intended to discover and to plant christian inhabitants in place convenient, upon those large and ample countries extended northward from the cape of Florida, lying under very temperate climes, esteemed fertile and rich in minerals, yet not in the actual possession of any christian prince, written by Mr. Edward Haie, gentleman, and principal actor in the same voyage, who alone continued to the end, and by God's special assistance returned home with his retinue safe and entire.)

This Monday the general came aboard the Hind to have the surgeon of the Hind to dress his foot, which he hurt by treading upon a nail. At what time we comforted each other 5 with the hope of hard success to be all past, and of the good to come. So agreeing to carry out lights always by night, that we might keep together, he departed into his frigate, being by no means to be entreated to tarry in the 10 Hind, which had been more for his security. Immediately after followed a sharp storm which we overpassed for that time. Praised be God.

The weather fair, the general came aboard the Hind again to make merry together with the captain, master, and company, which was the last meeting, and continued there from morning until night. During which time there passed sundry discourses, touching affairs

So upon Saturday in the afternoon, the 31st of August, we changed our course and returned back for England, at which very instant, even in winding about, there passed along between 15 us and towards the land which we now forsook, a very lion to our seeming, in shape, hair, and color, not swimming after the manner of a beast, by moving of his feet, but rather sliding upon the water with his whole body 20 past and to come, lamenting greatly the loss (excepting the legs) in sight; neither yet diving under, and again rising above the water, as the manner is of whales, dolphins, tunnies, porpoises, and all other fish, but confidently showing himself above water without hiding. 25 Notwithstanding, we presented ourselves in open view and gesture to amaze him, as all creatures will be commonly at a sudden gaze and sight of men. Thus he passed along turning his head to and fro, yawning and gaping 30 wide, with ugly demonstration of long teeth and glaring eyes, and to bid us a farewell (coming right against the Hind)2 he sent forth a horrible voice, roaring or bellowing as doth a lion, which spectacle we all beheld so far as 35 we were able to discern the same, as me prone to wonder at every strange thing, as this doubtless was, to see a lion in the ocean sea, or fish in shape of a lion. What opinion others had thereof, and chiefly the general himself, I 40 forbear to deliver. But he took it for bonum omen, rejoicing that he was to war against such an enemy, if it were the devil. The wind was large for England at our return, but very

of his great ship, more of the men, but most of all his books and notes, and what else I know not; for which he was out of measure grieved, the same doubtless being of some matter of more importance than his books, which I could not draw from him, yet by circumstance I gathered the same to be the ore which Daniel the Saxon had brought unto him in the Newfound-land. Whatsoever it was, the remembrance touched him so deep as not able to contain himself, he beat his boy in great rage, even at the same time, so long after the miscarrying of the great ship, because upon a fair day, when we were becalmed upon the coast of the New-found-land, near unto Cape Race, he sent his boy aboard the Admiral to fetch certain things, amongst which, this being chief, was yet forgotten, and left behind. After which time he could never conveniently send again aboard the great ship; much less he doubted her ruin so near at hand.

Herein my opinion was better confirmed diversely, and by sundry conjectures, which maketh me have the greater hope of this rich

high, and the sea rough, insomuch as the frigate 45 mine. For whereas the general had never be wherein the general went was almost swallowed up.

Monday in the afternoon (Sept. 2), we passed in the sight of Cape Race, having made as

fore good conceit of these north parts of the world, now his mind was wholly fixed upon the New-found-land. And as before he refused not to grant assignments liberally to them that

much way in little more than two days and 50 required the same into these north parts, now nights back again, as before we had done in eight days from Cape Race unto the place where our ship perished, which hindrance thitherward and speed back again, is to be imputed unto the swift current, as well as to the 55 winds, which we had more large in our return.

21. e. the Golden Hind, the name of Gilbert's vessel. Good omen.

he became contrarily affected, refusing to make any so large grants, especially of St. John's which certain English merchants made suit for, offering to employ their money and travel upon the same. Yet neither by their own suit, nor of others of his own company, whom he seemed willing to pleasure, it could be obtained.

Also laying down his determination in the

wanting aboard his frigate. And so we committed him to God's protection, and set him aboard his pinnace, we being more than 300 leagues onward of our way home.

By that time we had brought the islands of Azores south of us; yet we then much keeping to the north, until we had got into the height and elevation of England, we met with very foul weather and terrible seas, breaking short

Last, being demanded what means he had at his arrival in England to compass the charges of so great preparation as he intended to make 10 and high, pyramid wise. The reason whereof the next spring, having determined upon two fleets, one for the south, another for the north: Leave that to me (he replied), I will ask a penny of no man. I will bring good tidings unto her Majesty, who will be so gracious 15 of diversity of winds, shifting often in sundry

seemed to proceed either of hilly grounds, high and low, within the sea, (as we see hills and dales upon the land), upon which the seas do mount and fall; or else the cause proceedeth

points, all which having power to move the great ocean, which again is not presently settled, so many seas do encounter together as there had been diversity of winds. How

to lend me 10,000 pounds, willing as before to be of good cheer, for he did thank God (he said) with all his heart for that he had seen, the same being enough for us all, and that we needed not to seek any further. And these 20 soever it cometh to pass, men which all their

lifetime had occupied the sea, never saw more outrageous seas. We had also upon our mainyard, an apparition of a little fire by night, which seamen do call Castor and Pollux. But

last words he would oft repeat with demonstration of great fervency of mind, being himself very confident and settled in belief of inestimable good by this voyage, which the greater number of his followers nevertheless mistrusted 25 we had only one; which they take an evil

altogether, not being made partakers of those secrets, which the general kept unto himself. Yet all of them that are living may be witnesses of his words and protestations, which sparingly I have delivered.

sign of more tempest; the same is usual in

storms.

Monday the ninth of September, in the afternoon, the frigate was near cast away, 30 oppressed by waves; yet at that time recovered; and giving forth signs of joy, the general sitting abaft with a book in his hand cried out unto us in the Hind (so oft as we did approach within hearing): We are as near to heaven by

Leaving the issue of this good hope unto God, who knoweth the truth only, and can at his good pleasure bring the same to light, I will hasten to the end of this tragedy, which must be knit up in the person of our general. And 35 sea as by land. Reiterating the same speech,

as it was God's ordinance upon him, even so the vehement persuasion and entreaty of his friends could nothing avail to divert him from a wilful resolution of going through in his

well beseeming a soldier, resolute in Jesus Christ, as I can testify he was.

The same Monday night, about twelve of the clock, or not long after, the frigate being

frigate; which was overcharged upon their 40 ahead of us in the Golden Hind, suddenly her

lights were out, whereof, as it were in a moment, we lost the sight, and withal our watch cried, the general was cast away, which was too true. For in that moment, the frigate

decks, with fights, nettings, and small artillery, too cumbersome for so small a boat that was to pass through the ocean sea at that season of the year, when by course we might expect much storm of foul weather, whereof indeed 45 was devoured and swallowed up of the sea. we had enough.

Yet still we looked out all that night and ever after, until we arrived upon the coast of England, omitting no small sail at sea, unto which we gave not the tokens between us agreed

But when he was entreated by the captain, master, and other his well-willers of the Hind, not to venture in the frigate, this was his answer: I will not forsake my little company 50 upon, to have perfect knowledge of each other,

going homeward, with whom I have passed so many storms and perils. And in very truth, he was urged to be so over hard, by hard re

ports given of him, that he was afraid of the

if we should at any time be separated.

In great torment of weather, and peril of drowning, it pleased God to send safe home the Golden Hind, which arrived in Falmouth,

sea, albeit this was rather rashness than ad- 55 the 22nd day of September, being Sunday,

vised resolution, to prefer the wind of a vain report to the weight of his own life.

Seeing that he would not bend to reason, he had provision out of the Hind, such as was

not without as great danger escaped in a flaw, coming from the south-east, with such thick mist that we could not discern land, to put in right with the haven.

Sir Walter Raleigh

1552-1618

out offense given: led thereunto by uncertain report only; which His Majesty truly acknowledgeth for the author of all lies. Blame no man (saith Siracides) before thou have

RALEIGH'S ACCOUNT OF HIS BOOK 5 enquired the matter; understand first, and then

reform righteously. Rumor, res sine teste, sine

(From the Preface to The History of the World, judice, maligna, fallax; Rumor is without witness, without judge, malicious, and deceivable. This vanity of vulgar opinion it was, that gave

1614)

How unfit, and how unworthy a choice I 10 Saint Augustine argument to affirm, that he have made of myself, to undertake a work of this mixture; mine own reason, though exceeding weak, hath sufficiently resolved me. For had it been begotten then with my first dawn

feared the praise of good men, and detested that of the evil. And herein no man hath given a better rule, than this of Seneca; Conscientiæ satisfaciamus: nihil in famam laboremus, sequa

our own consciences, and not trouble ourselves with fame: be it never so ill, it is to be despised So we deserve well.

For myself, if I have in anything served my country, and prized it before my private: the general acceptation can yield me no other profit at this time than doth a fair sunshine day to a seaman after shipwrack: and the contrary, no other harm than an outrageous tempest after the port attained. . . .

of day, when the light of common knowledge 15 tur vel mala, dum bene merearis. Let us satisfy began to open itself to my younger years; and before any wound received, either from Fortune or Time: I might yet well have doubted that the darkness of age and death would have covered over both it and me, long before the 20 performance. For beginning with the creation, I have proceeded with the History of the World; and lastly purposed (some few sallies excepted) to confine my discourse within this our renowned Island of Great Britain. I confess that 25 it had better sorted with my disability, the better part of whose times are run out in other travails; to have set together (as I could) the unjointed and scattered frame of our English affairs, than of the Universal; in whom, had 30 there been no other defect (who am all defect) than the time of the day, it were enough; the day of a tempestuous life, drawn on to the very evening ere I began. But those inmost, and soul-piercing wounds, which are ever aching 35 while uncured; with the desire to satisfy those few friends, which I have tried by the fire of adversity, the former enforcing, the latter persuading; have caused me to make my thoughts legible, and myself the subject of 40 It is true, that I never travailed after men's every opinion wise or weak.

To the world I present them, to which I am nothing indebted: neither have authors that were (Fortune changing), sped much better in any age. For, prosperity and adversity have 45 evermore tied and untied vulgar affections. And as we see it in experience, that dogs do always bark at those they know not, and that it is their nature to accompany one another in those clamours: so it is with the inconsiderate 50 multitude; who, wanting that virtue which we call honesty in all men and that especial gift of God which we call charity in Christian men; condemn without hearing; and wound, with

1 Raleigh was condemned to death for treason in 1603, but the sentence was commuted by James I. to imprisonment for life. The History of the World (which he left unfinished) was written during his imprisonment in the Tower, so that it must have been begun when he was over fifty years old.

However, I know that it will be said by many, that I might have been more pleasing to the reader, if I had written the story of mine own times, having been permitted to draw water as near the well-head as another. To this I answer, that whosoever in writing a modern history, shall follow truth too near the heels, it may haply strike out his teeth. There is no mistress or guide, that hath led her followers and servants into greater miseries. He that goes after her too far off, loseth her sight, and loseth himself: and he that walks after her at a middle distance; I know not whether I should call that kind of course temper or baseness.

opinions, when I might have made the best use of them: and I have now too few days remaining, to imitate those, that either out of extreme ambition, or extreme cowardice, or both, do yet (when death hath them on his shoulders) flatter the world, between the bed and the grave. It is enough for me (being in that state I am) to write of the eldest times: wherein also why may it not be said, that in speaking of the past, I point at the present, and tax the vices of those that are yet living, in their persons that are long since dead; and have it laid to my charge? But this I cannot help, though innocent. And certainly if there be 55 any, that finding themselves spotted like the tigers of old time, shall find fault with me for

i. e. The son of Sirach, the author of the apocryphal book Ecclesiasticus. Raleigh's quotation is, apparently, a paraphrase of Ecclesiasticus, xi. 7.

painting them over anew, they shall therein accuse themselves justly, and me falsely.

And if we could afford ourselves but so much leisure as to consider, that he which hath most in the world hath, in respect of the world, nothing: and that he which hath the longest time lent him to live in it, hath yet no proportion at all therein, setting it either by that which is past, when we were not, or by

had; the storms of ambition shall beat her great boughs and branches one against another; her leaves shall fall off, her limbs wither, and a rabble of barbarous nations enter the field, 5 and cut her down.

Now these great Kings, and conquering nations, have been the subject of those ancient histories, which have been perused, and yet remain among us; and withal of so many trag

that time which is to come, in which we shall 10 ical poets, as in the persons of powerful princes,

and other mighty men have complained against infidelity, time, destiny, and most of all against the variable success of worldly things, and instability of fortune. To these undertakings,

abide forever: I say, if both, to wit, our proportion in the world, and our time in the world, differ not much from that which is nothing; it is not out of any excellency of understanding, that we so much prize the one, which hath 15 these great lords of the world have been stirred (in effect) no being: and so much neglect the other, which hath no ending: coveting those mortal things of the world, as if our souls were therein immortal, and neglecting those things which are immortal, as if ourselves after the 20 And that this is true, the good advice of Cineas world were but mortal.

But let every man value his own wisdom as he pleaseth. Let the rich man think all fools, that cannot equal his abundance; the revenger

up, rather by the desire of fame, which ploweth up the air, and soweth in the wind; than by the affection of bearing rule, which draweth after it so much vexation and so many cares.

to Pyrrus proves. And certainly, as fame hath often been dangerous to the living, so is it to the dead of no use at all, because separate from knowledge. Which were it otherwise,

esteem all negligent, that have not trod down 25 and the extreme ill bargain of buying this

lasting discourse, understood by them which are dissolved; they themselves would then rather have wished, to have stolen out of the world without noise; than to be put in mind,

their opposites; the politician, all gross, that cannot merchandise their faith: yet when we come in sight of the port of death, to which all winds drive us; and when by letting fall that fatal anchor, which can never be weighed again, 30 that they have purchased the report of their

the navigation of this life takes end: then it is, I say, that our own cogitations (those sad and severe cogitations, formerly beaten from us by our health and felicity) return again, and pay us to the uttermost for all the pleasing passages of our lives past. It is then that we cry out to God for mercy; then, when ourselves can no longer exercise cruelty to others; and it is only then, that we are strucken through the soul with this terrible sentence, that God will 40 bition in mortal man, we may add to that not be mocked.3

actions in the world, by rapine, oppression, and cruelty; by giving in spoil the innocent and labouring soul to the idle and insolent, and by having emptied the cities of the world of their 35 ancient inhabitants, and filled them again with so many and so variable sorts of sor

FAME AND DEATH

rows. . .
...

For the rest, if we seek a reason of the succession and continuance of this boundless am

which hath been already said; that the kings and princes of the world have always laid before them, the actions, but not the ends of those great ones which preceded them. They 45 are always transported with the glory of the one, but they never mind the misery of the other, till they find the experience in themselves. They neglect the advice of God, while they enjoy life, or hope it; but they follow the counsel of death, upon his first approach. It is he that puts into man all the wisdom of the world without speaking a word; which God with all the words of His law, promises, or threats, doth infuse. Death, which hateth and destroyeth man, is believed; God, which hath made him, is always deferred. I have con

(From The History of the World, 1614) By this which we have already set down, is seen the beginning and end of the first three Monarchies of the world;1 whereof the founders and erectors thought, that they could never 50 have ended. That of Rome which made the fourth, was also at this time almost at the highest. We have left it flourishing in the middle of the field; having rooted up, or cut down, all that kept it from the eyes and ad- 55 miration of the world. But after some continuance, it shall begin to lose the beauty it

V. Gal. vi. 7.

1 Assyria, Persia, Greece.

2 Pyrrhus (c. 318-272 B. C.) was King of Epirus and an antagonist of Rome. He had dreams of world empire, but Cineas (his Chief Minister) advised him to be content with what he already possessed.

5

That ye have been earnest in speaking or writing again and again the contrary way should be no blemish or discredit at all unto you. Amongst so many so huge volumes as the infinite pains of St. Augustine have brought forth, what one hath gotten him greater love, commendation and honour than the book wherein he carefully collecteth his own oversights and sincerely condemneth them? Many

sidered (saith Solomon) all the works that are under the sun and behold, all is vanity, and vexation of spirit; but who believes it, till death tells it us? It was death, which opening the conscience of Charles the fifth, made him enjoin his son Philip to restore Navarre; and king Francis the first of France, to command that justice should be done upon the murderers of the Protestants in Merindol and Cabrieres, which till then he neglected. It is therefore 10 speeches there are of Job, whereby his wisdom death alone that can suddenly make man to know himself. He tells the proud and insolent, that they are but abjects, and humbles them at the instant; makes them cry, complain, and repent, yea, even to hate their forepast 15 will I not therefore maintain argument; yea, happiness. He takes the account of the rich, and proves him a beggar; a naked beggar, which hath interest in nothing, but in the gravel that fills his mouth. He holds a glass before the eyes of the most beautiful, and 20 look for the same eternal reward of their lamakes them see therein, their deformity and rottenness; and they acknowledge it.

O eloquent, just, and mighty Death! whom none could advise, thou hast persuaded; what

and other virtues may appear, but the glory of an ingenuous mind he hath purchased by these words only, "Behold I will lay mine hand on my mouth; I have spoken once, yet

twice, howbeit for that cause further I will not proceed." Far more comfort it were for us, so small is the joy we take in these strifes, to labour under the same yoke, as men that

bours, to be enjoyed with you in bands of indissoluble love and amity, to live as if our persons being many our souls were but one, rather in such dismembered sort to spend our

none hath dared, thou hast done; and whom 25 few and wretched days in a tedious prosecuting all the world hath flattered, thou only hath cast out of the world and despised; thou hast drawn together all the star-stretched greatness, all the pride, cruelty, and ambition of man and covered it all over with these two narrow 30 words, Hic jacet.

Richard Hooker

1553-1600

A PLEA FOR CHARITY IN CONTRO-
VERSIES, AND FOR SINCERITY

(From the Preface to Ecclesiastical Polity, 1594)

of wearisome contentions, the end whereof, if they have not some speedy end, will be heavy even on both sides. Brought already we are even to that estate which Gregory Nazianzen mournfully describeth, saying:

"My mind leadeth me (since there is no other remedy) to fly and to convey myself into some corner out of sight, where I may escape from this cloudy tempest of malicious35 ness, whereby all parts are entered into a deadly war amongst themselves, and that little remnant of love which was is now consumed to nothing. The only godliness we glory in is to find out somewhat whereby we may judge 40 others to be ungodly. Each other's faults we observe as matter of exprobation and not of grief. By these means we are grown hateful in the eyes of the heathens themselves, and (which woundeth thus the more deeply) able we are not to deny but that we have deserved their hatred. With the better sort of our own our fame and credit is clean lost. The less we are to marvel if they judge vilely of us, who although we did well would hardly allow thereof.

The best and safest way for you, therefore, my dear brethren, is to do all your deeds past to a new reckoning, to re-examine the cause 45 ye have taken in hand, and to try it even point by point, argument by argument, with all the legal exactness ye can, to lay aside the gall of that bitterness wherein your minds have hitherto over-abounded, and with meekness 50 On our backs they also build that are lewd,3 to search the truth. Think, ye are men, deem it not impossible for you to err; sift impartially your own hearts whether it be force of reason or vehemence of affection which hath bred, and still doth feed these opinions in you. If 55 truth do anywhere manifest itself seek not to smother it with glossing delusion, acknowledge the greatness thereof, and think it your best victory when the same doth prevail over you.

and what we object one against another the same they use to the utter scorn and disgrace of us all. This we have gained by our mutual home dissentions. This we are worthily rewarded with, which are more forward to strive than becometh men of virtuous and mild disposition." But our trust in the Almighty is, 2 Reproach, accusation.

1 Job, xl. 5.

Ignorant, uneducated.