ment was fortunate for his fame, if
not for his future tranquillity. In his enforced retirement he brooded
on schemes of maritime adventure. He determined to prove the
impossibility of suppressing him. His Panama project had been imputed to
his discovery that 'the Queen's love was beginning to decline.' That
could not then have been truly asserted. Naunton has similarly explained
the Guiana expedition:--'Finding his favour declining, he undertook a
new peregrination to leave that terra infirma of the Court for that of
the wars, and by declining himself, and by absence, to expel his and the
passion of his enemies; which in Court was a strange device of recovery,
but that he knew there was some ill office done him, that he durst not
attempt to mend any other ways than by going aside, thereby to teach
envy a new way of forgetfulness, and not so much as to think of him;
howsoever, he had it always in mind never to forget himself; and his
device took so well, that, at his return, he came in, as rams do by
going backwards, with the greater strength; and so continued to the last
in the Queen's grace.' Nothing, it is certain, ever was farther from
Ralegh's thoughts than a wish to be forgotten, whether by enemies or by
friends; yet Naunton's theory is true at bottom. The persistency of the
shadow at Court was as plain to Ralegh as to others. Its own merits
might else have recommended to him the Guiana expedition. But at this
especial juncture it was his engine for storming his way back into his
Sovereign's kindness.

[Sidenote: _Difficulties._]

Guiana had one important merit as a field for enterprise. It was known
to be free from European occupation, as well as reputed to be rich.
Camden describes it as 'aurifera Guiana ab Hispanis decantata.' Many
Spanish expeditions, from the year 1531 onwards, had been fitted out to
find the King el Dorado, who loved to anoint his body with turpentine,
and then roll in gold dust. Neither he nor his city, called by the same
name, had been discovered. Attempts to penetrate into the interior had
all failed. The Indians were warlike and united; the country was a
jungle, environed with vast waters not easily navigated; and the
invaders had quarrelled among themselves. The latest effort had been
made in 1582 by Don Antonio de Berreo. Berreo was son-in-law to Quesada,
who had annexed New Grenada to Spain. Berreo alleged that he spent
300,000 ducats, and journeyed 1500 miles, before he arrived with