consignment is supposed to have included the King of Spain's and his
Custom-house Secretary's letters of warning to Diego Palomeque. A copy,
some say the original, of Ralegh's own letter to James was in the
bundle. Ralegh is reported to have conveyed it home, and to have shown
it to the Lords of the Council.

[Sidenote: _Suicide of Keymis._]

[Sidenote: _Harsh Judgments._]

On March 2 the survivors of the expedition rejoined him at Puncto Gallo.
Keymis had to confess his crowning failure. Ralegh did not banish him
from his board, as the _Declaration_ noted with a sneer; but he
upbraided him severely for having stopped short of the Mine. He declared
that, as Walter was killed, he should not have cared, and he did not
believe Keymis cared, if a hundred more had been lost in opening the
Mine, so the King had been satisfied, and Ralegh's reputation been
saved. There was no kinder or more generous leader than he. His
dependents and servants worshipped him. The treatment of Keymis is the
one instance in his career of harshness to a follower. He would see no
force in Keymis's apologies. He told him that he must answer to the King
and the State. Keymis had composed a letter of excuse to Lord Arundel, a
chief promoter of the expedition. This he submitted to Ralegh, and asked
for his approval. He refused it absolutely: 'Is that,' inquired Keymis,
'your resolution? I know,'--or, according to the _Apology_, 'I know
not'--'then, Sir, what course to take.' He went away, and very soon a
shot was heard. Keymis told a page, whom Ralegh sent to his cabin door,
that he had fired the pistol because it had long been charged. Half an
hour afterwards his cabin-boy found him stabbed to the heart. The pistol
shot had only broken a rib, and he had finished the work with a dagger.
Poor Keymis, who was fifty-five at his death, was no 'rough old sailor,'
no mere 'sturdy mariner,' as Mr. Gardiner styles the ex-Fellow of
Balliol, the writer of Latin verses, the fluent and argumentative
chronicler. He was emotional and imaginative. He was fated to be as evil
a genius to the leader he adored as selfish, unstable Cobham. He brought
much woe upon his friends and himself through blunders committed from
the most generous motives, and he was very sternly judged. If the
supposed message to Cobham, which formed one of the most damaging
charges in 1603 against Ralegh, were a gloss of his own, concocted from
casual talk, he paid for his indiscretion by endu