rdial, indeed, was
their reception, that, as a last favour, Raleigh asked the Governor for
a letter to Sarmiento [Gondomar], which he got, setting forth 'how nobly
we had behaved ourselves, and how justly we had dealt with the
inhabitants of the islands.' Before leaving Gomera, Raleigh discharged a
native barque which one of his pinnaces had captured, and paid at the
valuation of the master for any prejudice that had been done him. On
September 21 they sailed away from the Canaries, having much sickness on
board; and that very day their first important loss occurred, in the
death of the Provost Marshal of the fleet, a man called Stead.

On the 26th they reached St. Antonio, the outermost of the Cape Verde
Islands, but did not land there. For eight wretched days they wandered
aimlessly about in this unfriendly archipelago, trying to make up their
minds to land now on Brava, now on St. Jago. Some of the ships grated on
the rocks, all lost anchors and cables; one pinnace, her crew being
asleep and no one on the watch, drove under the bowsprit of the
'Destiny,' struck her and sank. When they did effect a landing on Brava,
they were soaked by the tropical autumnal rains of early October. Men
were dying fast in all the ships. In deep dejection Raleigh gave the
order to steer away for Guiana. Meanwhile Bailey had arrived in England,
had seen Gondomar, and had openly given out that he left Raleigh because
the admiral had been guilty of piratical acts against Spain. It does not
seem that Winwood or the King took any notice of these declarations
until the end of the year.

The ocean voyage was marked by an extraordinary number of deaths, among
others that of Mr. Fowler, the principal refiner, whose presence at the
gold mine would have been of the greatest importance. On October 13,
John Talbot, who had been for eleven years Raleigh's secretary in the
Tower, passed away. The log preserved in the _Second Voyage_ is of great
interest, but we dare not allow its observations to detain us. On the
last of October, Raleigh was struck down by fever himself, and for
twenty days lay unable to eat anything more solid than a stewed prune.
He was in bed, on November 11, when they sighted Cape Orange, now the
most northerly point belonging to the Empire of Brazil. On the 14th they
anchored at the mouth of the Cayenne river, and Raleigh was carried from
his noisome cabin into his barge; the 'Destiny' got across the bar,
which was lower then tha