he Governor permitted the crews to draw water, and buy provisions.
Ralegh reciprocated by keeping his men in perfect order. He sent a
present of gloves to the Governor's wife, a lady of the Stafford family.
She returned fruit, sugar, and rusks. Not to be outdone he rejoined with
ambergris, rosewater, a cut-work ruff, and a picture of the Magdalen. He
was in the habit of taking pictures with him on his voyages. This
interchange of courtesies was the one gleam of human kindness which
lighted up for Ralegh his dismal journey. He dwells upon it gratefully
in the journal he kept. The manuscript, in twenty large pages, is in the
British Museum. It covers the period from August 19 to February 13. Off
the Isle of Bravo, sickness attacked the fleet. It was aggravated
through the protraction of the voyage by contrary winds from the
customary fortnight or three weeks to six. Forty-two men in the flagship
died. Among them were Fowler, the principal refiner, Ralegh's cook
Francis, his servant Crab, the master surgeon, the provost martial,
Captain Piggot, his best land-general, and Mr. John Talbot, 'who,'
records Ralegh, 'had lived with me eleven years in the Tower, an
excellent general scholar, and a faithful true man as lived.' The ship
left Bravo on October 4. On the 12th they were becalmed. At one time a
thick and fearful darkness enveloped them. Then the horizon became
over-shot with gloomy discolorations. Off Trinidad fifteen rainbows in a
day were seen. Ralegh caught a cold, which turned to a burning fever.
For twenty-eight days he lay unable to take solid food. He could not
have survived but for the Gomera fruit. His ordinary servants were all
ill; but he had also pages who attended him. Apparently his illness did
not prevent him from keeping a general supervision of the fleet. His
journal proves him to have been a thorough and practical seaman.

[Sidenote: _Indian Affection._]

The fleet arrived off Cape Oyapoco on November 11. Ralegh wrote to his wife
on November 17, from the mouth of the Cayenne in Guiana, the Caliana, as he
calls it: 'Sweet Heart, We are yet 200 men, and the rest of our fleet are
reasonably strong; strong enough, I hope, to perform what we have
undertaken, if the diligent care at London to make our strength known to
the Spanish King by his ambassador have not taught the Spaniards to fortify
all the entrances against us. If we perish, it shall be no gain for his
Majesty to lose, among many other, one hundr