Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

4

Introduction
at Court.

CHAP. II.

HIS extraordinary services in Ireland were of themselves sufficient to recommend Ralegh to the favour of Queen Elizabeth. But tradition has related an incident, which, however romantic it may appear, has been seriously recorded by grave and approved authors', and which ascribes to his gallantry his first introduction to his sovereign. The queen in her walks met one day, it is said, with a dirty spot in the road, which made her hesitate about proceeding. Our gallant young soldier, whose person was handsome, and his address graceful, threw off his new plush mantle, and spread it for Her Majesty, who trod gently over the fair carpet, surprised and pleased at the adventure'. The queen admitted him to her court, and he was employed by her in 1582, first to attend Simier, the artful agent of the Duke of Anjou her proposed husband, on his return into France; and afterward to escort the duke himself to Antwerp, after the final breaking-off of this intended alliance. In Leicester's Commonwealth, a tract to which Camden has given Attends Simier great credit, we read, that in revenge for Simier's discovery to the queen of Leicester's secret marriage with the widow of Essex, the earl's revenge went so far as to lead him to employ pirates to sink the ambassador at sea; and the author writes, "though they missed of this practice (as not daring to set upon him for fear of some of Her Majesty's ships, who, to break off this designment, attended by special commandment to waft him over in safety,) yet the aforesaid English gentlemen were holden four hours in chase at their coming

1582.

to France.

Fuller's Worthies in Devon, &c.

2 The use of coaches was introduced by the Earl of Arundel shortly after this time, (Anderson I. 421.) Till then, on public occasions, the queen rode behind her chamberlain.

3 Less credible is Fuller's other story, that

Ralegh coming to court, and finding hope of the queen's favour, wrote in a conspicuous place,

Fain would I climb, yet fear I to fall: under which Her Majesty wrote, If thy heart fail thee, climb not at all. 4 Quarto, 1641, p. 37.

back,

back, as Mr. Ralegh well knoweth, being then present: and two of the chasers named Clark and Harris confessed afterward the whole designment."

Attends the

Dake of Anjou

to Antwerp.

When the duke himself left this kingdom, the queen attended him in person as far as Dover, and a splendid retinue of nobles and gentlemen, among whom was Ralegh, waited upon him to Antwerp, Ralegh appears to have made a longer stay there than Howard, Leicester, young Sidney, and others of the retinue; and from the. opportunity which he had of becoming personally acquainted with the Prince of Orange, to have been honoured by him with some esspecial commands to Queen Elizabeth. In an essay written by him many years afterward, he ascribes the flourishing state of the Hollanders to the favour and assistance of our crown, " which," he writes, "the late worthy and famous Prince of Orange did always acknowledge; and in the year 1582, when I took my leave of him at Antwerp, after the return of the Earl of Leicester into England, and Monsieur's arrival there, when he delivered me his letters. to Her Majesty, he prayed me to say to the queen from him, Sub umbra alarum tuarum protegimur, for certainly they had withered in the bud, and sank in the beginning of their navigation, had not Her Majesty assisted them". During the Munster rebellion a disagreement of some consequence Quarrel with had taken place between Lord Grey and Ralegh. In August, 1582, that nobleman resigned the sword of Ireland; and it was probably soon afterward, that the matter alluded to was brought to a hearing in this country.. A crowd of later writers, vainly attempting to excel the more genuine authority of Sir Robert Naunton, and taking principally conjecture for their guide, have attributed the origin of this dispute to various causes. Some have repeated the preference given to Captain Zouch in the government of Munster'; while others have ascribed to Ralegh a too eager pursuit of honour unac-

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

Lord Grey.

com-

Second adven

ture with Gilbert.

companied by exact obedience to military command. It is, however,
vain for us to attempt to find the true cause, when Naunton himself
was ignorant of it, whose words on the occasion are "I am some-
what confident, that among the second causes of his growth, was the
variance between him and my Lord General Grey, in his second
descent into Ireland, which drew them both over to the council-
table, there to plead their own causes; where what advantage he had
in the case in controversy I know not, but he had much the better
in the manner of telling his tale; insomuch as the queen and the
lords took no slight mark of the man and his parts, for from thence
he came to be known, and to have access to the lords; and then we
are not to doubt how such a man would comply to progression; and
whether or no my Lord of Leicester had then cast in a good word
for him to the queen, which would have done him no harm, I do
not determine; but true it is he had gotten the queen's ear in a trice,
and she began to be taken with his election, and loved to hear his
reasons to her demands. And the truth is, she took him for a kind
of oracle, which nettled them all; yea, those that he relied on be-
gan to take this his sudden favour for an alarm, and to be sensible
of their own supplantion, and to project his; which made him
shortly after sing,

"Fortune, my foe, why dost thou frown 9."

To this I may add, that the probability that Leicester was instru-
mental in the advancement of Ralegh, appears to be strengthened
by the letter from the latter to that powerful favourite, quoted in the
preceding chapter.

But the inactive life of a courtier was ill-adapted to the enterpri-
sing spirit of Ralegh. Sir Humphrey Gilbert's patent already men-
tioned in Chap. I. was dated June 11th, 1578, and allowed him six
years from that day for taking possession of the territories which he
designed to colonize. His fruitless attempt in 1579 has already

Oldys, in his Life of Ralegh, p. 11, justly censures Naunton for an error, in ascribing to Ralegh two expeditions into Ireland, in the early part of his life. The first of these Sir Robert places before the expedi

tion to the Netherlands, and, what is sur-
prising, appears ignorant of Ralegh's long ser-
vice in France.

Fragmenta Regalia.

been

1

1

been related. The great preparations he then made, and the miscarriage of the expedition, had so impaired his fortune, that he was for a time obliged to lay aside the project. He then granted assignments from his general grant to some persons of property, for planting and fortifying about the river Canada; but his assigns proving likewise dilatory, he now once more undertook voyage in person to Newfoundland to keep his patent in force. It was probably with a view that it should accompany his brother, that Ralegh had built a vessel of two hundred tons burthen, which he called Bark Ralegh. At any rate he determined to hold a share in the expedition, though not in person; and accordingly fitted out this bark at his own expence. Sir Humphrey, by the assistance of Sir George Peckham and others, collected four more vessels. The interest which the queen took in his welfare and success, is described in the following letter to him from Ralegh:

"BROTHER,

"I HAVE sent you a token from Her Majesty, an anchor guided by a lady as you see; and farther, Her Highness willed me to send you word, that she wished you as great good hap and safety to. your ship, as if herself were there in person, desiring you to have care of yourself as of that which she tendereth; and therefore, for her sake, you must provide for it accordingly. Farther she commandeth, that you leave your picture with me.. For the rest I leave till our meeting, or to the report of this bearer, who would needs be the messenger of this good news: so I commit you to the will and protection of God, who send us such life or death as he shall please, or hath appointed! Richmond, this Friday morning,

"To
my Brothers

"Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Kt."

10 The indorsement informs us, that this letter was received March 18th, 1583. Pomerey Gilbert, Esq. fort-major at Plymouth,

Your true brother,

W. RALEGH"."

and a descendant of Sir Humphrey, furnished
Dr. Birch a copy from the original.-See Dr.
B's Collections in Brit. Mus. No. 4231.
The

3.

Obtains letters

patent for discoveries.

The little fleet was equipped with 260 men, including shipwrights, masons, carpenters, smiths, refiners, and musicians. It sailed from Plymouth on the 11th of June, 1583; and at midnight on the 13th following Bark-Ralegh, fortunately for her owner, was obliged to part company with the fleet on account of a contagious disease among the crew, and she returned to Plymouth in great distress ". The tragical conclusion of this voyage is, that after reaching Newfoundland, and taking possession in right of the English crown, two of Sir Humphrey's vessels were lost on their passage home; in one of which he himself suffered, and only one ship of the fleet returned to England.

In a mind less enterprising than Ralegh's the ill-success of this attempt, and the loss of life and fortune, which his brother had suffered, would have proved sufficient to have damped the ardour of maritime enterprize. His aspiring character, however, rose superior to all these difficulties; and no sooner was his ship returned from the last expedition, than we find him projecting a new one, in which he was himself to be the principal proprietor. The discoveries of Columbus, the conquests of Cortez, Pizarro, and other Spanish leaders, who, under Charles, and his son Philip II. had so surprisingly extended the dominions of their princes, had been the favourite subjects of his early reading and conversation. His noble genius had been so possessed with the idea of such grand and national undertakings, that no trifling personal inconveniences, or particular misadventures, could daunt him from attempting them. The Spaniards had as yet settled only on the middle and southern parts of America, and vast territories remained to the North as fit for settlement, and as easy of conquest. Their way into the gulph of Mexico was by St. Domingo and Hispaniola, where the currents and tradewinds ran together, and set into the bay. They came out by the Havanna and the channels of Bahama, since called the gulph of

* See Capt. Edward Haies' (who accompanied the expedition) Report of the voyage in Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 4S, he adds, the rea

son I could never understand-sure I am no cost was spared by their owner Mr. Ralegh in setting them forth, therefore I leave it unto God.

Florida;

« ForrigeFortsæt »