Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

was thoroughly satisfied of my innocency; they would otherwise never have moved his majesty on my behalf.

The wife, the brother, and the son of a king, do not use to sue for men suspect; but, sir, since they all have done it out of their charity, and but with references to me alone, your honour, (whose respect hath only relation to his majesty's service,) strengthened by the example of those princes, may with the more hardiness do the like, being princes to whom his majesty's good estate is no less dear, and all men that shall oppugn it no less hateful than to the king himself.

It is true, sir, that his majesty hath sometimes answered, that his counsel knew me better than he did; meaning some two or three of them; and it was indeed my infelicity; for had his majesty known me, I had never been here where I now am; or had I known his majesty, they had never been so long there where they now are. His majesty not knowing of me hath been my ruin, and his majesty misknowing of them hath been the ruin of a goodly part of his estate: but they are all of them now, some living and some dying, come to his majesty's knowledge. But, sir, how little soever his majesty knew me, and how much soever he believed them, yet have I been bound to his majesty both for my life and all that remains, of which, but for his majesty, nor life nor ought else had remained. In this respect, sir, I am bound to yield up the same life, and all I have for his majesty's service: to die for the king, and not by the king, is all the ambition I have in the world.

WALTER RALEGH.

To his Wife, from Guiana.

Sweet heart,

I CAN yet write unto you but with a weak hand, for I have suffered the most violent calenture for fifteen days that ever man did, and lived: but God, that gave me a strong heart in all my adversities, hath also now strengthened it in the hell-fire of heat.

We have had two most grievous sicknesses in our ship,

of which forty-two have died, and there are yet many sick, but having yet recovered the land of Guiana, this 12th of November, I hope we shall recover them. We are yet two hundred men, and the rest of the fleet reasonable strong, strong enough, I hope, to perform what we have undertaken, if the diligent care at London to make our strength known to the Spaniard by his ambassador have not taught the Spanish king to fortify all the entrances against us. Howsoever, we must make the adventure, and if we perish it shall be no honour for England, nor gain for his majesty, to lose among many other one hundred as valiant gentlemen as England hath in it.

Of captain Baylies base running from us at the Canaries see a letter of Kemish's to Mr. Story, and of the unnatural weather, storms, and rains, and winds. He hath in the same letter given a touch of the way, that, which ever hath been sailed in fourteen days, we hardly performed in forty days. God, I trust, will give us comfort in that which is

to come.

me.

In passing by the Canaries I stayed at Gomerah, where I took water in peace, because the country durst not deny it I received there from the countess (of an English race) a present of oranges, lemons, quinces a, and pomegranates, without which I could not have lived; those I preserved in fresh sand, and I have of them yet to my great refreshing. Your son had never so good health, having no manner of distemper in all that heat under the line. My servants have escaped but Crab and my cook, yet all have had the sickness. Crofts, and March, and the rest are all well. Remember my service to my lord Carew and Mr. secretary Winwood.

I wrote not to them, for I can write of nought but miseries yet. Of men of sort, we have lost our sergeant-major captain Piggot, and his lieutenant, captain Edward Hastings, who would have died had he stayed in London, for both his liver, spleen, and brains, were rotten. My son's lieutenant Payton, and my cousin Mr. Hews, Mr. a Citrons, MS. Ashm. 781. Limes, ibid. 830.

Mordant, Mr. Gardiner, Mr. Hayward, captain Jenning, the merchant, Kemish of London, and the master chirurgeon, Mr. Refiner, Mr. Moor the governor of the Barmoudas, our provost marshal William Steed, lieutenant Vescie, but to mine extraordinary grief, Hammon and Talbot. By the next I trust you shall hear better of us; in God's hands we are, and in him we trust.

This bearer, captain Alley, for his infirmity of his head, I have sent back, an honest, valiant man; he can deliver you all that is past. Commend me to my worthy friends at Lothbury, to John Leigh and Mr. Bower, whose nephew Knevit is well, and to my cousin Blundel, and my most devoted and humble service to the queen's majesty.

To tell you that I might be here king of the Indians were a vanity; but my name hath still lived amongst them; here they feed me with fresh water and meat, and all that the country yields; all offer to obey me. Commend me to poor Carew my son.

[blocks in formation]

As I have not hitherto given you any account of our proceedings and passages towards the Indies, so have I no other subject to write of, since our arrival, than of the greatest and sharpest misfortunes that have ever befallen any man for whereas, for the first, all those that navigate between Cape de Verd and America do pass it in fifteen or twenty days at most, we found the winds so contrary, and (which is also contrary to nature) so many storms and rains, as we spent six weeks in the passage, by reason whereof, and that in so great heat, we wanted water: for at the isle of Prano, [Praya, St. Jago,] off Cape de Verd, we lost our anchors and cables, and our water-casks, being driven from the island with a hurricano, and were like all to have pe

rished. Great sickness also fell amongst us, and carried away great companies, and numbers of our ablest men both for sea and land. The seventeenth of November, [1617,] we had sight of the coasts of Guiana, and soon after came to anchor in five degrees at the river Calliana; here we stayed till the fourth of December, landed our sick men, set up the barges and shallops which we brought out of England in quarters, washed our ships, and took in fresh water, being fed and cherished by the Indians of my old acquaintance, with a great deal of love and respect. Myself having been sick and in the hands of death, without any hope, some six weeks, (and yet not able otherwise to move, than as I was carried in a chair,) gave order to five small ships to sail into Oroonoko, having captain Keymis for their conductor towards the mines; and in those five ships five companies of fifty under the command of captain Parker and captain North, brethren to the lord Mounteagle and the lord North, valiant gentlemen, and of infinite patience for the labour, hunger, and heat which they have endured; my son had the third company; captain Thornix of Kent the fourth company; captain Chudley, by his lieutenant, the fifth but as my sergeant-major, captain Piggot of the Low Countries, died in the former miserable passage, so now my lieutenant, sir Warham Saint Leger, lay sick without hope of life, and the charge was conferred on my nephew George Ralegh, who had also served long with singular commendations in the Low Countries, but by reason of my absence, and of sir Warham's, was not so well obeyed as the enterprise required. As they passed up the river, the Spaniards began the war, and shot at us both with their ordnance and muskets, whereupon the companies were forced to charge them, and soon after beat them out of the town. In the assault whereof my son (having more desire of honour than safety) was slain, and with him (to say truth) all the respects of this world have taken end in me. And although these five captains had as weak companies as ever followed any valiant leaders, yet were there amongst them some twenty or thirty very adventurous gentlemen,

and of singular courage; as of my son's company, Mr. Knivet, Mr. Hammond, Mr. Langworth, Mr. John Pleasington; his officers, sir John Heydon, Mr. Simon Leak, corporal of the field, Mr. Hammond's elder brother, Mr. Nicholas of Buckingham, Mr. William Herbert, Mr. Roberts of Kent, Mr. Perin, Mr. Tresham, Mr. Mollineaux, Mr. Winter and his brother, Mr. Wray, Mr. Miles Herbert, Mr. Bradshaw, captain Hall, and others.

Sir, I have set down the names of these gentlemen, to the end that if his majesty shall have cause to use their service, it may please you to take notice of them for very sufficient men. The other five ships stayed at Trinidado, having no other port capable of them near Guiana. The second ship was commanded by my vice-admiral captain John Pennington, of whom (to do him right) I must needs confess he is one of the sufficientest gentlemen for the sea England hath. The third by sir Warham Saint Leger, an exceeding valiant and worthy gentleman. The fourth by sir John Fern; the fifth by captain Chudley of Devon. With these five ships I daily attended the armado of Spain, which had they set upon us, our force being divided, the one half in Oroonoko, an hundred and fifty miles from us, we had not only been torn in pieces, but all those in the river had also perished, being of no defence at all for sea-fight; for we were resolved to have burnt by their sides, and to have died there, had the armado arrived: but belike they stayed for us at Margarita, by which they knew we must pass towards the Indies; for it pleased his majesty to value us at so little, as to command me upon my allegiance to set down under my hand the country and the very river by which I was to enter it, to set down the number of my men, and the burden of my ships, with what ordnance every ship carried; which being made known to the Spanish ambassador, and by him, in post, sent to the king of Spain, a despatch was made and letters sent from Madrid, before my departure out of the Thames; for his first letter, sent by a bark of advice, was dated the 14th of March, 1617, at Madrid, which letter I have here enclosed sent your honour; the

« ForrigeFortsæt »