tate, in the
improvement and embellishment of which he felt great interest. But
though deeply alive to the beauties of nature, he had been too long
trained to a life of ambition and adventure to rest contented in the
tranquil routine of a country life; and during this period of
seclusion he again turned his thoughts to his favorite subject of
American adventure, and laid the scheme of his first expedition to
Guiana, in search of the celebrated El Dorado, the fabled seat of
inexhaustible wealth. Having fitted out, with the assistance of other
private persons, a considerable fleet, Raleigh sailed from Plymouth,
February 6, 1595. He left his ships in the mouth of the river Orinoco,
and sailed 400 miles into the interior in boats. It is to be recorded
to his honor, that he treated the Indians with great kindness; which,
contrasted with the savage conduct of the Spaniards, raised so
friendly a feeling toward him, that for years his return was eagerly
expected, and at length was hailed with delight. The hardships of the
undertaking, and the natural advantages of the country which he
explored, are eloquently described in his own account of the
"Discovery of Guiana." But the setting in of the rainy season rendered
it necessary to return, without having reached the promised land of
wealth; and Raleigh reaped no other fruit of his adventure than a
certain quantity of geographical knowledge, and a full conviction of
the importance of colonizing and taking possession of the newly
discovered region. This continued through life to be his favorite
scheme; but neither Elizabeth nor her successor could be induced to
view it in the same favorable light.

On reaching England, he found the Queen still unappeased; nor was he
suffered to appear at court, and he complains in pathetic terms of the
cold return with which his perils and losses were requited. But he was
invested with a high command in the expedition of 1596, by which the
Spanish fleet was destroyed in the harbor of Cadiz; and to his
judgment and temper in overruling the faulty schemes proposed by
others, the success of that enterprise was chiefly due. Indeed, his
services were perhaps too important, and too justly appreciated by the
public, for his own interests; for the great and general praise
bestowed on him on this occasion tended to confirm a jealousy of long
standing on the part of the commander-in-chief, the Earl of Essex; and
it was probably owing to that favorite's infl