236 THE OCEAN RIVER 



and Raleigh was to venture there and in this romantic, heroic, 

 and vain endeavor to lose his fortune and his only son, and 

 finally, through this ill success, his very life. 



To show the strange mixture of almost religious awe, the 

 challenge to heroic action, and the childlike lust for untold 

 treasure, it is best to listen to Raleigh's own words of what he 

 saw and of what he dreamed. Speaking of the falls of Caroli: 

 ". . . and there appeared from ten to twelve overfalls in sight 

 . . . which fell with that fury that the rebound of the waters 

 made it seem that it had been covered over with a great 

 shower of rain or smoke than had risen over some great town. 

 ... I never saw a more beautiful country, nor more lovely 

 prospects . . . the river winding into divers branches, the plains 

 adjoining without stubble, all fair green grass, the ground of 

 hard sand easy to march on, the deer crossing on every path, 

 the birds towards the evening singing on every tree with a 

 thousand several tunes, cranes and herons of white and crim- 

 son, the air fresh with a gentle easterly wind, and every stone 

 that we stooped to take up promised either gold or silver by 

 his complexion." 



Raleigh, alas, was better at describing the complexion of 

 his mind and hope, like Columbus when he looked for the 

 Grand Khan. Yet nothing could daunt the true Elizabethan 

 spirit. Here is his final call to those who stayed at home: 

 'The common soldier shall there fight for gold and pay 

 himself, instead of pence, with plates a half-foot broad, 

 whereas he beareth his bones in other wars for poverty and 

 penury. Those commanders and chieftans that shoot at hon- 

 our and abundance, shall find there more rich and beautiful 

 cities, more temples adorned with golden images, more sepul- 

 chres filled with treasure, than either Cortez found in Mexico 

 or Pizarro in Peru, and the shining glory of this conquest will 

 eclipse all these so far extended beams of the Spanish nation." 



There it is — romance, abundance, honor, national pride. 



