Sir Walter Raleigh's imprisonment in the Tower, after his trial, continued about thirteen years. from the original in the State-Paper Office, which is without a date, but is indorsed in Lord Salisbury's hand-writing, "26 June, 1611;" nearly eight years after the first commitment of Lord Grey to the Tower.

'My Lord,-In all my distress, your Lordship, under God, is the sanctuary under whose gentle favour I seek to shroud me, and receive even safety and comfort. Wherefore, perceiving by Mr. Lieutenant how nobly it hath pleased your Lordships of 'the Council to compassionate us for our diet, and for which we are infinitely bound unto you, I cannot hide from your Lordship ' another grief (peculiar to me alone), that not a little molesteth me. All the other old prisoners are restored near where they were before, my Lord of Northumberland to walk on the hill; my Lord Cobham to walk freely in his garden, and Sir Walter Raleigh hath a garden and gallery free to himself. I only am shut up, so that I can neither have air, nor any moderate exercise for 'preservation of my health; and, therefore, I humbly beseech " your Lordship, to move for licence for me to walk under some part of the Ordnance House next my lodging, and least in show; whereunto might it please you to add liberty a-mornings, before the ladies are up, or disposed to walk, with a keeper, to 'walk and run (a thing which not a little preserveth my health) in the greater part of Mr. Pidgeon's gardens, I should hold it 'for a great favour; especially might Mr. Lieutenant perceive 'that your Lordships wished a favourable, or moderate hand at 'least, carried over one that, since this his misfortune, hath in no point failed of due respect unto him, nor care to avoid all just 'exceptions against himself; and yet do I suffer most, being even shut from all commodity fit to preserve my health. Truly, my Lord, life is not dear unto me; nay, happy were it for me, that my dissolution were at hand; for my life is but extreme misery. Only I could not deny your Lordships, nor myself, this right, that my sore restraint might appear unto you; that God giving you sense thereof, some remedy may be found, if not to help (whereof I begin to despair) at least to ease such insupportable distress. This thus done, I humbly recommend myself and all my desires to God's mercy, and under him, to your Lordship's noble favour, beseeching you so soon as conveniently may be, that Mr. Lieutenant may have order for me to walk 'somewhere; for truly, my Lord, even this week, in such close and uneasy lodgings, hath not a little dulled me, and indisposed my poor and decaying body. My God hath pleased, unto ail others, to add this sore blow, that my dear and only sister coming

During great part of this long period, his active mind was occupied with writing his History of the World, and in chemical pursuits, to which he had been always much devoted. But growing weary of his pen and his chemistry, and becoming doubly impatient of his imprisonment upon the death of his patron, Prince Henry, to whose accession to the crown he always looked as the termination, however remote, of his captivity, he devised an expedient for procuring his liberation, by proposing to equip and conduct an adventure to Guiana for the purpose of exploring a gold mine in that country. This proposition was presented to the King by Sir Ralph Winwood, then Secretary of State, and is said to have been recommended by him, upon the faith of Raleigh's representations, as a promising speculation. Indeed, as the enterprise was to be undertaken at the private expense of Sir Walter Raleigh, and such other persons as he could persuade to embark their property in it, and as the King was to receive the large proportion of one-fifth part of all the gold or silver imported into England by the adventurers, the speculation was one by which James could lose nothing, and might gain enormously. Raleigh would, therefore, in all probability, have found no difficulty in obtaining from the avarice of the King, that freedom which he had for twelve years sought in vain from his justice and humanity, had not the remonstrances of Gondomar, the Spanish Ambassador, alarmed his pusillanimity.

Sir Walter Raleigh had, during the time of Queen Elizabeth, been always an object of fear and hatred up to see me, lies sick near unto death. The living God 'increase in me all true patience, and deliver the state from all other peril; as poor Grey shall willingly expose his life for 'the service of the King and Kingdom of England. I honour 'your Lordship with the entire devotions and services of

THOMAS GREY,"

to the government of Spain; he had borne a distinguished part in the several annoying invasions of that country under the Earl of Essex, and had humbled the pride and excited the jealousy of Philip III. by planting new colonies in the Indies. In the district of South America to which Raleigh's expedition was directed, several colonies had been planted, which formed part of the dominions of the King of Spain; and Gondomar, on the part of the Spanish government, expressed great uneasiness and jealousy at the proposed expedition, suggesting that under colour of a mercantile adventure, it was intended by Raleigh to make a hostile and piratical attack upon the Spanish settlements, in breach of the treaty of peace which subsisted between the two crowns. James assured the Ambassador that a limited commission only would be given, and no pardon be granted to Sir Walter Raleigh, and consequently that he would still remain liable to execution upon his former sentence: he also promised that if Raleigh should exceed the terms of his commission by any acts of violence or robbery, or any hostile aggression upon the colonies of Spain, he would either have him executed in England, or deliver him, as soon as he returned, with all the treasure and goods which he might bring home with him, into the hands of the King of Spain, to be disposed of as he thought proper. The apprehensions of the Ambassador being quieted, but not subdued by these assurances, the King, after much hesitation, granted the required commission, taking from Raleigh and the other commanders of the expedition, ample securities for the due observance of the articles, and the preservation of peace with the subjects of Spain, and all other nations in alliance with England. In addition to these securities, Raleigh is said to have been com

pelled to find sureties for his return to England within a certain period.

Greater misfortunes and disappointments than Raleigh endured in the course of this enterprise never befel any man: but it would be departing too far from our subject to relate in detail the particulars of this ill-fated expedition. Our only object is to trace clearly to their origin those causes which afterwards led to the death of Raleigh, and to show that the disgraceful proceedings which followed, are not justly chargeable upon the law or its ministers, but upon mere political intrigue. For this purpose it will be enough to state generally the outlines of the story. In November, 1617, Sir Walter Raleigh landed on the coast of Guiana, having lost about one-fifth part of his company during the voyage by a contagious disorder, from the effects of which he says he had been himself "in the hands of death for six weeks," and by which many of his most effective men were still disabled. Soon after his arrival, he sent a detachment, under the command of his old and faithful officer, Kemys, up the river Oronoko in search of the mine. In passing up the river they were fired upon by the Spaniards, from the small town of St. Thomas, where there was a Spanish settlement. A skirmish ensued, in which the Spanish Governor, who happened to be the near relation of Gondomar, and several other Spaniards were killed; and in which also Raleigh's eldest son, a youth of great bravery and promise, was slain by a blow from a musket. After driving the Spaniards from St. Thomas, Kemys and his party proceeded further up the river, exploring each shore as he went, in order to discover the mine. He sought, as many others have since sought for objects of a similar kind and equally delusive,-in vain; and upon being attacked by a body of Spaniards,

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on his attempt to land in an unexplored part of the country, and driven back to his ships with some loss, he abandoned all thought of discovery, and returned to Raleigh with the intelligence of his misfortunes. Raleigh immediately foresaw the dangerous consequences of this failure; and on reproaching Kemys with a breach of orders in attacking the Spaniards, and with cowardice and neglect of duty in returning without further endeavours to accomplish his object, the unfortunate man in the bitterness of despair retired to his cabin and destroyed himself. Raleigh now returned to Newfoundland to refit his ships; and there a mutiny broke out amongst the "motley company of rascals" who composed the expedition; and Raleigh, weary of the reproaches of his fellow-adventurers, and despairing at length of success in the main object of his voyage, determined upon returning to England, and accordingly arrived at Plymouth in the beginning of July, 1618. The bitterness of his disappointment is well described by himself in a letter to his wife, written on his homeward voyage, in which he declared "that his brains were broken, and that as Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins died broken-hearted when they failed of their enterprise, he could willingly do the like if he did not contend against sorrow for her sake."

The intelligence of the attack upon St. Thomas, and the unsuccessful issue of the adventure, had arrived in England before him. The Spanish Ambassador, irritated perhaps more by his hatred of Raleigh and the death of his relation, than at the supposed insult of his Sovereign, now claimed his victim according to the promise made by James on his first remonstrance against the expedition. The King himself was sufficiently exasperated at the failure of the adventure; but he was much more