CADIZ. THE ISLANDS VOYAGE. (1596-1597).
[Sidenote: _A Policy of Offence._]
Ralegh, like his wife and Keymis, may have thought his labour and his
money thrown away. They had not been. Guiana, after all, rehabilitated
him. His advice that England should not let herself be constrained to a
defensive war by the power of the Indian gold of Spain, was followed.
Again he emerged into official prominence as a warrior. He had never
ceased to carry himself as one who owed it to the State to counsel and
to lead. In November, 1595, he was warning Cecil of a fleet of sixty
sail preparing in Spain for Ireland. He was urging the necessity for the
quality, 'not plentiful in Ministers,' of despatch. 'Expedition in a
little is better than much too late. If we be once driven to the
defensive, farewell might.' Within the same month he was admonishing the
Council by letter of the imminent danger of a Spanish invasion of
England from Brittany. Disasters themselves favoured his advice and
projects. An expedition conducted by Hawkins and Drake against Panama
had been unsuccessful. The commanders died, Hawkins in November, 1595,
Drake in the next January; both, Ralegh has written, broken-hearted from
disappointment and vexation. Spain was encouraged by the failure. A
Spanish league with the Earl of Tyrone frightened and exasperated
Elizabeth. She equipped ninety-six sail, and the Dutch added
twenty-four. They carried 14,000 Englishmen, 1000 being gentlemen
volunteers, and 2600 Dutchmen.
[Sidenote: _Distribution of Commands._]
Lord Admiral Howard and Essex were joint Generals. They had a council of
war of five members. Lord Thomas Howard and Ralegh served for the seas.
Sir Francis Vere and Sir Coniers Clifford represented the troops. The
fifth on the council was Sir George Carew. All five were charged, as
they would answer before God, to give their counsels to both Generals
without any private respect to either, for love or fear. The English
fleet was divided into four squadrons. Ralegh commanded twenty-two
ships, manned by 1352 mariners and 1875 soldiers. As usually happened,
the expedition was detained by cross weather, which caused Ralegh, he
declared, deeper grief than he ever felt for anything of this world. His
anguish did not wholly occupy him. Some of his enforced leisure he
employed in petitioning for the appointment to the bishoprics of Lismore
and Waterford of the very learned Hugh Broughton. The ground partly was
the comfort Broughton would be to all the English nation thereabouts.
Partly, he wished to requite old Archbishop Magrath, who was usurping
the two sees, for having dealt badly with him touching divers leases and
lands. He was less successful in pleading for learning than for folly.
Broughton was not given the mitre. But four years later Cecil, writing
to Carew of a nominee for the Kerry Bishopric, described him
significantly as 'another manner of man than Sir Walter Ralegh's last
silly priest.' Now Ralegh was busy also begging a grant of 'concealed
lands' in Ireland for a former servant, and an Exeter prebend for Mr.
William Hilliard. He was inducing Cecil to be 'bound for me for the
L500, which I stand in danger to the Widow Smith for.' At last the wind
became more accommodating. Ralegh, whom carping gouty Anthony Bacon
pretended to suspect of having contributed to the delay from underhand
motives, collected the truant ships and seamen. On June 1, 1596, the
armament quitted Plymouth.
[Sidenote: _Ralegh's Strategy._]
Until the fleet was at sea its destination had been kept secret. On June
20 it anchored half a league from Cadiz. A council was held from which
Ralegh was absent, being engaged in intercepting runaway Spanish ships.
It was resolved to attack the town first. On his return, he found Essex
in the act of putting soldiers in boats on a stormy sea. One barge had
sunk. First he dissuaded the Earl from prosecuting that plan. Next, he
won over the Lord Admiral. When he came back from Howard's ship, crying
out 'Entramos! Entramos!' Essex in exultation threw his plumed hat into
the water. Again by Ralegh's counsels, the attack was postponed till the
morning for the sake of the light. He drew up a scheme of operations and
sent it to the Lord Admiral, who and Essex, he says, were willing to be
'advised by so mean an understanding.' His project was to batter the
galleons first, and to appoint to each two great fly-boats to board
afterwards. The Generals were to stay with the main body of the fleet.
Ralegh obtained permission to lead the van in the Warspright, which had
a crew of 290. He was to be seconded by five other ships. Carew
commanded the Mary Rose, named after the ill-fated ship which foundered
at Portsmouth in the presence of Henry the Eighth, with its crew and
captain, another Sir George Carew, the present George's cousin. Marshal
Vere was in the Rainbow, Southwell in the Lion, Conyers Clifford in the
Dreadnought, and Lord Thomas Howard in the Nonparilla. An anonymous
contemporary writer, supposed to be Sir William Monson, who, it must be
admitted, says little of Ralegh's extraordinary prominence in the
action, states that Lord Thomas Howard challenged the leadership of the
van by right of his place as Vice-Admiral, and was granted it. Ralegh
was in this, at all events, not to be thwarted.
[Sidenote: _The Attack._]
At dawn he started, well in advance of all. Thereupon the St. Philip,
St. Matthew, St. Andrew, and St. Thomas, all mighty galleons, sailed
into the strait of the harbour towards Puerto Real. They moored under
the fort of Puntal, with a fringe of galleys, three about each, to
assist. The Warspright was cannonaded on her way by the fort and by the
galleys, which she esteemed but as wasps in respect of the powerfulness
of the others. She made no answer except by 'a blare with a trumpet to
each discharge.' Sailing on she anchored close against the St. Philip
and St. Andrew, the biggest ships in the Spanish navy. They had
overpowered Grenville's ship at the Azores. Ralegh determined 'to be
revenged for the Revenge, or to second her with mine own life.' He at
once cannonaded them while waiting for the fly-boats, which were to
board. The five supporting ships were at hand, but behind. Essex in his
flagship now came up. He was eager to join, and anchored beside him.
After a struggle of three hours the Warspright was near sinking. Ralegh
was rowed to Essex's ship. He told the Earl he meant, in default of the
fly-boats, to board from his ship: 'To burn or sink is the same loss;
and I must endure one or the other.' 'I will second you upon my honour,'
cried Essex. Ralegh, on his return after a quarter of an hour's absence,
found that the Nonparilla and the Rainbow had headed the Warspright.
Thomas Howard had on board his ship the Lord Admiral. Nevertheless,
Ralegh would not yield precedence, 'holding mine own reputation dearest,
and remembering my great duty to her Majesty.' Determined to be 'single
in the head of all,' he pushed between the Nonparilla and Rainbow, and
'thrust himself athwart the channel, so as I was sure none should
outstart me again for that day.' Vere pulled the Rainbow close up by a
hawser he had ordered to be fastened to the Warspright's side. But
Ralegh's sailors cut it; and back slipped into his place the Marshal,
'whom,' writes Ralegh, 'I guarded, all but his very prow, from the sight
of the enemy.' At length he proceeded to grapple the St. Philip. His
companions were following his example, when a panic seized the
Spaniards. All four galleons slipped anchor, and tried to run aground,
'tumbling into the sea heaps of soldiers, so thick as if coals had been
poured out of a sack.' The St. Matthew and the St. Andrew, of ten to
twelve hundred tons burden, were captured before there was time for
their officers to burn them. In his wonderfully vivid letter, undated
and unaddressed, known as _A Relation of Cadiz Action_, he does not name
the captor. But a note in his own hand, in his copy of a French account,
_Les Lauriers de Nassau_, affirms, 'J'ay pris tous deux.' The St. Philip
and the St. Thomas were blown up by their captains. A multitude of the
men were drowned, or horribly scorched. 'There was so huge a fire, and
such tearing of the ordnance, as, if any man had a desire to see Hell
itself, it was there most lively figured.' The English, Ralegh says,
spared the lives of all after the victory; the Flemings, who did little
or nothing in the fight, slaughtered mercilessly, till Ralegh first, and
then the Lord Admiral, beat them off. Towards the close of the three
hours' struggle, Ralegh received from a spent shot a grievous wound,
'interlaced and deformed with splinters,' in the leg.
[Sidenote: _Occupation of Cadiz._]
So stunned were the Spaniards by the naval disaster that the English
troops when they landed had an easy victory. They routed eight hundred
horsemen who met them. Then, hotly pursuing, they forced their way in
under Essex along with the fugitives. Before 8 o'clock that night the
English were masters of the market-place, forts, town, and all but the
castle. It held out till break of day. Ralegh was carried ashore on his
men's shoulders; but his wound was painful, and he was anxious for the
fleet. That was practically deserted. The superior officers had all run
headlong to the sack. So he retired on board. A promise was made him of
a full share of the spoil. He wrote on his copy of _Les Lauriers_ that
the engagement was not kept. Cadiz agreed to pay a hundred and twenty
thousand crowns as ransom for the persons of the citizens. All the rich
merchandise in the town, and forty thousand ducats in cash, were spoil
of war. A grander booty might have been gained if the Generals had been
guided by him, though Sir William Monson arrogates to himself the honour
of the suggestion. At daybreak he had sent his step-brother, Sir John
Gilbert, and his brother-in-law, Sir Arthur Throckmorton, who were in
his ship, to ask authority to follow the Indian fleet into Puerto Real
road. The cargoes were worth eight million crowns. The Generals
demurred. He says in their excuse that 'the confusion was great; it was
almost impossible for them to order many things at once.' They declined
also an offer by the Cadiz and Seville merchants in the afternoon to
redeem the ships for two million ducats. Ralegh himself preferred
capture first, and ransom afterwards. Essex desired to take the vessels;
but he wished to employ his land officers, Blount and others, not Ralegh
and his sailors. The Lord Admiral was against any composition. 'We
came,' he said, 'to consume them, and not to compound with them.' The
Spanish commander, the Duke of Medina, settled the difficulty. On the
following morning, June 23, he set fire to the whole, galleons,
frigates, and argosies. Among them were several ships which had been
fitted out for Guiana. The galleys escaped both Spanish and English
fury.
[Sidenote: _The Spoil._]
To the English leaders were allotted many rich prisoners. 'Some,' wrote
Ralegh, 'had for them sixty-six, or twenty, thousand ducats, some ten
thousand, beside great houses of merchandise.' Had it not been for his
wound, he avows with candour that he also should have possessed himself
of 'some house.' As it was, his part of the spoils was 'a lame leg and
deformed. I have not been wanting in good words, or exceeding kind and
regardful usage, but have possession of nought but poverty and pain.'
His complaint was an exaggeration. It is inconsistent with the report of
the royal commissioners. They drew up an inventory subsequently at
Plymouth of the spoil appropriated by the chiefs, except Essex and the
two Howards. In their tables Ralegh's plunder is valued at L1769, which
he was allowed to keep. But he fared ill in comparison, for example,
with Vere, who secured an amount of L3628. He appears also to have been
disappointed in an expectancy he had of L3000 prize-money from the
proceeds, among other booty, of those two well-furnished Apostles
aforesaid, as he familiarly terms the St. Matthew and St. Andrew.
Another and more generous grievance was the inferiority of the gains of
his seamen to those of the soldiers. With other principal officers of
the fleet he offended Vere by backing the sailors in their demand for a
search of the soldiers' chests. Throughout there had been ill-will
between Vere and him. Before they set out they disputed precedence. The
contention was compromised on the terms that Vere should have priority
on land, and Ralegh on water. During the voyage the strife was inflamed
by Sir Arthur Throckmorton's hot temper. On the return to England a
fresh outburst of professional jealousy fretted the sore.
[Sidenote: _Return of the Expedition._]
Essex was for holding Cadiz; and Vere engaged for its retention if he
might keep four thousand men. But it was known the measure would be
disliked at Court. The owners of booty, moreover, wanted to convey it
home. Consequently, most of the town was demolished, and its
fortifications were dismantled. As Ralegh writes in the _History of the
World_, describing Cadiz as one of the three keys of the Spanish Empire,
bequeathed by Charles the Fifth to Philip: 'We stayed not to pick any
lock, but brake open the doors, and, having rifled all, threw the key
into the fire.' On July 5 the army embarked. A descent was made upon
Faro; and the noble library of Bishop Osorius was taken. It became the
nucleus of the commencing Bodleian. Then the fleet set off homewards.
This was against the wishes of Essex, but accorded with those of Ralegh.
Provisions were scarce. In his own ship sickness had broken out, and his
wound troubled him. Sir William Monson adds an insinuation gratuitous
and baseless in respect of him, that 'riches kept them who got much from
attempting more.' Preceding the rest he reached Plymouth Sound on August
6. He went up to London, whither his praises had preceded him. Sir
George Carew had written to Cecil on June 30: 'Sir Walter Ralegh's
service was so much praiseworth as those which were formerly his enemies
do now hold him in great estimation; for that which he did in the sea
service could not be bettered.' As warm testimony was furnished by
friends of Essex. Sir Anthony Standen, a very close adherent of the
Earl's, who, however, in the next reign was one of Ralegh's
fellow-prisoners, had looked upon him with extreme suspicion. At the
commencement of the expedition he had written to an acquaintance: 'Sir
Walter Ralegh's carriage to my Lord of Essex is with the cunningest
respect and deepest humility that ever I saw.' He could not resist the
evidence of Ralegh's conduct. He wrote to Burleigh from Cadiz on July 5:
'Sir Walter Ralegh did in my judgment, no man better; and his artillery
most effect. I never knew the gentleman until this time, and I am sorry
for it, for there are in him excellent things beside his valour; and the
observation he hath in this voyage used with my Lord of Essex hath made
me love him.'
[Sidenote: _Ralegh's real reward._]
Ralegh murmured at the scantiness of his spoil. His real reward was his
restoration at Court. He sent a letter by Sir Anthony Ashley to Cecil on
July 7. After extolling Essex for having behaved both valiantly and
advisedly in the highest degree, without pride and without cruelty, he
expressed a hope that her Majesty would take his own labours and
endeavours in good part. His prayer was granted. Elizabeth finally was
induced to abate her wrath. It can never have been vindictive, or she
would have deprived him of his Captaincy. He was reported in May, 1597,
to be daily at Court, and to be likely to be admitted to the execution
of his office before he should go to sea. The rumour was well founded.
His deeds at Cadiz gave the Queen an excuse for showing indulgence, of
which she would be glad to avail herself on another account also. She
felt an obligation to him for his part in smoothing the relations
between her young favourite and her young Minister. Already, in
February, 1597, Essex and Ralegh were known to be holding frequent
conferences. Ralegh was acting as a mediator between the Earl and Cecil.
Their reconciliation was an object ardently desired by Elizabeth. He
succeeded, and they combined to requite him.
[Sidenote: _On Guard._]
On June 1, 1597, Cecil obtained leave to bring him to the Palace.
Elizabeth, writes a courtier, Whyte, used him very graciously, and gave
him full authority to execute his place as Captain of the Guard. This he
immediately undertook, and swore many men into the void places. In the
evening he rode abroad with the Queen, and had private conference with
her. From that time, the same indefatigable observer noted, he came
boldly to the Privy Chamber, as he had been wont. Though on June 1 Essex
was away from Town, it is especially remarked by Whyte that the
re-establishment of Ralegh was due to a large extent to him. Ralegh, he,
and Cecil were in league to gain the consent of the Queen to a fresh
foray upon Spain and its commerce. That was a main object of the
consultations which stirred the wonder of courtiers. The victualling of
the expedition was confided to Ralegh. He contracted to provision 6000
men for three months at the rate of ninepence a head. He complained that
he was out of pocket, which was not believed, though it was acknowledged
that the work was very well done. It was sure to be. He appreciated
fully Coligny's advice, as quoted by himself, that 'who will shape that
beast war must begin with his belly.' If he made a good bargain with the
State, he executed its conditions honestly. Not all of the profit could
he retain on this, or probably on other occasions. He had to supply
Essex with much for his private consumption. None of Elizabeth's
courtiers objected to such irregular gains. But Essex was chiefly
anxious for the glory he expected from the enterprise. His mind was said
to be 'full of conquering and overcoming the enemy;' and he had learnt
at Cadiz the value of Ralegh as a colleague. The triumvirate, it was
noticed, dined together one day at Essex House and conversed for three
hours after. Another day, early in July, Cecil was host. In return Essex
again, and Ralegh, entertained Cecil. An allusion to this festivity in a
letter of Ralegh's has furnished his biographers with a pet puzzle. 'I
acquainted the Lord General,' wrote Ralegh to Cecil on July 6, 1597,
'with your kind acceptance of your entertainment; he was also wonderful
merry at your conceit of Richard the Second. I hope it shall never
alter, and whereof I shall be most glad of, as the true way to all our
good, quiet, and advancement, and most of all for Her sake, whose
affairs shall thereby find better progression.' Commentators have been
tempted to discern some shadow before of the fatality four years later,
when the patronage by Essex and his partisans of the play of _Henry IV_
at the Globe Theatre became an article of indictment. The passage forms
a conundrum to which the clue has not yet been found. If the reference
be to Shakespeare's drama which Essex, Cecil, and Ralegh may have seen
acted in this July, it constitutes the only ascertained association of
the hand which could do all and the brain which could conceive all.
[Sidenote: _The Islands Voyage._]
Evidence of the amity of the three was afforded by the liberal scale of
the expedition, which started on July 10. A fleet of 120 vessels sailed
from Plymouth. Twenty were Queen's ships. Ten were contributed by the
Low Countries. The rest were volunteers. Essex commanded in chief, as
lieutenant-general and admiral. Lord Thomas Howard was vice-admiral.
Ralegh was rear-admiral. Lord Mountjoy was lieutenant of the land
forces. Vere was marshal, and George Carew master of the ordnance. The
serjeant-major was Sir Ferdinand Gorges. Sir Arthur Gorges was captain
of Ralegh's flagship. Essex feared that Vere and Ralegh might harbour a
mutual grudge on account of the strife over the Cadiz spoil. He
persuaded them to shake hands at Weymouth. 'This,' chronicles Vere, 'we
both did, the more willingly because there had nothing passed between us
that might blemish reputation.' Ralegh, in the _History of the World_,
has spoken in the same spirit of Vere, as constituting with Sir John
Norris 'the most famous' pair of captains by land, and is indignant that
he should have left behind him neither title nor estate.
[Sidenote: _Weather-bound._]
The object of the expedition was to destroy the navy a Ferrol, and
capture the Indian treasure ships. It was intended also to take and
garrison Terceira, and any others of the Azores. Hence it has been known
as the Islands or Island Voyage. The enterprise commenced ill. Four days
of storm drove the armament back to Plymouth. There it lay for a month.
Essex was in despair. Ralegh suggested to Cecil that the Queen might
send a comforting message. A truer man, he said, there could not be upon
the earth; but God having turned the heavens with such fury against the
fleet, it was a matter beyond human power, valour, or wit to resist. The
programme had to be revised. Essex and Ralegh rode post to Court to
consult the Queen and Council. The decision was that all the soldiers
but a thousand Dutchmen should be disbanded. The attack on Ferrol was to
be limited to an attempt by Ralegh to fire the ships in the harbour.
Essex was forbidden to participate, whether from regard for his safety,
or to secure to his subordinate a free hand. The modification was in
conformity with Ralegh's advice. He had expressed to Cecil his doubt of
the prudence of prosecuting the original design. The Spanish force at
Ferrol he thought too strong, and the season too advanced. He and Essex
returned together to Plymouth, where the Earl was his guest on board the
Warspright. 'Her Majesty may now be sure his Lordship shall sleep the
sounder, though he fare the worse, by being with me; for I am an
excellent watchman at sea,' wrote Ralegh. The fare would not be
extremely rough. Ralegh could bear hardships, if necessary, anywhere. He
was ready at any moment, and in any weather, to go to sea, though, like
Lord Nelson, he was liable to visitations of sea-sickness. But at sea,
as elsewhere, he liked comfort, refinement, and even luxury, if
compatible with duty. He had many servants. He took chests of books. He
hung his walls with pictures, and furnished his cabin sumptuously. Among
the treasures of the Carews of Beddington was a bedstead, reputed to
have been part of his ship furniture, with upholstery of green silk, and
with gilt dolphins for legs. The stately chair, which was in the late
Mr. Godwin's collection of the chairs of great men, may have been its
companion.
[Sidenote: _Mischief-making._]
At Plymouth the fleet delayed weather-bound till August 18. It had not
been five days at sea before another tempest arose off Cape Ortegal.
Carew in the St. Matthew was driven into Rochelle. Eventually he had to
return to Plymouth. The wind blew out of Ferrol, and the curtailed
scheme for an assault on it, and on Terceira too, had to be abandoned.
All that remained was to intercept the Indian ships. The fleet was
divided by stress of weather. Ralegh wrote to Cecil on September 8 that
in ten days he had never come so much as into bed or cabin. He did not
rejoin the main body till Essex had been ten days at the Island of
Flores. Essex 'seemed to be the joyfullest man living for our arrival,'
says Arthur Gorges. Some had tried to persuade him that Ralegh had kept
away intentionally with the victuallers; but Essex told Ralegh he saw
through 'their scandalous and cankered dispositions.' Gorges believed he
spoke sincerely; 'for though the Earl had many doubts and jealousies
buzzed into his ears against Sir Walter, yet I have often observed that
both in his greatest actions of service, and in the times of his
chiefest recreations, he would ever accept of his counsel and company
before many others who thought themselves more in his favour.'
[Sidenote: _Attack on Fayal._]
At Flores it was determined at a council of war that Essex and Ralegh
should lay waste Fayal. Essex sailed away. Ralegh following arrived
first. The forts fired; and the islanders began carrying off their goods
to the interior. Ralegh still paused. The officers, except a few of
Essex's sycophants, like Sir Guilly Meyricke, chafed. Delay, as Monson,
no admirer of Ralegh, has intimated in his narrative of the affair,
might have enabled the Spaniards to provide themselves better. Ralegh's
own patience was not inexhaustible. He cannot have been sorry to be
afforded a reasonable pretext for separate action. He states in the
_History of the World_ that his delay was in deference to the desire of
some in the company who would have 'reserved the title of such an
exploit, though it was not great, for a greater person.' When the
difficulty of the enterprise was urged, he felt bound to prove by
example that the 'defence of a coast is harder than its invasion.' On
the fourth day he landed. He took no soldiers, but only 260 seamen and
gentlemen volunteers, with some ordnance, in pinnaces. They were met by
double the number of Spaniards, and by a sharp fire. So staggered were
his men that Ralegh had to order his own barge to be rowed full upon the
beach. Other boats followed. Landing, the invaders waded through the
water, clambered over rocks, and forced their way up to and through the
narrow entrance. The town itself, called Villa Dorta, was four miles
off, and a fort guarded it. Up to the front deliberately marched Ralegh,
with his leading staff in his hand. He wore no armour except his collar.
His men were less serenely indifferent to the shot, especially the Low
Countries soldiers, who were now come ashore to his help. The garrison,
driven from the lower works, mounted to the higher. Ralegh, perceiving a
disinclination in his force to go on, preceded with Gorges and eight or
ten servants. Amidst a hail of ball and stones, he in his white, and
Gorges in his red, scarf, presented excellent marks. They discovered the
best passage, and then their men came up. But by the time they reached
the fort and town both had been deserted.
[Sidenote: _Essex's Jealousy._]
Early next morning, September 22, the rest of the fleet, which had been
roving after the treasure ships, was descried bearing in. Essex was
grievously disappointed at having missed the one opportunity of glory on
this unlucky expedition. Pernicious counsellors like Blount, Shirley,
and Meyricke, recommended him to bring Ralegh before a court-martial.
Some actually asserted he deserved to be executed. Not unconscious of
the Earl's mood he paid him a state visit in his barge. He was at once
taxed with breach of discipline. He was reminded of an article that
none, on pain of death, should land any of the troops without the
General's presence or his order. His reply was that the provision was
confined to captains. It could not apply to him, a principal commander,
with a right of succession to the supreme command, in default of Essex
and Thomas Howard. Most of all, he protested against orders which he
heard had been given for the arrest of the officers who accompanied him
in the landing. He insisted that whatsoever his Lordship conceived to be
misdone he must take it wholly on himself to answer, being at that time
commander-in-chief. Essex seemed so far impressed by his arguments as to
visit him at his lodgings, though he graduated the return to good humour
by declining to stay and sup. In the morning he paid Essex a second
visit, though not without hesitation. At one moment the prospect of ill
treatment was so threatening that he was disposed to go off to his
squadron and prepare to repel force. Lord Thomas Howard hindered
extremities by pledging his honour to make himself a party if wrong or
violence were offered. Essex could not overcome his mortification. He
evinced it in a puerile manner by omitting all mention of the capture of
Fayal from his official reports. Monson, who was with the expedition,
expresses an opinion that if Essex, being 'by nature timorous and
flexible, had not feared how it would be taken in England, Sir Walter
Ralegh would have smarted for it.' In appearance the Earl ultimately
allowed himself to be pacified by a solemn discussion of Ralegh's
conduct, and a severe censure voted by a majority of the principal
officers. According to one incredible account, Ralegh was gravely
declared on the occasion to have rendered himself, by his assumption of
independent power, liable to a capital penalty. Posterity will be
inclined to transfer the actual condemnation to the commander-in-chief,
whose freakish pique stopped only short of an outrage. But Essex had the
fortune or misfortune to have all his errors popularly accounted
virtues. In relating this occurrence, for instance, Vere, though he
admits the matter was 'grievously aggravated by the most,' speaks of
Ralegh's act as a 'crime,' which it was very good of the General to
visit simply 'with a wise and noble admonition.' Sir Henry Wotton later
mentions, as if it were an act of heroic self-denial, that the Earl
replied to advice to send Ralegh before a court-martial: 'I would if he
were my friend.'
[Sidenote: _Caracks captured and missed._]
[Sidenote: _Historian of the Expedition._]
To cement the hollow reconciliation, Villa Dorta was burnt, after the
kindly usage, and the fleet went prize hunting. Three Spanish ships from
the Havannah were captured. The largest, of 400 tons, was laden with
gold, cochineal, indigo, civet, musk, and ambergris, beside many
valuable passengers. Enough of cochineal and indigo was taken 'to be
used in this realm for many years,' according to an official report.
Ralegh was its captor. He expressed his pleasure either magnanimously or
contemptuously: 'Although we shall be little the better, the prizes will
in great measure give content to her Majesty, so that there may be no
repining against this poor lord for the expense of the voyage.' They
missed forty India-men, which escaped into the strong harbour of
Terceira. The colonels bragged they were ready to storm the forts.
Howard and Ralegh, who thought the enterprise impracticable, offered as
a test of the sincerity of the soldiers to back them with 3000 seamen.
Thereupon the project was dropped. At St. Michael's, Essex, according to
Gorges, who it must be remembered was Ralegh's officer, wasted precious
days at Villa Franca. He let his men revel in fruit and wine, and lost
the moment for surprising the capital. Ralegh meanwhile, in the road,
took a Brazil ship, which, when sold in England, paid the wages of the
whole of the 400 sailors and soldiers of the Warspright. Through a Dutch
captain's over-haste, an 1800 ton carack 'of infinite wealth, laden with
the riches of the East and West,' eluded him. She ran herself aground,
and was burnt by her crew. He in his barge crossed the furious surf too
late to put out the flames. Very speedily she was all over thunder and
lightning. Her ordnance discharged from every port, and the clouds
exhaled from her spicy entrails perfumed the air for many hours. By this
time autumn was come. Not too soon, the fleet, which had assembled off
Villa Franca, set sail. The town was spared the customary flames, for
causes unknown to Gorges. After suffering from want of water, and from
tempests, in which the skill of John Davys, Essex's famous pilot, proved
inferior to that of Broadbent, who was Ralegh's, St. Ives was reached.
Ralegh's return rejoiced Cornwall, which had been alarmed by descents of
Spanish caravels. The whole tale was set forth vividly by Sir Arthur
Gorges in his _Relation of the Island Voyage_, written in 1607, and
printed, it is said, at the request of Prince Henry.