Having accomplished all that his resources and circumstances made possible, and prepared the way for future operations, Raleigh brought back his little fleet to England in the autumn of 1595, making a quiet entrance into port,—Dartmouth or Falmouth,—that was in strong contrast with the pomp and circumstance, and noisy enthusiasm, that distinguished the return of Sir Francis Drake from his famous voyage. Raleigh’s spirited achievements do not seem to have been appreciated. He had, as he thought, returned bringing a gift to his queen of a rich empire that would assure his restoration to favour, but he was met with cold neglect, and left in doubt as to whether his report concerning Guiana was to be accepted as a true history or passed by as an idle tale. At this stage of his career he gave conclusive evidence of the diversity of his gifts, the wide range of his capability, his restless activity, and indomitable perseverance. He had distinguished himself as a practical navigator and commander, and as an explorer of regions before unknown. As a diplomatist he had established satisfactory relations with foreign potentates—albeit uncivilised—as allies; he had carried out with safety and success a perilous expedition, and had laid a good foundation for future operations. He had full confidence in his own ability to prosecute these operations successfully, and felt certain that evil and failure would result from his being supplanted, as he seemed to have reason to fear. Of himself and the Guiana chiefs he says: “I rather sought to win the kings than to sack them; I know what others will do when these kings come singly into their hands.”

No author of reputation, probably, who has written works which the world will not willingly let die,—works which have not died,—has done his literary work under greater disadvantages than Raleigh, or has enjoyed so little of the tranquillity of retirement, favourable to literary pursuits. It would appear from the date of publication, the end of the year 1595, that he must have been engaged in writing a book that became famous, while his expedition was actually in progress. In November he submitted a manuscript account of his Guiana voyage and travels, illustrated with a map, to Sir Robert Cecil. In a letter which accompanied it, he expresses his disappointment and surprise at the rejection of such a prize, as was never before offered to a Christian prince. In magnifying the value and importance of the acquisition within reach, he draws freely upon his imagination, and declares that the golden statues with which the city of Manoa abounds—which he has not seen—are worth at least £100,000 each! He urges that, whatever may be done about Guiana, or whoever may be sent to do it, the enterprise may not be soiled by cruelty, and plunder of the Indians. At the close of 1595 his work was published under the somewhat ponderous title, The Discovery of the large, rich, and beautiful Empire of Guiana, with a Relation of the Great and Golden City of Manoa, which the Spaniards call El Dorado, and of the provinces of Emeria, Arromaia, Amapaia, and other countries, with their Rivers adjoining. The book became famous throughout Europe. Two editions were published in England in 1596, and a Latin translation in Germany. Raleigh’s literary contemporaries at this period included such illustrious men as Shakespeare, Bacon, Hooker, and Marlowe. His book on Guiana is admitted to occupy the foremost place among the volumes describing voyages and discoveries, that appeared towards the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries, and has been republished in Hakluyt’s Voyages and Purchas’s Pilgrim.

SIR WALTER RALEIGH,
SAILOR, SCHOLAR, POET.
CHAPTER VI. NAVAL EXPEDITIONS—TRIAL AND EXECUTION.

The desirability of further crippling or arresting the reviving power of Spain, engaged the continued attention of the queen and her advisers, but there was much vacillation, on the part of the queen, with regard to actual operations. In 1596 a commission was appointed to act as a council of war, consisting of the Earl of Essex, Lord Charles Howard, High Admiral; Sir Walter Raleigh, and Lord Thomas Howard. Raleigh was treated with the highest consideration as an experienced and skilful naval authority. As Admiral of the Counties, he sent to the Council a valuable report on the defence of Cornwall and Devon. He was appointed collector of levies for a projected hostile expedition to Cadiz. In the prosecution of this work he displayed robust activity, recruiting all round the southern and south-eastern coasts, flitting about from place to place between Plymouth, Dover, Gravesend, and Blackwall as occasion required. On 1st June 1596, the forces collected put to sea, and on the 20th cast anchor in the Bay of San Sebastian. The English fleet, in four divisions, comprised 93 ships; an auxiliary Dutch squadron numbered 24 additional. The combined fleet had on board about 13,000 English soldiers and sailors, and 2600 Dutchmen.

RALEIGH AS SAILOR, SCHOLAR, POET.

This English Armada of 1596 was the “return match” for the “most happy and invincible Armada” of Philip of Spain, that visited, and was for the most part scattered, upon our shores in 1588. The English force, although very imposing, was much smaller than the array which Spain had made. As has been stated, the combined fleet consisted of 117 ships, carrying 15,600 men. The Spanish Armada embraced 130 ships, some of them of enormous size, carrying about 30,000 men all told, including “124 volunteers of quality, and 180 monks.” The Spanish expedition attracted the flower of the nobility of the nation, and the English Armada, in like manner, enlisted the sympathy, fired the patriotism, and inflamed the martial ardour of the flower of English chivalry. The most distinguished men in both arms of the service accompanied the expedition. Even amongst such associates in council and comrades in arms, Sir Walter Raleigh came to the front simply by his native force and merits; even in such a galaxy he shone the bright particular star—he was pre-eminently the hero of the expedition.

At the beginning of the battle of Cadiz, Raleigh, in compliance with the orders of the lord admiral, detached the ships under his charge and the Dutch squadron from the main body, and took up a favourable position for preventing the escape of Spanish ships from Cadiz harbour. He was directed to watch, but not to fight unless attacked. Lord Howard and the impetuous Essex, Raleigh being absent from their council, determined to open the action by military, in preference to naval operations—to land the soldiers and assault the town, leaving the Spanish fleet alone for the time. Raleigh detected in this a false and dangerous move, and despite his being a subordinate in command, interposed with promptitude and courage. He came up with Essex in the Repulse, when the embarkation of the soldiers was actually in progress. There was a heavy sea running, making the landing an enterprise to be attended with extreme difficulty and danger. He warmly remonstrated with Essex, and declared that this course imperilled their own lives, and risked the utter overthrow and ruin of the whole expedition. Essex deferred to Raleigh’s superior experience, judgment, and ability, and shifted the responsibility for the movement to the lord admiral, to whom, on board the Ark Royal, Raleigh immediately repaired,—now that he had boldly declared himself,—warmly supported by the highest military officers of the expedition. Lord Howard was converted to Raleigh’s views, which were in favour of immediate and vigorous action, but on a different plan. From his own ship, the War Sprite, Raleigh wrote a hurried letter to Lord Howard, advising the order of battle, which included the attack by well-manned boats upon the Spanish galleons, before they could be set on fire. Raleigh was at his best in this crisis. He bore himself with graceful courtesy towards his colleagues of the Council, and commanded, by his manifest grasp of the situation, his skill, intrepidity, and genius for rapid and vigorous action, their respect and admiration. Each of the four heads of the force was eager to lead the van, but they generously conceded the post of honour to Raleigh. Their final council before the action was held late on the evening of June 20th. Cadiz was illuminated, and its inhabitants carousing, and in the full enjoyment, as they supposed, of perfect security. At daybreak on the 21st June, the splendid English fleet swept into the harbour of Cadiz. Raleigh led in the War Sprite, followed by Sir George Carew in the Mary Rose, Sir Francis Vere in the Rainbow, Sir Robert Southwell in the Lion, Sir Conyers Clifford in the Dreadnought, and another ship, the six being a considerable distance in advance of the main body of the fleet. In front of them, under the walls of Cadiz, were seventeen galleons that were the special objects of attack. The forts and galleys opened fire upon the invading squadron, making a target of the leading War Sprite. Raleigh answered them not by shot from his guns, but, in contempt, by blasts from his trumpets. In his account of the action, he says that “the St. Philip, the great and famous ship of Spain, was the mark I shot at, esteeming those galleys but as wasps.” The St. Philip had a special claim upon his attention. It was the St. Philip and the St. Andrew that had been the principal actors in what Raleigh considered the murder of his gallant friend and companion-in-arms, Sir Richard Grenville, who in the fight at the Azores in 1591, in his ship the Revenge, with a hundred men, faced in battle, and was crushed by, a Spanish fleet, manned by fifteen thousand soldiers and sailors. Raleigh was determined to avenge the death of his gallant friend and kinsman, or to perish in the attempt. He came to anchor close to the galleons, and for three hours the battle raged with great fury. Raleigh’s ship was suffering severely, and he became impatient from the delay in the arrival of the boats. He put on his skiff, and urged first Essex and afterwards the admiral to make every possible effort to bring up the boats. During this short parley, and Raleigh’s absence from his ship, some of the other commanders, especially Sir Francis Vere in the Rainbow, had attempted to supplant the War Sprite. Vere, the marshal, had a rope attached from his own to Raleigh’s ship, to haul the Rainbow abreast of the leader. On Raleigh’s discovering this, he ordered the rope to be thrown off, and for the remainder of the fight the Rainbow, excepting a small part of the bows, was covered by the War Sprite. In Sir Walter’s spirited description of the action, he says:—

“Having no hope of my fly-boats to board, and the earl and my Lord Thomas having both promised to second me, I laid out a warp by the side of the Philip to shake hands with her, for with the wind we could not get aboard; which, when she and the rest perceived, finding also that the Repulse, seeing mine, began to do the like, and the rear-admiral my Lord Thomas, they all let slip, and ran aground, tumbling into the sea heaps of soldiers, as thick as if coals had been poured out of a sack in many ports at once, some drowned, and some sticking in the mud. The Philip and the St. Thomas burned themselves; the St. Matthew and the St. Andrew were recovered by our boats ere they could get out to fire them. The spectacle was very lamentable on their side; for many drowned themselves; many, half burned, leaped into the water; very many hanging by the ropes’ end, by the ships’ side, under the water even to the lips; many swimming with grievous wounds, stricken, under water, and put out of their pain; and withal so huge a fire, and such tearing of the ordnance in the great Philip and the rest when the fire came to them, as if a man had a desire to see hell itself, it was there most lively figured. Ourselves spared the lives of all after the victory, but the Flemings, who did little or nothing in the fight, used merciless slaughter, till they were by myself, and afterwards by my lord admiral, beaten off.”

In the action Raleigh received a serious wound in the leg, his flesh was torn by splinters, which disabled him from taking part in the land attack. Although his wound was excessively painful, he was unwilling to be left behind, and had himself carried into Cadiz on a litter. But a town in process of being sacked by soldiers freed from discipline and restraint, grievously hurt as he was, and suffering the agony he did, was no place for him, and he was speedily carried back to the War Sprite. Early next morning, however, eager in spirit although physically unfit for arduous duty, he went ashore again, and entreated for leave to follow a fleet of richly-laden Spanish carracks, Indian bound, that had escaped. The disturbance and excitement attending the operations on land, prevented attention being given to Raleigh’s request. In the interim of his waiting for authority, the Spanish commander, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, settled the matter by burning the whole fleet of rich argosies. Raleigh had the mortification of witnessing the conflagration from the deck of the War Sprite. Of the large fleet of Spain that had been completely defeated, only two ships, the St. Matthew and the St. Andrew, remained for the victors to take home as prizes to England.