throats after they had traded with them a whole month and came to them a shore having not so much as a sword or any other weapon among them all and if the Spaniards to our complaints made answer that there was nothing in the treate against our trading in the Indies but that we might trade at our perill I trust in God that the word perill shall ever be construed to be indifferent to both Nations otherwise we must for ever abandon the Indies and loose all our knowledge and our Pylotage of that part of the world if we have no other peace then this how can there be a breach of peace which e're the Spaniards with all Nations and all Nations with them may trade upon their guard The readiest way that the Spaniards Ambassadour could have taken to have stayed me from going to Guiana had bin to have discovered the great practises which I had with his Master against the King my Soveraigne Lord in the first yeare of his Majesties Reigne of Great Brittaine for which I lost my estate and lay thirteene years in the Tower of London and not to urge my offences in Guiana to which his Master hath no title other then his sword is with which to this day he hath not conquered the least of these Nations and against whom contrary to the Catholick profession his Captains have entertained and doe entertaine whole Nations of Canniballs for in a Letter of the Governours to the King of Spaine of the eighth of Iuly he not only complaineth that the Guianians are in Armes against him but that ever those Indians which under their noses live doe in despight of all the Kings edicts trade with Los Flamnicos Engleses enemicos With the Flemish and English enemies never once naming the English Nations but with the Epitheton of an enemy But in truth the Spanish Ambassadour hath complained against me to no other end then to prevent my complaints against the Spaniards Who landing my men in a territory appertaining to the Crowne of England they were invaded and slaine before any violence offered to the Spaniards and I hope that the Ambassadour doth not esteeme us for so wretched and miserable a people as to offer our throats to their swords without any manner of resistance howsoever I have said it already and I will say it againe that if Guiana be not his Majesties the working of a Myne there and the taking of a towne there had been equally perillous for by doing the one I had rob'd the King of Spaine and bin a thiefe and by the other a disturber or breaker of the peace A Letter of Sir WALTER RAWLEIGH to my Lord Carevv touching Guiana BEcause I know not whether I shall live to come before the Lords I have for his Majesties satisfaction here set downe as much as I can say either for mine owne defence or against my selfe as things are now construed It is true that though I acquainted his Majesty with my intent to Land in Guiana yet I never made it knowne to his Majesty that the Spaniards had any footing there neither had I any authority by Patent to remove them from thence and therefore his Majesty had no interest in the attempt of Saint Thome by any foreknowledge in his Majesty But knowing his Majesties title to the Country to be best and most Christian because the naturall Lords did most willingly acknowledge Queene Elizabeth to be their Soveraigne who by me promised to defend them from the Spanish cruelty I made no doubt but I might enter the Land by force seeing the Spaniards had no other title but force the Popes donation excepted considering also that they had got a possession there divers yeares since my possession for the Crowne of England for were not Guiana his Majesties then might I aswell have bin questioned for a thiefe for taking the Gold out of the King of Spains Mynes as the Spaniards doe now call me a peace breaker for from any territory that belongs to the King of Spaine it is no more lawfull to take Gold then lawfull for the Spaniards to take Tinne out of Cornewall were this possession of theirs a sufficient Bar to his Majesties Right the Kings of Spain may as well call themselves Dukes of Brittaine because they held Blewet and fortified there and Kings of Ireland because they possessed Smereck and fortified there and so in other places That his Majesty was well resolved of his right there I make no kind of doubt because the English both under Master Charls Leigh and Master Harecourt had leave to plant and inhabite the Country The Orrenoque it selfe had long ere this had 5000. English in it I assure my selfe had not my employment at Cales the next yeare after my returne from Guiana and after that our journy to the Islands hindered me for those two years after with Tirones Rebellion made her Majesty unwilling that any great number of Ships or men should be taken out of England till that rebellion were ended and lastly her Majesties death my long imprisonment gave time to the Spaniards to set up a towne of sticks covered with leaves of trees upon the banke of Orronoque which they call St. Thome but they have neither reconciled nor Conquered any of the Cassiques or naturall Lords of the Country which Cassiques are still in armes against them as by the Governours Letter to the King of Spaine may appeare That by landing in Guiana there can be any breach of peace I thinke it under favour impossible for to breake peace where there is no peace it cannot be that the Spaniards give us no peace there it doth appeare by the Kings Letters to the Governour that they should put to death all those Spaniards and Indians that trade Con los Engleses Enemigos with English enemies yea those very Spaniards which we encountred at St. Thome did of late years murther six and thirty of Master Hales men of London and mine who landed without weapon upon the Spaniards faith to trade with them Master Thorne also in Tower-street in London besides many other English were in like sort murthered in Orrenoque the yeare before my deliverie out of the Tower Now if this kind of trade be peaceable there is then a peaceable trade in the Indies betweene us and the Spaniards but if this be cruell Warre and hatred and no peace then there is no peace broken by our attempt Againe how doth it stand with the greatnesse of the King of Spaine first to call us enemies when he did hope to cut us in pieces and then having failed to call us peace breakers for to be an enemy and a peace breaker in one and the same action is impossible But the King of Spaine in his Letters to the Governour of Guiana dated at Madrill the 29 of March before we left the Thames calls us Engleses enemigos English enemies If it had pleased the King of Spaine to have written to his Majest. in
he might be assured that we would not attempt his Towne-Houses nor destroy the Gardens and fruits I returned him answer that I would give him my Faith and the word of the King of Great Brittaigne my Soveraigne Lord that the People of the Town and Island should not loose so much as one Orange or a Grape wâ—thout paying for it I would hang him up in the Market-street Now that I kept my Faith with him and how much he held himselfe bound unto me I have divers of his Letters to shew for he wrote unto me every day And the Countesse being of an english Race a Stafford by Mother and of the house of Horn by the Father sent me divers presents of fruits Sugar and Ruske to whom I returned because I would not depart in her debt things of greater value The old Earle at my departure wrot a Letter to the Spanish Ambassador here in England how I had behaved my selfe in those Islands There I discharg'd a Barke of the grand Canaries taken by one of my Pinnaces coming from Cape-Blank in Africa and demanding of him what prejudice he had recieved by being taken he told me that my men had eaten of his fish to the value of sixe Duckers for which I gave him eight From the Canaries it is said That I sayled to Cape de Verte knowing it to be an insecâ—ious place by â—eason whereof I lost so many of my men ere I recovered the Indies The truth sis that I came no nerer to Cape de Vert then Bravo which is one hundred and sixty Leagues off But had I taken it in my way falling upon the Coast or any other part of Guiana after the Raine there is as little danger of insection as in any other part of the World as our English that trade in those parts every yeare doe well know There are few places in England or in the world neere great Rivers which run through low grounds or neare Moorish or Marsh grounds but the People inhabiting neare are at some time of the yeare subject to Feaverâ— witnes Woollwich in Kent and all down the Rivers on both sides other Infection there is not found eiâ—her in the Indies or in Afâ—rica Except it be when the Easterly wind or Breefes are kept off by some High Mountaines from the Vâ—llies wâ—erby the ayre wanting motion doth become exceeding unhealthfull as at Nomber de Dios and elsewhere But as good successe admitts no Examination so the contrary allows of no excuse how reasonable or just soever Sir Francis Drake Mr. Iohn Winter and Iohn Tomas when they past the Streights of Malegan meeâ—ing with a storme which drove Winter back which thrust Iohn Thomas upon the Islands to the South where he was cast away and Sir Francis nere a small Island upon which the Spaniards landed their cheins murderers from Baldivia and he found there Phillip an Indian who told him where he was and conducted him to Baldivia wher he took his first prize of Treasure and in that ship he found a Pylot called John Grege who guided him all that Coast in which he possest himselfe of the rest which Pylot because he should not rob him of his Reputation and knowledge in those parts desisting the intreaties and teares of all his Company he set him a shore upon the Island of Altegulors to be by them devoured After which passing by the East-Indies he returned into England and notwithstanding the peace between Us and Spaine he enjoyed the Riches he brought and was never so much as called to accompt for cutting off Douly his head at Porte St. Iulian having neither Marshall Law nor other Commission availeable Mr. Candish having past all the Coasts of Chyle and Peru and not gotten a farthing when he was without hope and reâ—dy to shape his course by the East homewards met a ship which came from the Phillippines at Calestorvia a thousand pounds to a Nutshell These two in these two Voyages were the Children of Fortune and much honored But when Sir Francis Drake in his last attempt might have landed at Cruces by the river of Chyagre within eight miles of Panama he notwithstanding seâ— the Troups on land at Nomber de Dios and received the repuâ—se aforesaid he dyed for sâ—rrow The same successe had Candish in his last Passage towards the Streights I say that one and the same end they both had to wit Drake and Candish when Chance had left them to the tryall of their owne Vertues For the rest I leave to all worthy and indifferent men to judge by what neglect or errour of mine the Gold Mine in Guiana which I had formerly discovered was not found and enjoyed for after we had refreshed our selves in Galleana otherwise in the first discovery called Poet Howard where we tarried Captaine Hastins Captaine Pigott and Captaine Snedall and there recovered the most part of our sicke men I did lmbarque sixe Companiâ—s of fifty to each Company in five shipps to wiâ— the Encounter Commanded by Captaine Whitney in the Consideâ—e by Captaine Woollastone into two â—â—yboats of my owne Commanded by Captaine Samuell King and Captaine Robert Smith In a Carvill which Companies had for their Leaders Captaine Charles Parker Captaine North My Sonne Captaine Thornhurst Captaine Penjuglous Lievtenant and Captaine Chudlyes Lievtenant Prideux At the Tryangle Islands I imbarked the companies for Orrenoque between which and Calliana I lay a ground twenty four houres and if it had not been faire weather we had never come off the Coast having not above two Fathome and a halfe of water Eight Leagues off from whence I directed them for the River of Surniama the best part of all that Tract of land between the river Amaâ—oâ—es and Orrenoque there I gave them order to trim their Boates and Barges and by the Indians of that place to understand the state of the Spaniards in Orrenoque and whither they had replanted or strengâ—hened themselves upon the entrances or elsewhere and if they found any Indians there to send in the little flyboate or the Carvill into the river of Disâ—ebecke where they should not faile to find Pilots for Orrenoque for with our great ships we durst not aproach the Coast we having been all of us a ground and in danger of leaving our Bands upon the shoules before wee recovered the Tryangle Islands as aforesaid The Biggest Shipp that could Enter the River was the Encounter who might be brought to eleven foote water upon the Bar we could never understand neither by Keymis who was the first of any Nation that had entered the maine mouth of Orrenoque nor by any of the Masters or Marriners of our Fleet which had traded there ten or twelve yeares for Tobaccho For the Chudley when she came nere the Entrance drawing but twelve foote found her selfe in danger and bore up for Trinidado Now whereas some of my friends have been unsatifised why I my selfe had not gone up with the Companies I sent I
SIR WALTER RAWLEIGH HIS APOLOGIE For his voyage To GUIANA By Sir Walter Rawleigh Knight LONDON Printed by T. W. for HUM MOSELEY and are to be sold at the Princes Armes in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1650. Sir Walter Rawleigh his Apologie IF ill successe of this Enterprise of mine had bin without Example I should have needed a large discourse and many arguments for my Justification But if the atempts of the greatest Princes of Europe both among themselves and against the great Turk are in all moderne Histories left to every eye to peruse It is not so strange that my selfe being but a private man and drawing after me the chaines and Fetters whereunto I have been thirteen yeares tyed in the Tower being unpardoned and in disgrace with my Soveraigne Lord have by other mens errours failed in the attempt I undertooke For if that Charles the Fifth returned with unexampled losse I will not say dishonour from Algire in Africa If King Sebastian lost himselfe and his Army in Barbary If the invincible Fleet and forces of Spaine in Eighty Eight were beaten home by the Lord Charles Howard Admirall of England If Mr. Strozzi the Count Brizack the Count of Vinnnoso and others with the Fleet of fifty eight sayle and six thousand Souldiers encountered with far lesse numbers could not defend the Terceres Leaving to speake of a world of other attempts furnished by Kings and Princes If Sir Francis Drake Sir Iohn Hawkins and Sir Thomas Baskervile men for their experience and valour as Eminent as England had any strengthned with divers of her Majesties ships and fild with Souldiers at will could not possesse themselves of the Treasure they sought for which in their view was imbarked in certaine Frigotts at Puerto Rico yet afterward they were repulsed with fifty Negroes upon the Mountains of Vasques Numius or Sierra de Capira in their passage towards Panania If Sir Iohn Norris though not by any fault of his failed in the attempts of Lysbone and returned with the losse by sicknesse and otherwise of eight thousand men What wonder is it but that mine which is the last being followed with a company of Voluntiers who for the most part had neither seen the Sea nor the Warres who some forty Gentlemen excepted had we the very scumme of the World Drunkards Blasphemers and such others as their Fathers Brothers and freinds thought it an exceeding good gaine to be discharged of them with the hazard of some thirty forty or fifty pounds knowing they could not have liv'd a whole yeare so cheape at home I say what wonder is it if I have failed where I could neither be present my selfe nor had any of the Commanders whom I most trusted living or in state to supply my place Now where it was bruted both before my departure out of England and by the most men beleived that I meant nothing lesse then to go to Guiana but that being once at liberty and in mine owne power having made my way with some Forraigne Prince I would turne Pyratt and utterly forsake my Countrey My being at Guiana my returning into England unpardoned and my not takeing the spoile of the Subj of any Christian Prince hath I doubt not destroyed that Opinion But this is not all for it hath been given out by an hypocritticall Theife who was the first Master of my shipp And by an ungratefull Youth which waited upon me in my Cabbin though of honourable worthy Parents and by others That I carryed with me out of England twenty two thousand peices of twenty two shillings the peice and thererefore needed not or cared not to discover any Mine in Guiana nor make any other attempt elsewhere Which Report being carried secretly from one to an other in my ship and so spread through all the ships in the Fleet which staid with me at Trenidado while our Land-Forces were in Guiana had like to have been my utter overthrow in a most miserable fashion For it was consulted when I had taken my Barge and gone a shoare either to discover or otherwise as I often did That my ship should have set saile and left me there where either I must have suffered Famine been eaten with wilde beasts or have fallen into the hands of the Spaniards and been flayed alive as others of the English which came thither but to trade only had formerly been To this Report of Riches I make this Protestation That if it can be prooved either now or hereafter that I had in the world either in my keeping or in my power either directly or indirectly in trust or otherwise above one hundred peices when I departed London of which I had left forty five peices with my wife and fifty five I carried with me I acknowledge my selfe for a Reprobate a Villaine a Traitor to the King and the most unworthy man that doth live or ever hath liv'd upon the earth Now where the Captaines that left me in the Indies and Captaine Baily that ran away from me at Cancerota have to excuse themselves objected for the first That I lingered at Plimouth when I might have gone thence and lost a faire Wind and time of the yeare or to that effect It is strange that men of fashion and Gentlemen should so grosly bely their owne knowledge And that had not I lived nor returned to have made answer to this Faction yet all that know us in Plimouth and all that we had to deale withall knew the contrary For after I had stayed at the Isle of Wight divers daies the Thunder Commanded by Sir Warram St. Leger by the negligence of her Master was at Lee in the Thames and after I arrived at Plimouth Captaine Pennington was not come then to the Isle of Wight and being arrived there and not able to redeeme his Bread from the Bakers he rode back to LONDON to intreat help from my wife to pay for it who having not so much money to serve his turne she wrote to Mr. Wood of Portsmouth and gave him her word for thirty pounds which shee soone after payd him without which as Pennington himselfe protested to my wife he had not bin able to have gone the journey Sir Iohn Ferne I found there without all hope of being able to proceed having nor men nor mony and in great want of other provision insomuch as I furnished him by my Cozen Herbert with a hundred pounds having supplied himselfe in Wales with a hundred pounds before his coming to Plimouth and procured him a third hundred pound from the worthy and honest Deane of Exeter Doctor Sutcliffe Captaine Whitney whome I also stayed for had a third part of his victualls to provide insomuch as having no mony to help him withall I sold my Plate in Plimouth to supply him Baily I left at the Isle of Wight whose arrivall I also attended here some ten or twelve daies as I remember and what should move Baily only to leave me as he did at the Canaries from
such Myne for what cause had I then to have rejected his excuses or to have laid his obstinacy to his charge thus much I have added because there are some Puppies which have given it out that Keymis slew himselfe because he had seduced so many Gentlemen and others with an imaginary Myne but as his Letter to me the 8. of Ianuary proves that he was then resolved to open it and to take off all these kinds of objections Let Captaine Charls Parker Captaine George Ralegh and Captaine King all living and in England be put to their oaths whether or no Keymis did not confesse to them comming down the River at a place where they cast anker that he could from that place have gone to the Myne in two hours I say then that if the opening of the Myne had bin at that time to any purpose or had they had had any victualls left then to bring them away or had they not been hastned by seeing the King of Spaines Letters before they came to my hands which I am assured Keymis had seene who delivered them to me whereof one of them was dated at Madrill the 17 of March before I left the River of Thames and with it three other dispatches with a Commission for the strengthning of Orrenoque with 150 Souldiers which should have come downe the River from the new Kingdome of Granada and one other 150 from Puerto Rico with ten pieces of Ordnance which should have come up the River from the entrance by which two Troupes they might have bin inclosed I say had not the rest seene those dispatches and that having stayed in the River above two months they feared the hourely arrivall of those forces why had they not constrained Keymis to have brought them to the Myne being as himselfe confesses within two houres march Againe had the Companies Commanders but pincht the Governours man whom they had in their possession he could have told them of two or three Gold Mynes and a Silver Myne not above foure miles from the Towne and given them the names of their possessors with the reason why they forbare to worke them at that time and when they left off from working them which they did aswell because they wanted Negroes as because they feared least the English French or Dutch would have forced them from those being once thoroughly opened having not sufficient strength to defend themselves But to this I have heard it said since my returne that the Governours man was by me perswaded being in my power to say that such Mynes there were when indeed there was no such thing Certainly they were but silly fooles that discovered this subtilty of Mine who having not yet by the long Calenture that weakened me lost all my wits which I must have done if I had left my reputation in trust with a Malato who for a pot or two of Wine for a dozen of Hatchets or a gay suite of apparell would have confessed that I had taught him to speake of Mynes that were not in Rerum natura No I protest before the Majesty of God that without any other agreements or promises of mine then well usage he hath discovered to me the way to five or sixe of the richest Mynes which the Spaniards have and from whence all the Masse of Gold that comes into Spaine in effect is drawne Lastly when the Ships were come downe the River as farre as Carapana's Country who was one of the naturall Lords and one that reserved that part of Guiana to her Maje hearing that the English had abandoned St. Thome and left no force in the Country which he hoped they would have done hee sent a great Canooe with store of fruits and Provisions to the Captains and by one of his men which spake Spanish having as it seemed bin long in their hands hee offered them a rich Gold Myne in his own Country knowing it to be the best argument to perswade their stay and if it please them to send up any one of the English to view it he would leave sufficient pledges for his safe returne Master Leake Master Moleneux and others offering themselves which when the greater part refused I know not by what reason lead he sent againe leaving one of his men still aboard to entreate them to tarry but two dayes and he himselfe would come to them and bring them a sample of the oare for he was an exceeding old man when I was first in the Country some twenty foure yeares since which being also neglected and the Ships under saile he not withstanding sent a Boat after them to the very mouth of the River in hope to perswade them that this is true witnesse Captaine Parker Captaine Leake Master Stresham Master Maudict Master Moleneux Master Robert Hamon Master Nicholes Captaine King Peter Andrews and I know not how many others but besides his offer also there hath not been wanting an argument though a foolish one which was that the Spaniards had employed the Indians with a purpose to betray our men but this treason had been easily prevented if they had stayed the old mans comming who would have brought them the Gold oare aboarde their Ships and what purpose could there be of treason when the Guianians offered to leave pledges six for one yea one of the Indians which the English had aboarde them whom they found in fetters when they tooke the towne of St. Thome could have told them that the Cassique which sent unto them to shew them the Gold Myne in his Country was unconquered and are enemies to the Spaniard and could also have assured them that this Cassique had Gold Mynes in his Country I say then that if they would neither force Keymis to goe to the Myne when he was by his owne confession within two houres march of it to examine from whence these two Ingots of Gold which they brought me were taken which they found laid by for Kings quinto or fifth part or those small pieces of Silver which had the same marks and stamps if they refused to send any one of the Fleete into the Country to see the Mynes which the Cassique Carapana offered them if they would not vouchsafe to stay two days for the comming of Carapana himselfe who would have brought them a sample of the Gold oare I say that there is no reason â—o lay it to my charge that I carryed them with a pretence of Gold when neither Keymis nor my selfe knew of any in those parts if it had bin to have gotten my liberty why did I not keep my liberty when I had it Nay why did I put my life in manifest peril to forgo it if I had had a purpose to have turned Pyrate why did I oppose my self against the greatest number of my Company and was there by in danger to be slaine or cast into the Sea because I refused it A strange fancy had it been in me to have perswaded my Sonne whom I have