136 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
summer, their courage and enterprize gained them great credit. 
It is conjectured that during this voyage Raleigh visited Virginia. 
In the early part of 1580, when nearly twenty-eight years of age, 
Raleigh began his famous campaign in Ireland. At the head of a 
small body of men — a few musketeers and a few cavalry — number- 
ing in all about one hundred, and sometimes much less, though 
bold to rashness, and in the midst of a hostile population, he never 
suffered a reverse, and performed exploits which read more like 
fairy tales than sober history. I cannot pass over without notice 
the part he took in the massacre of Del Oro. Del Oro was a fort 
thrown up near Smerwick by Spaniards, Italians, and Irish rebels. 
The garrison refused to surrender to Lord Grey of Wilton, Lord- 
Deputy of Ireland, replying to his summons that they were there 
by command of the Pope, who had taken Ireland from his heretical 
mistress and given it to the King of Spain. However, they 
were soon obliged to surrender at discretion, and with very few 
exceptions the whole garrison, numbering five or six hundred 
men, and a few women, were massacred in cold blood. Raleigh 
was one of the officers deputed to see the orders of Lord Grey 
carried into effect. It was a terrible lesson, and one the Spaniards 
never forgot. They never again effected a lodgment in Ireland. 
The Queen expressed her entire approbation of what had been 
done. 
We now find Raleigh with an established reputation taking a 
prominent part at Court. He soon became as distinguished as a 
courtier as he already was as a soldier. He secured with very little 
difficulty a high place in the affections of the Queen. Raleigh 
was still on colonizing schemes intent; but as the Queen would 
scarcely let him out of her sight, he was obliged to content himself 
with fitting out expeditions that were not personally conducted. 
The year 1583 is memorable for an expedition under Sir Humphry 
Gilbert, in which that gallant commander lost his life, his little 
ship being swallowed up in mid-ocean during the night, and lost 
with all hands. In the following year Raleigh obtained from the 
Queen a charter of colonization, somewhat similar to, but more 
beneficial than, a previous charter granted to Sir Humphry. It 
empowered Raleigh to take possession of and colonize on behalf of 
the Queen remote heathen and barbarous lands not actually pos- 
sessed by any Christian prince nor inhabited by Christian people, 
and to enjoy the soil of such lands, only reserving for her Majesty's 
