Ralegh himself came very badly out of the division (probably through the cleverness of Robert Cecil), and he did not scruple to write very frankly to Lord Burghley his opinion of the business. "The Erle of Cumberland is allowed £36,000, and his accompt came but to £19,000: so as he hath £17,000 profytt, who adventured for himselfe; and we that served the Queen and assisted her service, have not our own again. Besides I gave my ship's sayles and cables to furnish the Caraque and bring her home, or else she had perished: my ship first bourded her, and onely staid with her; and brought her into harborough or else she had perished uppon Silley. I was not present, and therefore had no extraordinary profytt: I was the cause that all this came to the Queene.... I that adventured all my estate, lose of my principall and they have double...."
Robert Cecil was one of the few Elizabethan men with any pretence to greatness who was before all else designing and crafty. He had a genius for cold scheming. About this time he began to realize that Ralegh was too impetuous, and too great to be a convenient friend. And so he quietly set about to sap Ralegh's influence, though on the surface he remained as friendly as he had ever been, and let his son stay with the Raleghs at Sherborne. Robert Cecil was a politician and nothing else.
And now Ralegh made Sherborne, in the county of Dorset, his centre, from which he transacted all the manifold business of his life. Here, as in Youghal, he planted trees and flowers. He thought with Lord Bacon that "God Almighty first planted a garden, and indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures: it is the greatest refreshment to the spirits of a man; without which buildings and handiworks are but gross handiworks:" even as he would think with Bacon, "It is a poor centre of a man's actions, himself. It is right earth; for that only stands fast upon his own centre, whereas all things that have affinity with the heavens, move upon the centre of another, which they benefit." For he was working towards the realization of his great dream, which would bring prosperity and wealth once for all to England and England's greatest Queen, Elizabeth. He now had all the things which are wont to make for comfort and contentment: but he was not a man for whom ease had any attraction. He strained every effort, even amidst the peace and beauty of the country which he loved, to the arduous enterprise which he had set himself—to explore the little-known country of Guiana—an enterprise in which many brave men were known to have lost their lives.
CHAPTER XI
THE KINGDOM IN GUIANA
Ralegh leaves England—Arrives at Trinidad—Taking of S. Joseph—Interviews with Berreo—Dealings with natives—Starts up the river in boats—Dangers overcome—Adventures—They reach River Amana—Indian village—Within sight of Guiana—Toparimaca—Beauty of the land—Falls of the Caroli—The return—Voyage home—Arrival in England.
Although travel was slow and involved great physical endurance, there was never a time when men less loved their homes and firesides. The scene again changes. Many things called Ralegh; the spirit of unrest was always strong in him; he was always longing to get right away. The little things of life pressed upon him, and drove him to seek respite and quiet in the Unknown. And the Unknown held for him immense possibilities; the kingdom he desired to establish haunted his imagination more imperiously even than the actual release from the life and surroundings which quickly to his spirit became dull and commonplace. His nature was too high bred to endure with patience, until it was confronted by the inevitable; and there was very little that to his nature was inevitable. The barriers that would have stopped a smaller nature were pushed on one side by him, and even when Fate held him fast, he ultimately triumphed by turning his bondage to magnificent account. The spirit of life was with him always stronger than his fear of being called a coward, stronger even than his pride. And always when he at length realized a thing to be inevitable, he faced it at his full stature.