to sea,
leaving the galley anchored by the shore. 'So being all very sober and
melancholy, one faintly cheering another to show courage, it pleased God
that the next day, about nine of the clock, we descried the island of
Trinidad, and steering for the nearest part of it, we kept the shore
till we came to Curiapan, where we found our ships at anchor, than which
there was never to us a more joyful sight.'

In spite of the hardships of the journey, the constant wettings, the bad
water and insufficient food, the lodging in the open air every night,
he had only lost a single man, the young negro who was snapped up by the
alligator at the mouth of the Cucuina. At the coast there are dangerous
miasmata which often prove fatal to Europeans, but the interior of this
part of South America is reported by later travellers to be no less
wholesome than Raleigh found it.

During Raleigh's absence his fleet had not lain idle at Trinidad.
Captain Amyas Preston, whom he had left in charge, determined to take
the initiative against the Spanish forces which Berreo had summoned to
his help. With four ships Preston began to harry the coast of Venezuela.
On May 21 he appeared before the important town of Cumana, but was
persuaded to spare it from sack upon payment of a large sum by the
inhabitants. Captain Preston landed part of his crew here, and they
crossed the country westward to Caracas, which they plundered and
burned. The fleet proceeded to Coro, in New Granada, which they treated
in the same way. When they returned is uncertain, but Raleigh found them
at Curiapan when he came back to Trinidad, and with them he coasted once
more the northern shore of South America. He burned Cumana, but was
disappointed in his hopes of plunder, for he says, 'In the port towns of
the province of Vensuello [Venezuela] we found not the value of one real
of plate.' The fact was that the repeated voyages of the English
captains--and Drake was immediately to follow in Raleigh's steps--had
made the inhabitants of these northern cities exceedingly wary. The
precious products were either stored in the hills, or shipped off to
Spain without loss of time.

Raleigh's return to England was performed without any publicity. He
stole home so quietly that some people declared that he had been all the
time snug in some Cornish haven. His biographers, including Mr. Edwards,
have dated his return in August, being led away by a statement of
Davis's, manifestly inaccur