CHAPTER VII.
RALEIGH'S SECOND EXPEDITION.
Raleigh's first voyage disappointed every one but himself. He pretended to have obtained satisfactory evidence of the existence of Eldorado, and information of the place where it was; also proof of the existence of mines of gold; and to have conciliated the good will of the natives, and secured their co-operation with him in any future attempt. But he had brought home no gold; the shining stones which his followers had abundantly supplied themselves with were found to be worthless: and there was no evidence of the existence of a native sovereignty as far advanced in civilization and refinement as the Mexicans and Peruvians, the conquest of which would reflect as much glory upon the English name as the achievements of Cortez and Pizarro had reflected upon that of Spain. Raleigh's boastful representations, therefore, failed of effect. None of his countrymen were inclined to join with him in a further prosecution of the enterprise; and the subject was dropped for the time.
Raleigh was soon restored to favor, and employed in the naval expeditions against Spain which took place at this time. He greatly distinguished himself on several occasions, and was in high favor with Queen Elizabeth till her death; but, with the accession of James, his fortunes fell. He was accused (whether justly or not is still doubtful) of being concerned in treasonable plots against the king, and was brought to trial, found guilty, condemned to death, and committed prisoner to the Tower to await the execution of his sentence.
Raleigh, withdrawn from active labors by his imprisonment, was not idle. He turned to intellectual pursuits, and, with many minor pieces in prose and verse, executed his greatest work, "The History of the World,"—a project of such vast extent, that the bare idea of his undertaking it excites our admiration. As an author, he stands on an eminence as high as that which he obtained in other paths. Hume says, "He is the best model of our ancient style;" and Hallam confirms the judgment. His imprisonment lasted thirteen years. At the expiration of that time, he had influence to have his sentence so far remitted as to allow him to go on a second expedition in search of Eldorado. Twenty years had elapsed since the former expedition; and the present was of a magnitude more like a national enterprise than a private one. Sir Walter's own ship, "The Destiny," carried thirty-six guns and two hundred men. There were six other vessels, carrying from twenty-five guns to three each. Raleigh embarked all his means in this expedition. His eldest son commanded one of the ships; and eighty of his companions were gentlemen volunteers and adventurers, many of them his relations.
Those who have thoughtfully considered Raleigh's career have seen reason to doubt whether he really believed the stories which he was so anxious to impress upon others. They have thought it more likely that his real object was to emulate the fame of Cortez and Pizarro; to dispossess Spain of some portion of her conquests in South America, and transfer them to his own country. This latter object was admissible at the time of his first expedition, because Spain and England were then at war; but was not so on the second, as the two nations were then at peace. But Raleigh had reason to think, that, if he could succeed in his object, there was no danger of his being called to very strict account respecting his measures.
He arrived off the coast of Guiana on the 12th of November, 1617; having had a long and disastrous voyage. One ship had left him, and returned home; another had foundered; forty-two of his men had died; many were suffering from sickness, and himself among the number. But he found the Indians friendly, and not forgetful of his former visit. He writes to his wife, "To tell you that I might be here king of the country were a vanity; but my name hath still lived among them here. They feed me with fresh meat, and all that the country yields. All offer to obey me."
Being too feeble from sickness to go himself, he sent forward an expedition, under Capt. Keymis, to enter the Orinoco, and take possession of the mines. Five companies of fifty men each, in five shallops, composed the expedition; Raleigh, with the remainder of his vessels, repairing to Trinidad to await the result.
Since Raleigh's former expedition, the Spaniards had made a settlement upon the main land, and founded a town to which they gave the name of St. Thomas. The governor resided there, and there were in all about five hundred inhabitants. On the 12th of January, the English flotilla reached a part of the river twelve leagues from St. Thomas; and an Indian fisherman carried the alarm to that place. The governor, Palameque, mustered immediately the little force which he had at hand. This consisted of fifty-seven men only. Messengers were sent to summon those men who were at their farms, and two horsemen were sent out to watch the invaders' movements.
At eleven in the forenoon, the vessels anchored about a league from the town. The men landed, and the scouts hastened back with the intelligence. A Spanish officer, with ten men, was placed in ambush near the city. As soon as he was informed of the direction which the English were taking, he cut a match-cord in pieces, which he lighted at dark, and placed at intervals, where they might deceive the invaders by presenting the appearance of a greater force. The first discharge was from two pieces of cannon against the boats. The Spaniard, with his little band, then opened his fire upon the troops, and kept it up from the bushes as he retired before them. This skirmishing continued about an hour and a half, till he had fallen back to the place where the governor and his people were drawn up, at the entrance of the city, to make a stand. It was now nine at night. Raleigh says, in his account of the action, that some of the English, at the first charge, began to pause and recoil shamefully; whereupon his son, not tarrying for any musketeers, ran up at the head of a company of pikemen, and received a shot wound. Pressing then upon a Spanish captain with his sword, the Spaniard, taking the small end of his musket in his hand, struck him on the head with the stock, and felled him. His last words were, "Lord, have mercy upon me, and prosper the enterprise!" and his death was instantly avenged by his sergeant, who thrust the Spaniard through with his halberd. In the heat of the fight, and in the confusion which the darkness occasioned, the Spanish commander was separated from his people, and slain. The Spaniards, however, had the advantage of knowing the ground; and, betaking themselves to the houses, they fired from them on the English, and killed many, till the assailants set fire to the houses; thus depriving themselves of that booty which was their main object. The English were now masters of the place; the remainder of the defendants, with the women and children, under the command of Grados, the officer who had deported himself so well in the first ambush, effecting their escape across the river. Grados stationed them at a place about ten miles distant from the town, where a few slight huts were erected for the women and children.
The captors searched in vain for gold in the city; but they had an idea that there was a rich gold-mine a short distance up the river. Accordingly, two launches, with twenty or thirty men in each, were despatched up the Orinoco. They came to the mouth of the creek, which led to the place where Grados had hutted the women and children; and the largest of the launches was about to enter, when Grados, who had posted nine of the invalids in ambush there, with about as many Indian bowmen, fired upon them so unexpectedly, and with such good aim, that only one of the crew is said to have escaped unhurt. The other launch also suffered some loss. Three days after, three launches were sent to take vengeance for this defeat; but Grados had removed his charge some two leagues into the country, and these vessels went up the river about a hundred leagues, treating with the Indians, to whom they made presents and larger promises, and after eighteen or twenty days returned, having effected nothing of importance.
The English had now been four weeks in the city, annoyed by the Spaniards and Indians, and losing many of their men, cut off in their foraging excursions by ambushes. After the unsuccessful attempt to discover the mine, no further effort was made for that purpose; Keymis alleging in his excuse, that "the Spaniards, being gone off in a whole body, lay in the woods between the mine and us, and it was impossible, except they had been beaten out of the country, to pass up the woods and craggy hills without the loss of the commanders, without whom the rest would easily be cut to pieces." The English, accordingly, retreated from the city, setting fire to the few houses that remained, and promising the Indians, as they went, that they would return next year, and complete the destruction of the Spaniards.
Raleigh was by no means satisfied with Keymis's excuses for his failure to discover the mine, and reproached him with so much severity, that Keymis, after the interview, retired to his cabin, and shot himself through the heart.
When Raleigh arrived in England, he found that the tidings of his attack on the Spaniards, and the utter failure of his expedition, had reached there before him. The Spanish ambassador was clamorous for punishment on what he called a piratical proceeding; and the king and the nation, who might have pardoned a successful adventurer, had no indulgence to extend to one so much the reverse. Finding a proclamation had been issued for his arrest, Raleigh endeavored to escape to France, but was taken in the attempt, and committed close prisoner to the Tower. He was made a victim to court intrigue. The weak king, James, was then negotiating a Spanish match for his son, and, to gratify the King of Spain and his court, sacrificed one of the noblest of his subjects. Without being put on trial for his late transactions, Raleigh's old sentence, which had been suspended sixteen years, was revived against him; and on the 29th of October, 1618, four months after his arrival, he was beheaded on the scaffold.
The fate of Raleigh caused a great sensation at the time, and has not yet ceased to excite emotion. The poet Thomson, in his "Summer," finely alludes to the various circumstances of his history, which we have briefly recorded:—
"But who can speak
The numerous worthies of the 'Maiden reign'?
In Raleigh mark their every glory mixed,—
Raleigh, the scourge of Spain, whose breast with all
The sage, the patriot, and the hero, burned.
Nor sunk his vigor when a coward reign
The warrior fettered, and at last resigned
To glut the vengeance of a vanquished foe:
Then, active still and unrestrained, his mind
Explored the vast extent of ages past,
And with his prison-hours enriched the world;
Yet found no times in all the long research
So glorious or so base as those he proved
In which he conquered and in which he bled."