The Shasta courier., 1867-07-13
SHASTA COURIER.
Sir Walter Raleigh.

L ne character OF this adventurous, polished
and learned knight, his early connection
with American colonization, and, above all
his untimely death, gives Raleigh a hold on
the minds of Americans no less than on those
OF his fellow ,countrymen, and the Capital of
one sovereign State, as well as host of
places In the South and West, attest the
perlnanence of the remembrance.
He was born in 1862, and began his
varied career by leaving Oxford and his
studies to join a corps of volunteers, on their
way to France to join the ranks of the
Hugenots.
The patent obtained by his halfbrother
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, drew him into
American colonization, and he shared the
trials and disappointments of an attempt in
1879.
After campaign in Ireland, he made his
appearance at court, and easily won the
favor of Elizabeth. Honors of every kind
were showered on him.
In 1884 he received full powers, by patent,
to colonlze in America and under his authori
ty the first settlement was made in 1885, in
what was then styled Virginia. His subse.
quent career was varied enough.
In 1888 he was fighting the Spanish
Armada; the next year on an expedition to
Portugal to place Don Antonio on the throne
in 1891 pursuing the Spanish treasure fleet
then prisoner in the Tower for displeasing o
the queen by marrying.
In 1895 he sailed to Guiana to discover
and conquer Ell Dorado, an ina ginary land
of gold and silver. The next year he was
Rear Admiral, capturing Cadiz, and in 1897
took Fayal
The death of Elizabeth left him exposed
to the hatred of his former friend, Cecil
He was found guilty of high treason in 1903,
as a party to the plot in favor of Lady
Arabella Stuart. He was, however, re-
prieved and confined for thirteen years in the
Tower.
During his long dreary imprisonment he
turned to intellectual pursuits, and wrote
among other works, his " History of the
World"
In 1917 he was released, to make another
voyage to Ell Dorado, but he met with moth
ing but reverses his son was killed in an
attack on Spanish town; his chief COM
mander committed suicide in despair his
crew mutinied and, on his return, James,
pressed by the Spanish king to punish
Raleigh, had him beheaded, under his sen.
tence of sixteen years before.
Under this monstrous order, an eternal
infamy to James, Raleigh was executed on
the 29th of October (old style), 1918, in
Old Palace Yard, at eight in the morning
of Lord Mayors Day; '' so that the pa
geants and fine shelves might draw away the
people from beholding the tragedy of one of
the galantest worthless ever England bred"
Early in the morning his keeper brought
cup of sack to him, and inquired how he was
pleased with it.
'' As well as he who drank to St. Giles
bowl as he rode to Tyburn," answered the
knight, and said it was good drink, if a man
might but tarry by it.
Prithee, never fear, Ceeston," cried he
to his old friend, Sir Hugh, who was re.
pulsed from the scaffold by the Sheriff, a
shall have place !"
A man, bald from extreme age. pressed
forward, ''to see him. he said, - and pray
to God for him."
Raleigh took richly embroidered cap
from his own head, and placing it on that of
the old man said:
take this, good friend, 10 remember me.
for you have more need of it than l."
Farewell, my lyrds," was his cheerful
parting to a courtly group who affectionate
ly took their leave of him 81 have long
journey before me, and | must cen say good.
by. Now I am going to God," said al that
heroic spirit, as he trod the scaffold and
gently touching the AK added, this is a
sharp medicine, but it will cure all dis.
cases."
The very headsman shrank from behead-
ing one so illustrious and brave. until the
unquailing soldier addressed him:
g What dost thou fear? Strike, man ~
In another moment the mighty soul had
fled from its mangled tenement.
Cayley adds:
1.-The head, after being shown on either
side of the scafold, was put into leather
bag, over which Sir Walters gown was
thrown, and the whole conveyed away in a
mourning carriage by Lady Raleigh. 1t was
preserved by her in a case during the twenty
nine years she survived her husband, and
afterward. with no less piety, by their
son Carew, with whom it is
supposed to have been buried in West
Horsely, in Surrey. The body was inferred
in the channel near the altar of St. Margaret's 5
Westminster"