e king,
though at present they would not bind themselves by it. But as liberty
was yet new, those maxims which guard and regulate it were unknown and
unpractised.]

[Footnote 54: NOTE BBB, p. 452. Some of the facts in this narrative,
which seem to condemn Raleigh, are taken from the king's declaration,
which, being published by authority when the facts were recent, being
extracted from examinations before the privy council, and subscribed by
six privy councillors, among whom was Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury,
a prelate nowise complaisant to the court, must be allowed to have great
weight, or rather to be of undoubted credit. Yet the most material facts
are confirmed either by the nature and reason of the thing, or by Sir
Walter's own apology and his letters. The king's declaration is in the
Harleian Miscellany, vol. iii. No. 2.

1. There seems to be an improbability that the Spaniards, who knew
nothing of Raleigh's pretended mine, should have built a town, in
so wide a coast, within three miles of it. The chances are extremely
against such a supposition; and it is more natural to think that the
view of plundering the town led him thither, than that of working a
mine. 2. No such mine is there found to this day. 3. Raleigh in fact
found no mine, and in fact he plundered and burned a Spanish town. Is it
not more probable, therefore, that the latter was his intention? How
can the secrets of his breast be rendered so visible as to counterpoise
certain facts? 4. He confesses, in his letter to Lord Carew, that
though he knew it, yet he concealed from the king the settlement of
the Spaniards on that coast. Does not this fact alone render him
sufficiently criminal? 5. His commission empowers him only to settle on
a coast possessed by savage and barbarous inhabitants. Was it not the
most evident breach of orders to disembark on a coast possessed by
Spaniards? 6. His orders to Keymis, when he sent him up the river, are
contained in his own apology; and from them it appears that he knew
(what was unavoidable) that the Spaniards would resist, and would
oppose the English landing and taking possession of the country. His
intentions, therefore, were hostile from the beginning. 7. Without
provocation, and even when at a distance, he gave Keymis orders to
dislodge the Spaniards from their own town. Could any enterprise be more
hostile? And, considering the Spaniards as allies to the nation, could
any enterprise be more criminal? W