roccoes, one of his men, slew two other. I say, five of them being slain in the entrance into the town, the rest went off in a whole body, and took more care to defend the passages to their mines, (of which they had three within a league of the town, besides a mine f that was about five miles off,) than they did of the town itself. Yet Kemish at the first was resolved to go to the mine; but when he came to the bank-side to land, he had two of his men slain outright from the bank, and six others hurt, and captain Thornix shot in the head, of which wound, and the accident thereof, he hath pined away these twelve weeks.

Now when Kemish came back, and gave me the former reasons which moved him not to open the mine; the one, the death of my son; a second, the weakness of the English, and their impossibilities to work it, and to be victualled; a third, that it were a folly to discover it for the Spaniards; and, lastly, my weakness, and being unpardoned; and that I rejected all these his arguments, and told him that I must leave him to himself, to answer it to the king and state, he shut himself into his cabin, and shot himself with a pocket pistol, which broke one of his ribs; and finding that he had not prevailed, he thrust a long knife under his short ribs up to the handle, and died. Thus much I have written to Mr. Secretary, to whose letters I refer you; but because I think my friends will rather hearken after you than any other to know the truth, I did after the sealing break open the letter again, to let you know in brief the state of that business, which I pray you impart to my lord of Northumberland, and Silvanus Scorie, and to sir John Leigh.

For the rest, there was never poor man so exposed to the slaughter as I was; for being commanded upon mine allegiance to set down, not only the country, but the very river by which I was to enter it, to name my ships' number, men, and my artillery; this was sent by the Spanish ambassador to his master the king of Spain. The king wrote his letters to all parts of the Indies, especially to the governor Palameque, of Guiana, Eldorado, and Trinadado; of which the Other mines five miles without the town, MS. Ashm. 781.98.

first letter bore date 19th of March, 1617, at Madrid, when I had not yet left the Thames, which letter I have sent to Mr. Secretary. I have also two other letters of the king's, which I reserve, and one of the council's. The king also sent a commission to levy three hundred soldiers out of his garrisons of Nuevo Regno de Granada and Puarto Richo, with ten pieces of brass ordnance to entertain us; he also prepared an armada by sea to set upon us. It were too long to tell you how we were preserved; if I live, I shall make it known; my brains are broken, and I cannot write much; I live yet, and I told you why. Witney, for whom I sold all my plate at Plymouth, and to whom I gave more credit and countenance than to all the captains of my fleet, ran from me at the Granadoes, and Woolenston with him; so as I have now but five ships, and one of those I have sent home; and in my fly-boat a rabble of idle rascals, which I know will not spare to wound me; but I care not. I am sure there is never a base slave in all the fleet had taken the pains and care that I have done, that hath slept so little, and travailed so much; my friends will not believe them; and for the rest I care not; God in heaven bless you and strengthen your heart.

Yours,

WALTER RALEGH.

To King James at his Return from Guiana.

May it please your most excellent Majesty.

IF in my journey outward-bound I had my men murdered at the islands, and yet spared to take revenge; if I did discharge some Spanish barks taken without spoil; if I forbore all parts of the Spanish Indies, wherein I might have taken twenty of their towns on the sea coasts, and did only follow the enterprise I undertook for Guiana; where, without any directions from me, a Spanish village was burnt, which was new set up within three miles of the mine by your majesty's favour, I find no reason why the Spanish ambassador should complain of me. If it were

lawful for the Spaniards to murder twenty-six Englishmen, tying them back to back, and then cutting their throats, when they had traded with them a whole month, and came to them on the land without so much as one sword amongst them all; and that it may not be lawful to your majesty's subjects, being charged first by them, to repel force by force; we may justly say, O miserable English!

If Parker and Metham took Campeachy and other places in the Honduras, seated in the heart of the Spanish Indies, burnt towns, and killed the Spaniards, and had nothing said unto them at their return; and myself forbore to look into the Indies, because I would not offend, I may as justly say, O miserable Ralegh!

If I have spent my poor estate, lost my son, suffered by sickness and otherwise a world of miseries; if I have resisted with the manifest hazard of my life the robberies and spoils with which my companions would have made me rich; if when I was poor I could have made myself rich; if when I had gotten my liberty, which all men and nature herself do much prize, I voluntary lost it; if when I was master of my life I rendered it again; if I might elsewhere have sold my ship and goods, and put five or six thousand pounds in my purse, and yet brought them into England; I beseech your majesty to believe, that all this I have done, because it should not be said to your majesty, that your majesty had given liberty and trust to a man, whose end was but the recovery of his liberty, and who had betrayed your majesty's trust.

My mutineers told me, that if I returned for England I should be undone; but I believed in your majesty's goodness more than in all their arguments. Sure I am, that I am the first who, being free and able to enrich myself, have yet embraced poverty and peril. And as sure I am, that my example shall make me the last. But your majesty's wisdom and goodness I have made my judges, who have ever been, and shall ever remain,

Your majesty's most humble vassal,

WALTER RALEGH.

To his Majesty before his Trial at Winchester,
anno Dom. 1603.

It is one part of the office of a just and worthy prince to hear the complaints of his vassals, especially of such as are in great misery. I know that amongst many other presumptions gathered against me, your majesty hath been persuaded that I was one of them who were greatly discontented, and therefore the more likely to prove disloyal; but the great God of heaven and earth so relieve me in both worlds as I was the contrary; and I took it as a great comfort to behold your majesty, always learning some good, and bettering my knowledge by hearing your majesty discourse. I do therefore most humbly beseech your majesty not to believe any of those, in my particular, who under pretence of offences to kings do easily work their particular revenge. I trust that no man, under colour of making examples, shall persuade your majesty to leave the word merciful out of your style; for it will no less profit your majesty, and become your greatness, than the word invincible. It is true, that the laws of England are no less jealous of the king, than Cæsar was of Pompey's wife; who notwithstanding that she was cleared of having accompanied Claudius, yet for being suspected he condemned her: for myself, I protest before the everliving God, (and I speak it to my master and my sovereign,) that I never intended treason, consented to treason, nor performed treason against him; and yet I know I shall fall in manus eorum a quibus non possum exurgere, unless by your majesty's gracious compassion I be sustained. Our law, therefore, most merciful prince, knowing her own cruelty, and knowing that she is wont to compound treasons out of presumptions and circumstances, doth give this charitable advice to the king her supreme: Non solum sapiens esset rex, sed et misericors, ut cum sapientia misericordetur, sit justus; cum tutius, sit reddere rationem misericordiæ quam judicii. I do therefore, on the knees of my heart, beseech your majesty to take counsel from your own sweet and comfortable

disposition, and to remember that I have loved your majesty twenty years, for which your majesty hath yet given me no reward: and it is fitter I should be indebted to my sovereign lord, than the king to his poor vassal. Save me therefore, (most merciful prince,) that I may owe your majesty my life itself, than which there cannot be a greater debt; lend it me at least, (my sovereign lord,) that I may pay it in your service when your majesty shall please to command it. If the law destroy me, your majesty shall put me out of your power; and I shall have none to fear, none to reverence, but the King of kings.

Your majesty's most humble vassal,

WALTER RALEGH.

To the Earls of Southampton, Suffolk, and Devonshire, and to the Lord Cecil, declaring his innocency in the two points wherewith he was charged, as in point of treason, the 14th of August 1603.

I Do not know whether your lordships have seen my answers to all the matters which my lord Henry Howard, my lord Wotton, and sir Edward Cooke have examined me on, upon Saturday the 14th of this present, which makes me bold to write unto your lordships at this time; the two principal accusations being these: the first, that money was offered me with a pretence to maintain the amity; but the intent was to have assisted his majesty's surprise: the other, that I was privy to my lord Cobham's Spanish journey. For the first, I beseech your lordships to weigh it seriously before there be any further proceeding: for to leave me to the cruelty of the law of England, and to that summum jus, before both your understandings and consciences be thoroughly informed, were but carelessly to destroy the father and fatherless; and you may be assured that there is no glory, nor any reward that can recompense the shedding of innocent blood. And whereas it seemeth to appear that this money was offered to others long after it was offered to me, and upon some other considerations than it was unto