SIR WALTER RALEIGH. 
145 
death, a very unpopular man; when he left it he had won the 
sympathy and the admiration of every one, except the judges, the 
counsel, and the jury. On November the 17th he was told he had 
only eighteen days to live, and for more than twelve years from 
this time, during his imprisonment in the Tower, he was kept in 
constant expectation of death. At first, at his wife's entreaty, he 
begged his life of James in letters which are not to his credit ; but 
he soon repented of this weakness, and resigned himself as best he 
could to a sojourn in the Tower. He had numerous influential 
friends, among them the Queen and Henry Prince of Wales, who 
remarked that "no one but his father would keep such a bird in a 
cage." 
Raleigh now applied himself in earnest to literature, science, 
and philosophy. He invented a practical method of distilling salt- 
water on board ship. He turned his attention to chemical studies, 
and concocted a great cordial — a mixture of saffron, pounded crabs' 
claws, and spices, which he fondly imagined to be a specific against 
every kind of malady. The Prince of Wales, however, died not- 
withstanding a dose of it, and by his death Raleigh was deprived 
of a sincere and powerful friend. Celebrated men in every walk 
of life constantly dined with him in the Tower, and none more 
frequently than Ben Jonson. In 1614 he published his great work, 
The History of the World y beginning with the Creation and ending 
a little before the Christian era. It displays an immense amount 
of learning and research, interspersed with numerous sensible ob- 
servations and reflections. All through his literary labours he 
panted for another expedition to Guiana. At last he managed to 
scrape together enough money to bribe the courtiers — for which 
purpose his wife had to sell a small estate of her own — and on the 
19th of March, 1616, he left his lodgings in the Bloody Tower at 
the age of sixty-four, attended by a keeper. He was, however, 
forbidden to repair to Court, or to be present at any great assem- 
blage, lest he should awaken too much sympathy. He now sold 
everything he possessed, and with the proceeds built his ship, 
the Destiny. A hundred noblemen and gentlemen flocked to his 
standard, and adventurous ruffians, reckless of everything in the 
pursuit of gold, arrived in London from the different ports of 
Europe. These successful preparations put Gondomar, the Spanish 
ambassador, in a fury, and James vacillated from day to day be- 
tween fear of the Spaniards and love of gold. His meanness and 
VOL. VI. k 
