The first day of their return they sped down the stream of the great river against the wind one hundred miles, and anchored at the port of Morequito; and immediately a messenger was sent to bid the old king come. Once more Ralegh had a long conference with him concerning the kingdom of Guiana, and once more he was impressed by the wisdom of the old man's replies to his questions. Francis Sparrow and a boy, Harry Gordon, were left to learn the language till Ralegh came next year, equipped to conquer the land; and a young native was to go with them to England.
On their journey back to the sea they stayed several times to confer with native kings and find out how they were disposed towards the Spaniards and towards Tuga, the Emperor of Guiana. At the very end of their expedition they found the greatest peril awaiting them. "When we were arrived at the seaside, then grew our greatest doubt and the bitterest of all our journey fore-passed, for I protest before God we were in a most desperate estate.... There arose a mighty storm, and the river's mouth was at least a league broad, so as we ran before night close under the land with our small boats and brought the galley as near as we could, but she had as much ado to live as could be, and there wanted little of her sinking and all those in her.... The longer we tarried the worse it was, and therefore I took Captain Gifford, Captain Calfield, and my cousin Grenville into my barge, and after it cleared up about midnight we put ourselves to God's keeping and thrust out into the sea, leaving the galley at anchor, who durst not adventure out but by daylight. And so being all very sober and melancholy, one faintly cheering another to shew courage, it pleased God that the next day, about nine of the clock, we descried the island of Trinidado, and steering for the nearest part of it, we kept the shore until we came to Curiapan, where we found our ships an anchor, than which there was never to us a more joyful sight.
"Now it have pleased God to send us safe to our ships it is time to leave Guiana to the sun whom they worship, and steer away to the north."
So Ralegh and his brave men set their sails for England. Many hours in his cabin he must have enjoyed the luxury of rest, working out in his mind the time and proper equipment for the great expedition which he would lead back to the land which he had prospected. His imagination would picture to him the careful opponents who would be ready to put forward drawbacks and dangers; and he would answer them with such conviction that the most careful would gradually catch a part of his ardour. Guiana would be the topic of all Englishmen, and England's ultimate glory. He would view again the beauty of the land and its fertility, the broad plains and the thick woods, where birds of every brilliant colour flew, he would see the deer coming to drink at the water's edge, the refiner's basket, and the gold waiting to be worked out of the ground, and the precious stones waiting to be cut; the crystal, the sapphire, the lustre. He had his map, he had friends among the natives, he had made all ready for the great occupation. "The common soldier shall here fight for gold, and pay himself, instead of pence, with plates of half-a-foot broad, whereas he breaketh his bones in other wars for provant and penury. Those commanders and chieftains that shoot at honour and abundance, shall find there more rich and beautiful cities, more temples adorned with golden images, more sepulchres filled with treasure than either Cortez found in Mexico, or Pizzaro in Peru, and the shining glory of this conquest will eclipse all those so far extended beams of the Spanish nation."
He arrived in England in August, 1595, having been absent not quite seven months. On all sides he met with opposition and disbelief. Some, the graver sort, considered it better to husband their forces, to repel the threatened invasion of Philip, who had sworn "to avenge the destruction of the Armada on Elizabeth, if he were reduced to pawn the last candlestick on his domestic altar." Others were angry that Ralegh had brought back no cargoes of gold and precious stones; others, again, laughed at him, saying that he had never been to Guiana at all, but had been lurking in Cornwall: that the whole thing was a cock and bull story to regain favour at Court. He, sneered they, was too easeful and sensual to endure the discomfort of so long a journey. Where were the riches which he would have taken, as Drake took, had he really been to Guiana? To which Ralegh answered proudly, "It became not the former fortune in which I once lived to go journies of picory: and it had sorted ill with the offices of honour, which, by her Majestie's grace I hold this day in England, to run from cape to cape, and from place to place, for the pillage of ordinary prizes."
His reception exasperated him; but he did not give way. In five months he fitted out another expedition under Captain Keymis; and wrote a full account of the voyage he had himself taken. But this second expedition was too small to do anything else than keep in touch with the native friends, and to find fresh information.
Ralegh's efforts were unavailing. To found the empire in Guiana became his life's purpose, and he strove to attain it with all the resources of his energy. But the course of events was too strong for him, and he could not make men see far enough ahead of immediate gain. Many years later his scorn at their apathy broke out again, when, in writing his "History of the World," he is describing Roman energy in the founding of colonies: "Such an offer, were it made in England, concerning either Virginia or Guiana, it selfe would not overjoy the multitude. But the Commonalty of Rome tooke this in so good part, notwithstanding all danger, joined with the benefit, that Flaminius had ever after their good will." There is something indescribably pathetic in this personal touch—of the prisoner recording the fame of a man who had been honoured for offering less to his people than the prisoner himself had offered, and at less personal risk—Flaminius supported, Ralegh hindered—each by the nation which he most desired to serve.
Edmund Spenser felt for him a friend's sympathy when he wrote in the Faërie Queene—
And shame on you, O Men, which boast your strong
And valiant hearts, in thoughts lesse hard and bold,
Yet quaile in conquest of that Land of Gold!
But this to you, O Britons, most pertaines,
To whom the right hereof itselfe hath sold,
The whiche, for sparing little cost or paines,
Loose so immortall glory, and so endless gaines.