LETTER July 26. To Sir R. Cecil. From Proceel the Fleet. LXXIV. TO SECRETARY SIR ROBERT CECIL. From the Original. Domestic Correspondence: Elizabeth. (Unarranged Papers. 1397; formerly numbered 189.') Holograph. Without date of year. Rolls House. SIR, I HUMBLIE thanke you for your letters. I can add nothinge of substance to the generall letter. I only send thes to remember my love and service. My Lord Generall1 is my guest in the Wast-spight, [with] the Earle of RUTTLAND, Sir THOMAS GERMYNE, ALLEXANDER RATKLIFE, and Sir R. MANSFELDE. I should have taken it unkyndly if my Lorde had taken up any other lodging till the Lion cum. And now her Majestye may be sure his Lordship shall sleape somewhat the sounder, though hee fare the worse, by being with mee; for I ame an excelent watchman att sea. Wee only attend the winde; having repayred as mich as wee can our bruses. Butt wee shall not bee in any great corage for winter weather and longe nights, in thes shipps. I trust wee shall performe whatsoever-and morecan be don with like strenght and means. Sir, I pray love us in your element, and wee will love and honor you in ours and every wher. And remayne to be cummanded by you for evermore, W. RALEGH. [POSTSCRIPT.]-Sir, I pray vouchsaufe to remember mee in all affection to my Lorde COBHAME. Plymouth, the 26 of July [1597]. Addressed: To the right honorabell Sir ROBERT CECYLL, Knight, Principall Endorsed: 26 July, 1597. Sir Walter Raleighe to my Master. From Plymouth. Omitted in MS. 1 The Earl of Essex. LXXV. TO SIR ROBERT CECIL. From the Original. Cecil Papers, vol. Iv. § 21 (Hatfield). Holograph. SIR, LETTER 1597. Sept. 8. To Sir R. From I THOUGHT my sealf bound by this bearer to lett your Honor know the fortuns wee have passed since our departinge Inglande, which was the 18 of August. Att which tyme, havinge the winde very bare att north-west, and afterward more westerly, wee weare forst into the Baye of Biskey, and had great payns in torninge out. In which forsibell weather the St. Andrew1 spent her mayntopmaste; and, as I hard by a barke of the Fleet that the Mattheew had spent her maynmast and was left in the Bay, I hope yow have hard of her, or else Voyage.'God cumfort them. About the 26, wee recovered the Cape Prior with a very prest sayle, and uppon the very dublinge I also lost my mainyearde,-broken into yeven peeces in the midle, which I was forst to lay on 2 over the other, and so make it shorter; and have past with it to the hight of the Rocke. My Lord Generall, after he had cum unto mee and seen my mishape, stood in with the North Cape, and [in] the yeveninge sent unto mee to stand in also. Butt as I was forst to drive before the winde, and not able to ly by a winde, without a maynesayle, the sea beinge also miche growne, I passed on toward the One of the prizes which Ralegh had taken in the harbour of Cadiz. 3 The Rock' of Lisbon. Terceira. Proceed ings of the Fleet in the 'Island Account of the great storms met with in the Bay of Biscay. LETTER 1597. Sept. 8. Rocke, being the secound rendezvous agreed on, and sent word to my Lorde that I would attend hyme ther. Ther stayed with mee of her Majesties shipps the Dreadnought only, who never leaft mee in that first and a greater mischance; for, tarriing att the Rocke 3 dayes for my Lorde Generall, I receved letters from hyme by a pinnes to follow hyme att the Ilands; in which course my maynemast also fayled. I had with me my cussen Sir WILLIAM BROKE in the Dreadnought. 20 voluntary barks of the west countrey that came out with mee, and 3 flibotes of soldiers of the Low Countres, BRETT, CONWAY, and SYDNEY. SYDNE'S flibote foundred. Butt I saved hyme and all the soldiers. I had also that mett mee sume 3 of the vitlers of London, -the Georg, the Gamaliell, and the Gift. I have notwithstanding followed my Lord's order to cum to the Ilands, and I am now, this 8 of September, in sight of Tercera, having chosen rather to perishe than to relinquishe the enterprize; and, the Lord douth know, in a Corne shipp. Butt her Majestye shall fynd that I valew ot my life; although I hope that her Majestye would not that I should perishe in vayne. I hope after too dayes to fynd my Lorde Genera!! and the fleet, with whom, I thinke, all the rest of her Majesties shipps ar, butt the Mathew with poore GEORG CAREW. It is a carfull and perelus tyme of the yeare 1 Sir George Carew, in the St. Matthew,- one of the prizes taken by Ralegh at Cadiz, --had been constrained by stress of weather to put into Rochelle. On the 10th of September-two days after Ralegh's letter from Terceira-he wrote to the Secretary that he had in vain endeavoured to follow the fleet, overland; and that "the shyppe withe much perill hathe bene safelye brought home, and is now att an anker att St. Hellen's Poynt by Portsmouthe." He entreats also that if the Queen have any despatches for Essex he may be made the messenger, in one of the ships then lying in the Downs; adding that he would have attended the Secretary in person, but for considerations connected with the stores of the St. Matthew, -as for thes wayghty shipps. The Lorde of Heaven send us all well to returne, and send us the good hape to do her Majestie acceptable service; to performe which wee have alreddy suffered miche. For my particuler, I have never dared to rest since my wreacks, and God douth judge that I never for thes 10 dayes came so mich as in to bedd or cabbin. In hast, I kiss your hands, and will honor yow ever. Tercera, the 8 of September [1597]. Addressed: W. RALEGH. To the right honorable Sir ROBERT CECYLLE, Knight, Principall For Her Majesties especiall affaires. Delivered at Tercera, the 8 of Endorsed, by Sir R. Cecil: "9 of September [1597]. Sir W. Ralegh LXXVI. TO SECRETARY SIR ROBERT CECIL. From the Original. Cecil Papers, vol. lvi. § 17 (Hatfield). Holograph. SIR, THIS bearer will go presently into Spayne and vew all the portes, by whome you shall be ascertained of all "sayler's fingers be limetwigs." (Cecil Papers, vol. lv. § 28.) In a subsequent letter he tells Cecil that the size and equipment of the St. Matthew excited such astonishment at Rochelle, that during the course of his brief stay in that harbour the ship was visited by more than four thousand persons. (Ibid. § 32.) The junction of Ralegh's squadron with the main fleet under Essex took place exactly one week after the date of the letter written from off Terceira. LETTER 1597. Oct. 13. LETTER 1597. Oct. 13. To Sir R. Durham Proposi tion for the sending of a secret emissary to examine the Ports of Spain. the King's preparations; what is becume of this late fleet that was att the Ilands; wher1 thos, with the rest, be held in reddines or discharged. I will undertake for the honesty of the man. He hath the King's pass wherby he may saufly look into the ports. Hee only desirs, for the countenance of the matter, a small bulk of wheat or rye. Yow cannot devise a fitter waye to discover all his pretence. Therfore I pray cummend it, and dispatch it with haste. From Derum House, this xiii of October [1597]. Your asured frinde to do yow service, W. RALEGH. [POSTSCRIPT.]-If I had bynn well, I would have waited on yow my sealf. Addressed: To my honorable friend, Sir Robert Cecill, Knight. Endorsed, by Sir R. Cecil: Syr Walter Ralegh to me. 13 October, 1597. LETTER 1597. Oct. 29. LXXVII. SIR WALTER RALEGH, THE LORD THOMAS THE EARL OF ESSEX. From the Original. Wholly in the hand of Sir WALTER RALFGH (signatures, of course, excepted). Cecil Papers, vol. lvi. § 61 (Hatfield Without date of year. OUR VERY GOOD LORDE, WEE have this Saterday night receved the cumfortabell newse of GEORGE SUMMER'S arivall, whos letter wee have here withall sent your Lordshipp. Wee do Sin MS. for folk |