Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

Fondness for reading.

love of science.

CHAP. VI. with his reading on shore, he carried with him a collection of books on his voyages, and strictly economized his time. His love of science and experiment was so ardent, that his chemical pursuits and his study of natural history were enthusiastically pursued at sea. Whatever corner of the world he sought, his curiosity was active, and his observation unremitting. In his last fatal voyage, when broken by disease and disappointment, his Manuscript Journal, which is preserved in the British Unweariel Museum, shows the same unwearied love of science. He goes ashore with his Indian guide, "to discover the trees which yield balsamum, of which he had found a nut smelling like angelica, and exceeding pretious ;" and on one of its blank leaves he has sketched a representation of some of the fruits of the country. Shortly before his death, in one of his conversations with Sir Thomas Wilson in the Tower, he alludes to a machine which he had invented for turning sea water into fresh; and even in those melancholy hours he took pleasure in explaining to him a theory he had formed to account for the saltness of the ocean. His knowledge of chemistry and medicine seems to have led him into that unhappy practice of almost daily drugging himself, which is so common a weakness amongst literary and sedentary men. In his letters to his wife from the Tower, he asks her in the same sentence, to send him his manuscripts, and "his powder of steel and dumex, with some more bitony." Fondness for He was fond of music, and it seems to have been an hereditary taste in his family, for his brother, Sir Carew Raleigh, performed delicately on the olpharion, an instrument probably similar to the lute; and his grandnephews, Walter and Tom, had delicate tunable voices, and played well on the violin.* In the productions of the sister art of painting he took much delight, carrying his favourite pictures with him even on his voyages, and extending his patronage to the best artists of his time, by sitting to them himself, and employing them to paint his

Chemistry.

music.

* Aubrey, Raleigh's Works, vol. viii. p. 737.

a fine armoury.

66

Personal

wife and children.* He was fond also of antiquarian CHAP. VL studies,† a purchaser of ancient records and rare charte, Antiquarian and not only prided himself upon the rich inlaid coat of studies. silver mail which he wore on gala days, but had collected In architecture his taste was sumptuous. Durham House, where he lived during his greatness, is described by Aubrey as a noble palace; yet he left the spacious apartments to his family, and for himself preferred a small library which enjoyed an extensive view over the river. "I well remember his study," says His study. this amusing and garrulous author; "which was on a little turret that looked into and over the Thames, and had the prospect, which is pleasant perhaps as any in the world, and which not only refreshes the eyesight, but cheers the spirits." In his best time there was an air of dignity and command about him, an awfulness and ascendency," as it is well expressed by Aubrey, "above appearance other mortals," which was displeasing to many, and particularly to the king; yet by his sailors and ships' crews, as we learn from Cecil, he was wonderfully beloved. The interior of his palace was magnificent, his taste in furniture being marked by the same love of splendour which appeared in his dress. He delighted in richlycarved panels, in antique chimneypieces, in decorating the walls and ceilings of his apartments with his armorial bearings, in beds with green silk hangings, and legs like dolphins, overlaid with gold. His splendid dress, his Splendour in shoes and doublet studded with precious stones, have dress. been already described.§ Perhaps he indulged in it to a weakness; but it was an age of magnificence, and it is to be remembered that this wealth in jewels was in Raleigh the result, not of extravagance, but of the rich prizes which he had taken from the Spaniards. He glittered with the spoils of the New World; but his jewels were the insignia of his skill and bravery, the fruits not of purchase but of honourable conquest.

*See Note on the Portrait of Raleigh engraved for this Work. Appendix. Raleigh's Ghost, p. 10. Oldys, p. 321.

Oldys, p. 317. § Supra, p. 201.

CHAP. VI

Carew
Raleigh.

It is the privilege of great men to reflect an importance His family. and interest upon the history of their descendants, and the mind feels a pleasing curiosity in the inquiry how much or how little of the father's genius has been transmitted to his children. But in the present case we are staid on the very threshold of the question. The fiery and ambitious spirit of Raleigh's early years is discernible in his eldest son, Walter; but it was suddenly extinguished in this brave youth, who fell at Santa Thome, in his twenty-third year. Of Carew Raleigh, his only surviving son, the character seems to have been moulded by the melancholy circumstances under which he grew up. Born in the Tower, he opened his eyes only to see his father a prisoner; his boyhood was clouded by the melancholy circumstances under which that father's life was cruelly cut off. When introduced at court his likeness to Raleigh awoke a pang of remorse in the bosom of the monarch, and James, turning away from him, observed, that “ he looked like his father's ghost." Warned by this, Carew took the advice of his kinsman, the Earl of Pembroke, and retired to the Continent till the beginning of a new reign. On his return, after this Restoration event, he petitioned parliament for his restoration in blood, upon which the king informed him that when Prince of Wales, he had pledged his word to secure Sherborne to the Earl of Bristol against the heirs of Sir Walter Raleigh, and that having received, in consequence of this stipulation, ten thousand pounds from that nobleman, he must adhere to his engagement. "The first step, therefore," said Charles, "to your restoration, must be your renouncing all title to your father's property." Against this cruel and unjust condition, Carew strongly remonstrated; but the sovereign resolutely refused to pass the bill unless it was fulfilled; and young Raleigh, who was promised promotion at court, purchased the reversal of his attainder at the price of the estate of Sherborne, which was settled on the earl just mentioned, and yet remains in the possession of his descendants.

in blood.

Cruel

conditions.

APPENDIX.

A. Raleigh's Account of Guiana defended-B. Club at the Mermaid-
C. Raleigh's alleged Attempt to stab himself-D. Hume's Errors in his
Account of Raleigh-E. Cecil's Enmity to Raleigh-F. Raleigh's Plot
-Its Origin and Secret History-G. Errors of Mr D'Israeli-H. Raleigh
and the French Agent-Extracts from the Manuscripts in the State-paper
Office-I. Raleigh in the Tower-His Unpublished Manuscripts-Hamp-
den-K. Inventory of Raleigh's Jewels and Trinkets, from State-paper
Office-L. Portrait of Raleigh.

A.-Page 134-145.

Raleigh's Account of Guiana defended.

Account of

HUME has attacked Raleigh's Account of Guiana in a manner APPENDIX which evinces clearly that, with his constitutional indolence, he had scarcely dipped into it. He accuses him of having Guiana published an account of the country, on his return from his expedition up the Orinoco, "full of the grossest and most palpable lies that were ever attempted to be imposed on the credulity of mankind." For this sentence he quotes the respectable authority of Camden; but in turning to that writer (Life and Reign of Elizabeth, in Kennet, vol. ii. p. 584), the reader will be surprised to find how completely the historian has mistaken, or, through carelessness, perverted his meaning. The passage in Camden, relative to Raleigh's account of Guiana, is this:- -"He that would know more of this expedition may consult an ingenious book of his relating to it; wherein he gives a most accurate description of the countries, as if he had been born and bred there; and concludes that Guiana must needs be a wealthy country, not only from the beautiful marcasites found there, but from the writings of the Spaniards, and upon the credit and report of the barbarians; of whom yet he could but have little knowledge; but, indeed, chiefly from the sanguine complexion of his own hopes and desires. He likewise relates some things which appear fabulous enough, viz. of the Amazons, and a certain nation of people whose shoulders are so high that their face is placed in their breast; a secret which poets and travellers had never before discovered."

[ocr errors]

APPENDIX

Camden and
Hume.

Mermaid club.

The reader will at once perceive the difference between the careful and candid observations of Camden,-in which ne certainly reflects upon the two sanguine and credulous temperament of Raleigh,—and the sweeping and coarse accusation of Hume, who ascribes to him a premeditated plan of imposition and falsehood. Within the limits of a short note, it is impossible to analyze Raleigh's account of Guiana; but any one who will peruse it with common attention, will be satisfied of the extreme injustice and the unfounded aspersions now alluded to. Raleigh takes the utmost pains to state what he saw with his own eyes, what he was told by the Spaniards or by the natives of the country, and what he inferred of the great riches of Guiana from their accounts compared with his own observations. The truth seems to have been, that Hume, glancing over this "Account of the Discovery of Guiana" with the same indolent rapidity which has elsewhere led him into material errors, found stories of the Amazons, of a nation called Ewaipona, whose heads appear not above their shoulders, and who are reported to have their eyes placed there; of a cacique, who he was informed had had buried with him a chair of gold most curiously wrought, and of the wonderful city of Manoa, and its astonishing riches and extent; and finding all this, which is related by Raleigh from the Spanish historians and the narratives of the natives, he was little careful to examine farther, and at once threw aside the book as a tissue of lies and imposture. It is extraordinary that this historian, who is often so acute, and so fair in weighing the conduct and appreciating the motives of other men, should appear to see every thing regarding Raleigh through a false and distorting medium,—that he should not have asked himself the question, What possible object could this able man have gained by losing his fortune, his health, and latterly his life, in attempting the discovery and conquest of Guiana, had he not believed in the picture which he has drawn of it, and the riches which it would bring to himself and to his country? But upon this subject the reader is referred to the observations already made in the text, pp. 132, 134, and to another article of this Appendix, D.

B.-Page 173.

Club at the Mermaid.

IN Gifford's Life of Jonson, pp. 65, 66, is this passage," Sir Walter Raleigh, previously to his unfortunate engagement with the wretched Cobham and others, had instituted a meeting of

« ForrigeFortsæt »