THE VOYAGERS 



turn. It is useless, he says, to cripple the Spanish navy ; Raleigh on 



. . . , J 1 T^- r o ' ihe importance 



in a year the losses are repaired, and the King or bpain ^^^/^ 



'beginneth again like a storm to threaten shipwrack 

 to us all. ... It is his Indian gold that endangereth 

 and disturbeth all the nations of Europe.' The way 

 to defeat him is to appropriate a richer source of gold 

 than any in his dominion. It seems likely that Raleigh 

 was already chasing the phantom of El Dorado when 

 he urged the settlement of Virginia. Then stories and 

 fables reached him from the South American continent, 

 and in 1595 he led his expedition up the Orinoco, and 

 recorded his adventures in his tract. The 'Discovery of the Guiana. 

 Large^ Rich and Beautiful Empire of Guiana^ printed in 

 the following year. The tract has been condemned as 

 being full of impostures and deceits. On the contrary, 

 it is soberly and veraciously written ; the disappointing 

 results of the expedition are accurately recorded, but 

 so strong is the author's belief in his preconceived idea, 

 that, from the title onward, his narrative conveys the 

 impression of great things on the verge of achievement 

 and untold wealth ready at a touch to fall into England's 

 lap. It is the work of a poet, who bridles in his 

 struggling Muse with pain. The will-o'-the-wisp of 

 gold, which had led a thousand adventurers by devious 

 paths about the world, led Raleigh to the scaffold, 

 where he found relief from * those inmost and soul- 

 piercing wounds which are ever^ aching while uncured,' 

 and expiated his pride and his dreams. His death marks The last great 

 the end of the heroic age; with him the poets and 

 architects who had prophesied and planned pass away, 

 and the accountants and builders begin their long and 

 tedious task of erecting the fabric of the Empire. 



73 



