drake Hawkins and Frobisher. Drake was appointed Vice Admiral and got together a fleet of 60 vessels at Plymouth. Most of these were volunteer barks manned with the brave seaman of Devon and Cornwall. Meanwhile Sir Walter Raleigh was chiefly engaged in making preparations to defend the coast and rappel an invasion should the Spaniards be able to land. His advice seems to have been much listened to in the Queen's Councils. He made large levies of men of the Stannery's and did all he could to strengthen the defences of the Isle of Portland of which he was governor. At Tilbury an army was gathered together under Lester and here Elizabeth roused at last to the sense of her danger and full of courage to meet it tried to impart her own confidence to her soldiers. Let tyrants fear, she said. I have always so behaved myself, that under God I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and goodwill of my subjects. I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart of a king and of a king of England too, and I think it foulscorn that Parma or Spain or any Prince of Europe should dare to invade the borders of my realm. To which rather than any dishonor should grow by me, I myself will take up arms. I myself will be your general, judge and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. The invincible armada left Lisbon toward the end of May, but the weather was against it and the huge ships were unwieldy and difficult to manage. The commander, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, was no great seamen, and his incompetence helped to delay the voyage. It was not till Friday the 19th of July that the armada sighted the lizard-point. The Spaniards hoped to surprise the English fleet, but they had been seen by a Cornish pirate named Fleming. He put out all sail and sped to Plymouth to give warning. No time was lost and getting ready. The next morning Howard sailed out of Plymouth with sixty-seven vessels to await the coming of the Spaniards. Some of the fleet were off Dover, and vessels were scattered all along the south coast to keep watch. On the twentieth of July, Howard saw the Spanish fleet pass by Plymouth. In obedience to the commands of Philip II, they were on their way to effect a meeting in the Channel with the Prince of Parma. Howard let them pass and then pursued them to attack and harass their rear. It would have been folly on the part of the English to risk a general engagement, but in chance skirmishes the swiftness with which their small light vessels could move gave them great advantages over the heavy galleons of the Spaniards. The little English ships, hanging on the rear of the mighty armada, seized their opportunity, darted in amongst the unwieldy vessels, attacked and damaged them, and were gone before the Spaniards had time to retaliate. The Spaniards, when they perceived the nimbleness of the enemy, arranged themselves in the form of a half-moon and slackened their sails so that they might keep together and that none of the ships might fall behind. When severely battered by the English shot, the Spanish ships gathered so close together for safety that one of the biggest galleons had her formast damaged and was left behind. This great ship, with four hundred and fifty men on board, fell into the hands of Drake, who treated his prisoners right honorably. He found also great treasure of gold in the ship. The English fleet grew daily greater as it pursued the armada, for ships and men came to join it out of all the harbors of England. They came flacking as to a set field where immortal fame and glory was to be attained and faithful service to be performed unto their prince and country. Sir Walter Raleigh joined the fleet on the 23rd July. He had probably been delayed on land by his preparations. Little is known of the part he played when with the fleet, but we cannot doubt that where all were brave he was amongst the bravest. Some excited with the first successes of the English advised Howard to grapple with the enemy's ships and board them. Referring to this in his history of the world, Raleigh says, Charles, Lord Howard, Admiral of England, would have been lost in the year fifteen eighty-eight if he had not been better advised than a great many malignant fools were that found fault with his behavior. The Spaniards had an army aboard them, and he had none. They had more ships than he had on a higher building and charging, so that had he entangled himself with those great and powerful vessels he had greatly endangered this kingdom of England. For twenty men upon the defence are equal to a hundred that board and enter. Whereas then contrary wise the Spaniards had an hundred for twenty of ours to defend themselves with all, but our Admiral knew his advantage and held it, which had he not done he had not been worthy to have held his head. On the twenty-fourth July a council of the commanders was held, and the English fleet was divided into four squadrons under Lord Howard, Sir Francis Drake, Captain Hawkins, and Captain Frobisher. On the twenty-fifth there was severe skirmishing off the Isle of Wight in which Frobisher and Hawkins behaved themselves so valiantly and with all so prudently that on the following day the Lord Admiral rewarded them with the Order of Nighthood. As the two fleets passed through the straits of Calais, crowds of Frenchmen, Valoomps, and Flemmings gathered on the coast of France to see the wonderful sight. Never before in the history of the world had such an array of ships been seen. The Spanish fleet anchored off Calais, for the Duke of Medina Sidonia had received messengers telling him that Alexander of Parma would be ready in a dozen hours or so to embark from Dunkirk and join him. Meanwhile the English fleet had been joined by twenty ships which had been keeping guard over the mouth of the Thames. Howard now saw that he could no longer avoid an engagement. If he was to strike a decisive blow at the Spaniards he must do it before they were joined by Parma. On the twenty-eighth of July therefore he took eight of his worst and basest ships and filled them with gunpowder, pitch, rimstone, and other combustibles, and setting them on fire sent them at two o'clock in the morning, the wind and the tide being favorable, into the midst of the Spanish fleet. The Spaniards were roused from their sleep in the dead of the night by these terrible burning apparitions and were thrown into such perplexity and horror that cutting their cables and hoisting their sails they betook themselves very confusedly into the main sea. In the confusion the ships ran against one another and some were damaged by collision, others were burnt by the fire ships, and the remainder were driven northwards along the Flemish coast by the wind and the tide. The English pursued them and on July twenty-ninth there was a fierce battle fought off Gravelina. The attack was led by Drake, the admiral not having yet come up. Again the English took advantage of their nimble steerage and came oftentimes very near upon the Spaniards and charged them so sore that now and then they were but a pike's length asunder, and so continually giving them one broadside after another they discharged all their shot, both great and small upon them, until such time as powder and bullets failed them. The fighting lasted six hours and terrible mischief was done to the Spaniards. The admiral Howard joined the battle before it was over. Not a ship in the Spanish fleet escaped damage. Their force is wonderful, great and strong, wrote Howard, but we pluck their feathers by little and little. Notwithstanding that our powder and shot was well near all spent we set out on a brad countenance and gave them chase. The wind came to the help of the English and the Spaniards fled northwards with full sail. There was never anything pleased me better, wrote Drake, than seeing the enemy flying with a southerly wind northwards. For four days the English pursued, but on Friday the second of August they had to halt as powder and provisions were failing them. They left the winds and the waves to finish the work of destruction which they had begun. On the fourth of August the English fleet arrived at Harwich. There it provided itself with powder and provisions and sailed out again to be ready to meet the Spanish fleet should it return. But when the English heard that the Spaniards had determined to sail round the north of Scotland and Ireland and so return home, they thought it best to leave them unto those boisterous and uncouth northern seas and not there to hunt after them. A terrible storm which arose on the fourth of August brought fearful sufferings to the Spanish ships. They were driven helplessly before the wind. Some were wrecked on the coasts of Norway. Others were dashed to pieces on the Scottish shores. Others only escaped to perish on the Irish coasts. In October the miserable remnant of the invincible Armada reached Spain. Of that proud array of 132 ships with 30,000 men only 53 ships with 10,000 men returned. England had been delivered from terrible peril. It would be long before Philip II could have another fleet on the seas and meanwhile England had shown what stuff her mariners were made of and made it clear that he would not find the task of crushing her an easy one. The defeat of the Armada showed the world that the power of Spain was declining and that England was again able to fill an important position in the affairs of Europe. A gloom was cast over Elizabeth's re-choicings at the defeat of the Armada by the death of the Earl of Leicester in the following September. A little while before his death, Leicester, alarmed in all probability at the growing influence of Raleigh, had introduced a new favorite at court, his stepson, Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex. After Leicester's death, Essex held the chief place in the Queen's favorite court and became the head of the party opposed to Raleigh. Essex was young, only 21 years old, brave, handsome, full of generous feelings, but devoured by vanity and ambition. He rapidly made his way in the Queen's affections and though more than 30 years his senior, she demanded from him all the devotion of a lover and lavished upon him in return all the tenderness of a mistress. It was hardly to be expected that Raleigh and Essex should get on well together. Raleigh felt himself supplanted by the new favorite and his proud spirit could not put up with the slights cast upon him by his rival Amir Upstart Boy. He withdrew from court for a time and went to visit his estates in Ireland. Sir Francis Allen says in a letter written at this time, August 1589, My Lord of Essex hath chased Mr. Raleigh from the court and hath confined him into Ireland. In Ireland Raleigh either renewed an old friendship or for the first time made friends with Edmund Spencer, the poet then little known, who was secretary to Lord Deputy Gray. In a poem dedicated to Raleigh called Colin Clout's Come Home Again, Spencer thus described Raleigh's coming to Ireland. One day, quote he, I sad as was my trade, under the foot of Mole that mountain whore, keeping my sheep amongst the coolly shade of the green alders by the Malleys shore, there a strange shepherd chanced to find me out, whether allured with my pipe's delight, whose pleasing sound is shrilled far about, or thither led by chance, I know not right. Whom when I asked from what place he came and how he hight himself, he did eclept, the shepherd of the ocean by name, and said he came far from the main sea deep. He, sitting me beside in that same shade, provoked me to play some pleasant fit, and when he heard the music which I made, he found himself full greatly pleased at it, yet aimling my pipe he took and honed my pipe, before that aimled of many, and played thereon, for well that skill he conned, himself as skillful in that art as any. He piped, I sung, and when he sung, I piped, by change of turns each making other merry, neither envying other nor envied, so piped we, until we both were weary. Nothing could be more delightful than the description given by these lines of the way in which Raleigh and Spencer passed their time together, but they seemed, besides making verses to have talked of more serious things. When asked what the shepherd of the ocean sang about, Colin replies, his song was all a lamentable lay of great unkindness and of usage hard, of Cynthia, the lady of the sea, which from her presence faultless him debard. Cynthia was Queen Elizabeth, and from this we see that Raleigh complained of the harsh treatment he had received, which compelled him for a while to go away from court. Colin then proceeds to tell how Raleigh persuaded him to, when with him his Cynthia to see, whose grace was great and bounty most rewardful. Spencer returned to England with Raleigh in 1589, taking with him the first three books of the Fairy Queen. Raleigh must on his return soon have regained the Queen's favour, for he succeeded in getting for Spencer a kindly reception from the Queen. Spencer says, yet found I liking in her royal mind, not for my skill but for that shepherd's sake. In 1590 Spencer published the three first books of the Fairy Queen, and Elizabeth granted him a pension of fifty pounds a year. Spencer prefixed to these three books a letter to Raleigh, in which he set forth the object of his work to be, to fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline. Though Raleigh managed to recover the place in the Queen's favour which he had lost at first through the jealousy of Essex, a love-entry which the Queen chanced to discover brought him into still deeper disgrace. Amongst the fair ladies at Queen Elizabeth's court was one who made a deeper impression upon the courtier's heart than the royal mistress to whom he pretended to make love. This was an orphan, Elizabeth Throgmorton, one of Elizabeth's maids of honour, a fair-haired, handsome woman to whom Raleigh made love secretly, probably afraid of the Queen's anger should she discover that he paid his devotions to anyone but herself. Whilst Raleigh was busy with his love affairs, he was also busy with schemes for making reprisals on the Spaniards which occupied so many Englishmen after the great Armada fight. Raleigh was probably anxious to find some excuse for withdrawing from England until the Queen's anger had blown over. It was a splendid opportunity for gaining wealth in the Spanish seas, and Elizabeth was more willing than ever to wink at the piracy of her subjects. One of the most important of these enterprises was undertaken by Lord Thomas Howard, cousin of the Lord Admiral, and Sir Richard Grenville. They set sail on the 10th March 1591 with a fleet of some sixteen ships to which Raleigh contributed one vessel. They hoped to seize the fleet bringing West Indian produce home to Spain, but Philip II heard of their designs and sent out a large fleet to oppose them. This fleet, consisting of fifty sail, was the biggest which the Spaniards had put on the sea since the Armada. Raleigh himself has left us an account of what followed in a paper called The Truth of the Fight about the Isles of the Azores. The English fleet was riding at anchor off the Azores on the afternoon of the last day of August, all unprepared to meet the enemy. The ships, writes Raleigh, all pestered and rummaging, everything out of order, the one-half part of the men of every ship sick and utterly unserviceable. The island had shrouded the approach of the Spanish fleet, and the English ships had scarce time to weigh their anchors. The last who got off was Sir Richard Grenville. He waited to take in the men who were on land and who would otherwise have been lost. Howard managed to get away by the help of the wind, but Grenville could not do so. He then, utterly refused to turn from the enemy, alleging that he would rather choose to die than dishonor himself, his country and her majesty's ship. So he turned with his single vessel to meet the Spanish fleet of fifty sail, hoping he might pass through the two squadrons in despite of them. Five Spanish ships attacked the Revenge. They made diverse attempts to enter her, but were repulsed again and again and at all times beaten back into their own ships or into the seas. The fight began at three o'clock in the afternoon and continued very terrible all that evening. The Spanish ships which attempted to board the Revenge as they were wounded and beaten off, so always others came in their places, she having never less than two mighty galleons by her sides. So it went on all through the night, but as the day increased so the men of the Revenge decreased. At last all the powder of the Revenge to the last barrel was spent, all her pikes broken, forty of her best men slain, and the most part of the rest hurt. Unto them remained no comfort at all, no hope, no supply either of ships, men or weapons. The masts all beaten overboard, all her tackle cut asunder. Sir Richard finding himself in this distress, having endured in this fifteen hours fight the assault of fifteen several armadas, commanded the master gunner to split and sink the ship. He was determined to die rather than surrender to his enemies. The master gunner felt as he did, but the other officers begged Sir Richard to have care of them. When he would not harken to them, they took the matter into their own hands and treated with the Spanish admiral Alfonso Bazan, who gave them honourable terms, for he granted that all their lives should be saved, the company sent for England, and the better sort to pay such reasonable ransom as their estate would bear, and in the mean season to be free from galley or imprisonment. Sir Richard being thus overmatched was sent unto by Alfonso Bazan to remove out of the revenge, the ship being marvelously unsavory, filled with blood, and bodies of dead and wounded men like a slaughterhouse. Sir Richard answered that he might do with his body would he list, for he esteemed it not, and as he was carried out of the ship he swooned, and reviving again desired the company to pray for him. The Spaniards who greatly respected him for his valor tended him with the utmost care, but he died of his wounds the second or third day after he had been taken on board the Spanish ship. Here die I, he said to the Spaniards who stood around. Richard Grenville, with a joyful and quiet mind, for that I have ended my life as a good soldier ought to do, who has fought for his country and his queen, for honour and religion. Wherefore my soul joyfully departed out of this body, leaving behind it an everlasting fame, as a true soldier who hath done his duty as he was bound to do. But the others of my company have done as traitors and dogs for which they shall be reproached all their lives, and have a shameful name for ever. Grenville's condemnation does not seem to have been deserved by Lord Thomas Howard, who would have come to his assistance if his crews would have let him. Raleigh thinks it was better that he did not, considering the smallness of his fleet, its bad condition, than the sickness of the men. The dishonour and loss to the queen had been far greater than the spoil or harm that the enemy could anyway have received.