Ralegh [Raleigh] (Sir Walter, courtier, explorer, and author, 1554-1618) An Apologie written by Sr Walt. Raleigh touching his voyage to Guyana, imediatlie upon his landing at Plymouth Ano Dom. 1618, manuscript (title in a fine cursive and text in Secretary hand), 5pp., some words crossed out, disbound, Pot watermark, folio, [?1618].

⁂ "I have spent my poore estate, lost my sonne, and my health, and endured as many sorts of miseries, as ever man did... ." - Ralegh.

A near contemporary copy of Ralegh's justification of his landing on Spanish territory in the New World, against the explicit instructions of his commission. This manuscript corresponds to the section of the printed work of 1650, with the subheading: A Letter of Sir Walter Rawleigh to my Lord Carew touching Guiana, starting at: "Because I know not whether I shall live to come before the Lords...", and ending: "it yet may please to adde more affliction to the remainder of a wretched life."

An account of Ralegh's second expedition to Guiana in search of El Dorado, the mythical city of gold that he convinced himself lay beyond the town of San Tomé in the interior of the continent. The expedition was bedevilled from the start, the ships being detained by weather off the coast of Ireland for two months. While at sea, Ralegh became unwell with fever and when the fleet arrived off the coast of Guiana he nominated Lawrence Keymis, his second in command to take five ships and sail into the delta of the Orinoco. With Ralegh's nephew, George Ralegh in command of the land forces, they made a pre-planned attack on the Spanish town of San Tomé, knowingly violating the king's commission. In the assault, Ralegh's son, Walter, was killed. Keymis entrusted the expedition into the interior to George Ralegh who travelled 300 miles in launches up the Orinoco river and found nothing but jungle. Keymis on his return was met with accusations of incompetence by Ralegh, and committed suicide. Faced with mutiny and desertion, Ralegh returned to Plymouth and was escorted to London by his cousin Sir Lewis Stucley. "At Salisbury, Ralegh wrote an Apology for the Voyage to Guiana, insisting that Guiana was English territory, and that the actions against Spanish authorities there were entirely justified. James arrived in the city on his summer progress, apparently rejected the Apology, and ordered Ralegh on to London." (Oxford DNB). Old and sick, Ralegh was brought before commissioners of the privy council and after some legal wrangling, was condemned to death, not for his actions in Guiana, but a fulfilment of the sentence of his original treason trial in 1603. Ralegh was executed in Old Palace Yard on the morning of 29 October 1618. His head was placed in a red leather bag and carried away by Lady Ralegh, and his body was buried in St Margaret's Church, Westminster.