TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE MY fingular good Lord and kinfman, Charles Howard, knight of the Gar- OR your Honors many Honorable and friendlie partes, I have hitherto only returned promises; and nowe for answere of both your aduentures, I haue sent you a bundle of papers which I haue deuided betwene your Lo. and Sr Robert Cecyl in these two respectes chiefly : First for that it is reason, that wastful factors, when they have consumed such stockes, as they had in trust, doe yeeld some cullor for the same in their account, secondly for that I am assured that whatsoever shalbe done, or written by me, shall neede a double protection and defence. The trial that I had of both your loues, when I was left of all, but of malice and revenge, makes me still presume that you wil be pleased (knowing what little power I had to performe ought, and the great aduantage of forwarned enimies) to answere that out of knowledge, which others shall but obiect out of malice. In my more happie times as I did especially honour you both, so I found that your loues sought me out in the darkest shadow of aduersitie, and the same affection which accom panied my better fortune, sored not away from me in my manie miseries: all which though I cannot requite, yet I shal euer acknowledge and the great debt which I have no power to pay, I can doe no more for a time but confesse to be due. It is true that as my errors were great, so they have yeelded verie grievous effects, and if ought might have been deserued in former times to have counterpoysed any part of offences, the frute thereof (as it seemeth) was long before fallen from the tree, and the dead stocke onely remained. I did therefore euen in the winter of my life, Vndertake these trauels, fitter for boies lesse blasted with mis-fortunes, for men of greater abilitie, and for mindes of better incouragement, that thereby if it were possible I might recouer but the moderation of excesse, and the least tast of the greatest plentie formerly possessed. If I had knowen other way to win, if I had imagined how greater aduentures might haue regained, if I coulde conceive what farther meanes I might yet vse, but euen to appease so powerefull displeasure, I would not doubt but for one yeare more to holde fast my soule in my teeth, til it were performed. Of that little remaine I had, I have wasted in effect al herein, I haue vndergone many constructions, I haue been accompanyed with many sorrows, with labour, hunger, heat, sicknes, and peril: It appeareth notwithstand that I made no other brauado of going to sea, then was ment, and that I was neither hidden in Cornwell1 or else where, as was supposed. They have grosly belied me, that foreiudged that I wolde rather become a seruant to the Spanish king, the return, and the rest were much mistaken, who woulde haue perswaded, that I was too easeful and sen 1 Amongst the various reports which were spread after the return of Sir Walter Ralegh from his first voyage to Guiana, for the purpose of injuring him, or to derogate from the merit connected with it, it was also asserted that he himself had never left England, and had been lying secreted in Cornwall until the return of his vessels, when he made his re-appearance, and from the accounts rendered to him by his lieutenants of their exploits, concocted the relation of his voyage. The accusation is too absurd to be entitled to the slightest consideration. suall to vndertake a iorney of so great trauel. But, if what I have done receive the gratious construction of a painful pilgrimage, and purchase the least remission, I shall thinke all too little, and that there were wanting to the rest, many miseries: But if both the times past, the present, and what may be in the future, doe all by one graine of gall continue in an eternall distast, I doe not then knowe whether I should bewaile my selfe either for my too much trauel and expence, or condemne my selfe for doing lesse then that, which can de serue nothing. From my selfe I haue deserued no thankes, for I am returned a begger, and withered, but that I might have bettred my poore estate, it shall appeare by the following discourse, if I had not onely respected her Maiesties future Honor, and riches. It became not the former fortune in which I once liued, to goe iourneys of picorie1, and it had sorted ill with the offices of Honor, which by her maiesties grace, I hold this day in England, to run from Cape to Cape, and from place to place, for the pillage of ordinarie prizes. Many yeares since, I had knowledge by relation, of that mighty, rich, and beautifull Empire of Guiana, and of that great and Golden Citie, which the spanyards call El Dorado, and the naturals Manoa2, which Citie was conquered, reedified, and inlarged by a yonger sonne of Guainacapa Emperor of Peru, at such time as Francisco Pazaro and others conquered the saide Empire, from his two elder brethren Guascar, and Atabalipa, both then contending for the same, the one being favoured by the Oreiones of Cuzco, the other by the people of Caximalca. I sent my seruant Iacob Whiddon the yeer before, to get knowledge of the passages, and I had some light from Captaine Parker sometime my seruant, and nowe attending on your Lo. that such a place there 1 Derived probably from the Spanish picaro, ‘a rogue,' pickeer, ‘to rob or pillage.' (See Halliwell, Dict. of Arch. and Prov. Words.) 2 As the names and circumstances here alluded to occur again in the Voyage itself, the reader is referred to the notes there attached in explanation of Sir W. Ralegh's allusions. was to the southward of the great bay of Charuas, or Guanipa: but I found that it was 600 miles farther off, then they supposed, and manie other impediments to them vnknowne and vnheard. After I had displanted Don Anthonio de Berreo, who was vpon the same enterprize, leaving my ships at Trinedado, at the port called Curiapan, I wandred 400 miles, into the said countrey by land and river: the particulars I will leaue to the following discourse. The countrey hath more quantity of Gold by manifolde, then the best partes of the Indies, or Peru: All the most of the kings of the borders are already become her Maiesties vassals: and seeme to desire nothing more then her Maiesties protection and the returne of the English nation. It hath another grounde and assurance of riches and glory, then the voiages of the west Indies, and an easier way to inuade the best parts therof, then by the common course. The king of Spaine is not so impouerished by taking 3 or 4 port townes in America as we suppose, neither are the riches of Peru, or Nueua Espania so left by the sea side, as it can be easily washt away, with a great flood, or springtide, or left drie vpon the sandes on a lowe ebbe. The port townes are few and poore in respect of the rest within the land, and are of little defence, and are onely rich when the fleets are to receive the treasure for spaine: And we might thinke the spaniards verie simple having so manie horses and slaves, that if they coulde not vpon two daies warning, carrie all the Golde they have into the land, and farre enough from the reach of our footmen especiallie the Indies being (as it is for the most part) so mountainous, so full of woods, riuers, and marishes. In the port townes of the prouince of Vensuello1, as Cumana, 1 The enumeration of ports, cities, and places which follow in this page and the succeeding, attest the extensive geographical knowledge which Sir W. Ralegh had acquired of the regions, which during the sixteenth century were the scenes of Spanish adventure in search of El Dorado. It is observed of him by Oldys, "There was not an expert soldier or seaman but he consulted, nor a printed or manuscript discourse but he perused;" and al Coro, and S. Iago (whereof Coro and S. Iago were taken by Captaine Preston' and Cumana and S. Iosephus by vs) we found not the value of one riall of plate in either: but the Cities of Barquasimeta2, Valentia, S. Sebastian, Cororo, S. Lucia, Alleguna, Marecabo, and Truxillo, are not so easely inuaded: neither doth the burning of those on the coast impouerish the king of spayne anie one ducket, and if we sacke the river of Hache3, S. Marta, and Cartagena, which are the portes of Nueuo reyno and Popayan. There are besides within the land which are indeed rich and populous, the townes and Cities of Merida, Lagrita, S. Christofero, the great Cities of though this relates more expressly to his preparations for the Guiana voyage, his epistle dedicatory affords sufficient proof of his general knowledge of the geography of the northern half of South America. 1 Santiago de Léon de Caracas (Caracasia, Leopolis, in Latin documents), the present capital of the republic of Venezuela, was founded in 1567 by Diego de Losada in the valley of San Francisco. The fleet of Captain Amias Preston and George Somers, consisting of four vessels, appeared before Cumana on the 21st of May, 1595; but the inhabitants paid a large sum of money to save the town from being plundered and burnt down, and it was consequently spared. A part of the crew landed, and reached by a most difficult and dangerous path Santiago Léon de Caracas, which they took on the 29th of May, and remained there until the 3rd of June; but as they could not come to an understanding with the inhabitants respecting their contribution, they set the town and some of the neighbouring places on fire, and regained their vessels without having lost a single man. (Hakluyt, iii. 578.) 2 Barquisimeta, Valencia, San Sebastian, Corora, Santa Lucia, Alleguna, Maracaybo and Truxillo, are cities and towns situated in the repnblic of Venezuela; so also are Merida, La Grita, San Cristóbal (S. Christofero of Ralegh); the last is called in Latin documents of that time S. Christophori Fanum. 3 Nuestra Señora de los Remedios del Rio de la Hacha, situated on the mouth of a river bearing the same name, was founded by Nicolas Federman, who called it N. S. de las Nievas. Its name was changed as above in 1594. Sir Francis Drake appeared before it with his fleet in 1595, and although its inhabitants wished to save the pillage of their city and the houses from being burnt down by paying thirty-four thousand ducats, it was nevertheless set on fire on the 1st of December. Santa Marta and Nombrede-Dios shared a similar fate in the following month of January. |