for themselves. He had spent
much time and money, with no other object than to serve his queen and
country. When they considered that it was the Spaniard's gold which
endangered and disturbed all the nations of Europe, that "purchaseth
intelligence, creepeth into councils and setteth bound loyalty at
liberty," they would see the advantage of these provinces he had
discovered. Guiana was a country that had never yet been sacked, turned,
or wrought. The face of the earth had not been torn, nor the virtue and
salt of the soil spent by manurance; the graves had not been opened for
gold, the mines not touched with sledges, or the images pulled down
from the temples. It was so easily defensible that it could be protected
by two forts at the mouth of a river, and thus the whole empire be
guarded. The country was already discovered, many nations won to Her
Majesty's love and obedience, and those Spaniards who had laboured on
the conquest were beaten, discouraged, and disgraced. If Her Majesty
took up the enterprise, he doubted not that after the first or second
year there would be a Contractation House for Guiana in London, with
larger receipts than that for the Indies at Seville.

Such was Ralegh's dream. Another Peru to be conquered, and England to be
raised to the highest point of wealth and importance. But unfortunately
he could get no assistance to carry out the grand project. Yet he was
undoubtedly sincere, for did he not send out two expeditions under
Captains Keymis and Berrie the following year, to assure the Indians
that he had not forgotten them? Keymis found one tribe keeping a
festival in honour of the great princess of the north, and anxiously
waiting for the return of Gualtero, which name, by the by, was similar
to their word for friend. They made fires, and, sitting in their
hammocks, each man with his companion, they recounted the worthy deeds
and deaths of their ancestors, execrating their enemies most spitefully,
and magnifying their friends with all the titles of honour they could
devise. Thus they sat talking and smoking tobacco until their cigars
(their measure of time) went out, during which they were not to be
disturbed, "for this is their religion and prayers which they now
celebrated, keeping a precise fast one whole day in honour of the great
princess of the north, their patron and defender."

The explorations of Ralegh and his captains were published all over
Europe, with the result that attention