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A57347
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Sir Walter Rawleigh his apologie for his voyage to Guiana by Sir Walter Rawleigh.
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Raleigh, Walter, Sir, 1552?-1618.
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1650
(1650)
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Wing R154; ESTC R234010
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21,925
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72
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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
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