hurt, and two killed outright by an ambuscade of Spaniards and Spanish Indians. Within two days after, the boats again were manned, and they carried with them provision for four days, the time limited for their return: but they stayed from the rest 20 or 21 days: almost to the famishing of them all. And whereas the mine was described to be three miles short of the town, they went not only three miles but three score leagues beyond it,1 till at last they were forced to return; and had they found a mine, they must have come back for spades, pickaxes, and refiners, for none of these carried they with them. The 13th of February we at Trinidado received news from them in the river, of the taking of the town and the missing of the mine. Sir Walter protested to the Captains (as most of them told me) his own innocency, which to approve he would call Kemis to a public account in their presence before he spake with him privately; which he never performed. At their coming to us, which was the second of March, Sir Walter made a motion of going back again, and he would bring them to the mine: the performance of which at that time was altogether improbable, if not impossible. Our men weary, our boats split, our ships foul, and our victuals well-nigh spent. Then again for the taking of St. Joseph's, which the next morning was left of, and we disembogued. From thence we fell down to the Caribee Islands till we came to Mœnis : there we put into the bay the 12th of March. In which time Sir Walter promised to propound unto the Captains very often, as I heard, some new project; speaking of a French Commission, which I never saw, nor any man that I know of. He now likewise freely gave leave to any of the Captains to leave him if they pleased, or thought they could better themselves in their own intendments; whereupon Captain Whitney and Captain Wolleston, with their ships, left him the sixth of March. Sir Warham St. Leger (as I have often heard him very confidently report) privately one day desired to know of Sir Walter, whether he intended to come for England or no? To which he answered (with reverence to God and your Lordships be it spoken) that by God he would never come there, for if they got him there, they would hang him, or to that purpose. Being desired then by Sir Warham to tell him what course he would take, he said he would go to Newfoundland, victual and trim his ships, and then lie off about the Isles of the Azores, to wait for some of the 1 This is much further than would appear from the English accounts; but agrees with the Spanish, as given by Sir Edward Schomburgk. "The English commander, incensed at the failure, now armed three boats, and having embarked a larger force, they explored the river as high up as the Guarico, which falls into the Orinoco near the village of Cabruta, about one hundred and ten leagues from Santo Thomè. They were twenty days absent upon the expedition," etc. Discovery of Guiana, p. 215. homeward-bound Spaniards; that he might get something to bid himself welcome into France or elsewhere. At Monis, the 21st of March, the Captains hearing of Kemis his untimely death, presumed that they had been much abused in this project by Kemis or Sir Walter, or both; and considering with themselves their men were ready to mutiny, and would not follow them any longer if they followed Sir Walter, but would carry the ships where they pleased; Sir Walter's uncertainty and many delays, -resolved all to leave him, and consort no longer with him, which they within few days actually did. And though at first they were not resolved to come directly into England, yet within few days upon better consideration they thought it better to refer themselves to his May's princely clemency, and to leave off that voyage with so great loss, than by longer staying out to incur his high displeasure; and so made for England. As for Sir Walter's return, whether it were willing or constrained, all that I know of it is by the report of some gentlemen then in his ship, who relate it thus. Near the bank of Newfoundland, there began a mutiny among the seamen; some of them, weary of the voyage, desiring to be at home for better employment; others, which had formerly been pirates, would stay at sea till they had gotten something. Sir Walter, to appease this tumult, came up from his cabin, read his Maty's commission to them, and lastly put it to their own choice by most voices what they should do; giving, as I hear, his own voice at that time very confidently for England. That ever he slighted the King's Majesty or his authority by any words of his, or suffered it to be done, or that it ever was done by any one in the fleet, I never yet heard. The gentlemen that were most inward with him, as I hear and think, were Captain Charles Parker, Sir John Holmden, and Captain George Raleigh, the chief seamen, and of them but few. Thus, Right Honbie Lords, in the simplicity of truth, free from all sinister affection, I have endeavoured to perform what by your Lordships I was appointed, though with much weakness, which I refer to your Lordships' view and favourable censure. My pen hath not been used to so high employment, but my prayers shall never cease to mount the throne of Grace, that God will be pleased to make you all glorious in Heaven whom he hath made so gracious and honourable on earth. Your honoured Lordships' ever to be commanded, SAMUEL JONES. EXTRACTS FROM SIR T. WILSON'S MINUTES. 13th September at night. This evening finding him at my coming in, reading of the Psalms, I told him there was the best comfort; there was a man and a King, and the best man and the best King that ever was, who had yet as great affliction as ever any had, and yet with his constancy and faithfulness he overcame all; 1 S. P. vol. xcix. no. 10. i. Original rough notes. and so might he. Hereupon he began and told me from the beginning to the end all his infortunity, how first at his Majesty's coming in, Northampton, Suffolk, Salisbury, and the rest plotted to get him and Cobham out of favour and get the good, with all the circumstances therein and said that that was as unjust a condemnation, without proof and testimony, as ever was known. So went he along his 13 years' imprisonment, his means to pro. cure the liberty late for his voyage, his disasters there, and all the tedious circumstances, then the betraying of him by Sir Lewes Stukley. . . . : Mm that when I told him that if he would but discover what he knew the King would forgive him and do him all favour, 'Aye,' quoth he, how should I be assured of that? He will say when all is told, the knave was afraid of his life, else he would not have told it, and therefore no, God-a mercy' so I perceive he has something to discover. I told him if he would write to the King I would ride and carry it, and assumed upon my life I would return him a gracious answer. Whereto he made a pause as if he were half persuaded to do it. Then supper coming up, after he had supped he gat courage again to say he knew nothing worth the revealing.. 13th September. This day upon his complaint of his misery I giving him counsel and comfort to bear his affliction with patience, upon the assurance of God's mercy, and the example of such as God had suffered to be as grievously afflicted as flesh and blood could bear, and yet he had restored them to as great felicity as ever, . . . . he took thereupon to commend the magnanimity of the Romans who would rather take their deaths by their own hands than endure any that were base and reproachful. To which I answered then that they were such as knew not God nor the danger of their souls to be damned to perpetual torment of hell for destroying their bodies which God had made a temple for the Holy Ghost to dwell in. To which he said that it was a disputable question: for divers do hold opinion that a man may do it and yet not desperately despair of God's mercy, but die in God's favour. . . . Whereto this discourse of his tended it is easily seen, but I think he hath no such Roman courage. Mr. Lieutenant tells me he hath had like discourse with him heretofore and charged him with such intent upon occasion of his having so many apothecary drugs and such like which were well they were not suffered, saith he, to be here.' 'Why,' saith he, if you take away these and all such means from me, yet if I had such a mind I could run my head against a post and kill myself.' . . . 21 September. This day I sitting by him while the barber was trimming and keeming my head, he told me he was wont to keem his head every day a whole hour before he came into the Tower. Asking why he did not do so still, he said he would know first who should have it: he would not bestow so much cost of it for the hangman. . . .' This day I got from him one thing which it seems he hath not written to your M. which argues that the French agent did not plot with him of himself, nor without having first instructions out of France: for Rawley saith that when he told the agent that he had no acquaintance in France he bade 1 Ibid. no. 48. him take no care, he should find acquaintance enough, and that let him go as fast as he could his packet should be before him, and La Chesne should go over land and meet him. I urging him further that himself had said that he had a commission out of France, and that it was told at M. de Marrettz table here before his going hence, he said 'tis true that he said so: for, saith he, when we found so ill success at S. Thome we fell to counsel for taking the Plate fleet or the Mexico fleet; at which said some what shall we be the better? for when we come home the King will have what we have gotten and we shall be hanged. Then, quoth Rawley, you shall not need to fear that, for I have a French commission by which it is lawful to take any beyond the Canaries. And I have another, quoth Sir John Ferne, and by that we may go lie under Brest or Bellyle, and with one part thereof satisfy France, and with another procure our peace with England, but he saith he had no such commission, but spake it only to keep the fleet together, which else he found were apt to part and fall on pirating. This blanching excuse he brought in afterwards, fearing his former confession might be a testimony against him. . . .' This evening after I had told him I had written to Mr. Sec. to entreat an answer of his Majesty's acceptation, I fell by occasion into a question with him of his end of going into France, albeit he had told me before that it was only to save himself till the storm was blown over, hoping by the Queen or some of his friends to procure his peace. Now he, thinking that I had a bad memory, as perhaps he finds, he told me he would make me his ghostly father, and that his hopes in France were that at least with his ship and 2 pinnaces he might recover again Guiana, and so find the mine, which they failed on by reason of his sickness in his ship, being 80 leagues off, the mine being so much up the river Orenoque: or else his hope was that he being in France, the Spanish ambassador there, fearing what hurt he might do to Spain being in France, would procure the King of Spain to write to his M. to call him home and give him his pardon. This is his last dream.2 10. Although the authority due to a judicial sentence from a judge who has no interest in the cause cannot be claimed for this declaration, framed as it was by those who were responsible for the action which it was written to justify,-although, therefore, it is fairly open to such suspicions as must always attach to statements made in selfdefence,-I cannot understand why it should be considered undeserving of such attention as statements made in self-defence are always held to be entitled to. Let it by all means be analyzed, criticized, confronted, disputed, and (where it can be convicted of error) set aside. But why should it not be heard? Now although, when I remember the importance which is claimed for it by Hume, I cannot suppose that its existence is not generally known, yet when I read the statements of the case as commonly set forth in our popular biographies and histories of state trials, I can hardly think that it has been read by the writers. For I find almost invariably that all the material points are omitted; and when I enquire in what particulars it is inaccurate and how the inaccuracy is proved, I find scarcely anything to enlighten me. I cannot indeed profess to be acquainted with all that has been written on the subject, and the question may have been satisfactorily answered in some book which I have not seen; but I cannot at present recall more than two particulars in which the truth of the narrative has been definitely challenged one of which is a very small and immaterial error,—if it be an error at all; and the other is merely an opinion stated to be erroneous, upon a question on which opinions differ. : Mr. Edwards has taken exception to the statement that Ralegh dealt with the owner of the French barque for a passage from Plymouth "before he was under guard;" and it is true that according to Captain King's narrative (as quoted by Oldys) it must have been after he had been arrested. But Captain King's narrative was not written till after the Declaration was published, and we do not know what other evidence the Commissioners had before them.2 That they were in error at all may still be doubted. That the error, if any, was immaterial, may be seen by this-the correction of it does not alter the case; a reasonable apprehension of arrest being as good a justification of the attempt to escape (if any justification were needed) as the arrest itself; and a cause for reasonable apprehension having been already furnished by the Proclamation. All that the attempt to escape could prove in either case was that Ralegh did not mean to trust himself in the hands of government if he could help it; and an attempt to escape "before he was under guard" did not prove this more conclusively than an attempt after.3 "Before Stucley's arrival at Plymouth," are Mr. Edwards's words. But have only to deal with the real ones. 2 They must have had some kind of evidence that he had meditated escape before the arrest, because in the proceeding before the Commissioners, among the "faults committed since his voyage," the first was "his purpose of flight before commandment laid upon him," and the second "his endeavour to fly after the arrest upon him." It is true that he denied the first charge, asserting that "he sought not to escape till his arrest by Sir Lewis Stucley." But it is still possible that the Commissioners knew better. 3 It is to be observed that Ralegh himself, on the scaffold, alluded to the fact, almost in the same terms which were afterwards used in the Declaration, without denying it. He alluded to it as one of the facts which gave the King "just and weighty reason to believe" that he had had some plot with France. He denied the plot, but not the facts which justified the suspicion, of which the first was "that when I came back from Guiana, on my arrival at Plymouth, I endeavoured to have passed over in a small bark to Rochel." These are his own words, as reported: and the fact is by implication admitted. In the Declaration the same fact is alleged to prove, not any plot with France, but a desire to escape from |