o Berreo. It was first
founded by Jesuits in 1576, close to the confluence of the Caroni and
Orinoko. At the period of Ralegh's voyage it had become deserted. Berreo
reoccupied the site; and Keymis found the mouth of the Caroni blocked,
and guarded by a battery. 'Thus,' wrote Lady Ralegh indignantly to
Cecil, on Keymis's return, Ralegh being away in Spain, 'you hear your
poor absent friend's fortune, who, if he had been as well credited in
his reports and knowledges as it seemeth the Spaniards were, they had
not now been possessors of that place.' Keymis had to alter his route.
His passage to the mine from which the ores and white stones had been
taken the year before was intercepted. He went in the direction of Mount
Aio. Putijma had pointed out a gold mine in that neighbourhood to a
pilot. Even this mine, however, he did not actually reach, though he was
within fifteen miles of it. He was afraid, he said, that he and his men
might be cut off in the attempt, and the secret of the treasure be
buried with them. He was content to foster the amity of the Indians, to
remark additional signs of gold and spleen stones, and to discover above
fifty fresh rivers and tribes. After an absence of five months, he
arrived off Portland at the end of June. In a published narrative of his
expedition he apologised for having emptied Ralegh's purse in the
prosecution of patriotic designs thwarted by 'envy and private
respects.'

CHAPTER XIII.

CADIZ. THE ISLANDS VOYAGE. (1596-1597).

[Sidenote: _A Policy of Offence._]

Ralegh, like his wife and Keymis, may have thought his labour and his
money thrown away. They had not been. Guiana, after all, rehabilitated
him. His advice that England should not let herself be constrained to a
defensive war by the power of the Indian gold of Spain, was followed.
Again he emerged into official prominence as a warrior. He had never
ceased to carry himself as one who owed it to the State to counsel and
to lead. In November, 1595, he was warning Cecil of a fleet of sixty
sail preparing in Spain for Ireland. He was urging the necessity for the
quality, 'not plentiful in Ministers,' of despatch. 'Expedition in a
little is better than much too late. If we be once driven to the
defensive, farewell might.' Within the same month he was admonishing the
Council by letter of the imminent danger of a Spanish invasion of
England from Brittany. Disasters themselves favoured his advice and
projects. An exped