Raleigh’s quest, on paper, certainly sounds one of the most fascinating and entrancing of those undertaken in the great Continent.  That which the average reader hears of less are the fevers, noxious insects, heat, and the general climatic hardships and perils involved in one of the most tropical of all countries, to say nothing of the brushes with the Spaniards; for Raleigh, courtier, poet, and philosopher though he was, was no more gentle in his dealing with his enemies than any other freebooter of his period.

[Illustration:  OLINDA DE PERNAMBUCO, NOW PERNAMBUCO.

Attacked by Dutch war vessels.]

In the end Raleigh returned from the Orinoco laden with no gold, but with heavy tales of the countless booty which he had failed to obtain, and in the existence of which he implicitly believed, as his spirited defence against the charges of his disappointed critics and would-be profit-sharers proves.

Once again, after many years, and after he had endured many wrongs, hardships, and imprisonment in England, Raleigh succeeded in 1617 in making his way to Guiana.  His health had now become shattered, and he found himself unable to explore the Orinoco River in person, with the result that the absence of his powerful and charming personality, which had effected so much in these regions in the past, was much felt, to the disadvantage of the expedition.  A portion of his forces made its way inland; but it was attacked by the Spaniards, and young Walter Raleigh, the only son of the explorer, was slain.  On this occasion the party actually discovered four gold refineries.  Spain, however, had increased the strength of her position in this neighbourhood enormously, and the expedition failed.

Raleigh, broken-hearted at the death of his son, returned to England.  He had procured no gold; all that he had won for himself was the enmity of Spain, which, in the end, through the instrumentality of King James I., cost him his head.  So much for some of the most important of the early English adventurers in the seas which the Spaniards claimed as their own.

To refer to the whole company of notable buccaneers in detail is impossible, although so many others, from Cavendish to Sharpe, Davis, Knight, and the rest, are worthy of note.  There were, moreover, the Dutch freebooters, such as Van Noorte, de Werte, Spilsbergen, and others, as Jaques l’Ermite, Francois l’Ollonais, and Bartolomew Portugues, who ransacked and burned every town which failed to resist their fierce onslaughts, from the Gulf of Darien in the north all round the coast to the Pacific Ocean on the west.

CHAPTER X

FOREIGN RAIDS ON PORTUGUESE COLONIES

The rivalry which had existed between the Portuguese and the French in the early days of Brazilian colonization has already been referred to.  With this exception, the first era of the Colony of Brazil was comparatively peaceful—­that is to say, the Portuguese, proving themselves of a more liberal temperament than the Spaniards, did not suffer from the fierce aggressions of the English and the Dutch to the same extent as did their Castilian neighbours.  In 1580, however, the situation altered itself abruptly—­in a most unpleasant fashion so far as the Portuguese were concerned.