Ralegh: His Exploits and Voyages

Sir Walter Ralegh was famous in several fields of action. His younger manhood was spent in the midst of the most brilliant royal court which English palaces ever held. Later, he proved his courage and military prowess in more than one bitterly contested battle-field and naval conflict. In middle life, and again in old age, he braved the great deep and the perils of savage lands, in the sturdy attempt to make discoveries, and to settle English colonies in the new world. His love of his own land, and his hatred of her enemies, were always ardent; nor did he permit the harsh ill-treatment to which he was subjected by the hostility of his rivals, the intrigues of Spain, the caprices of Queen Elizabeth, and the insurmountable dislike of King James, to dampen or dull the fire of his patriotism. Ralegh was the wittiest man, and one of the most scholarly men of Elizabeth's court. He was Fond of books of the Elizabethan age. Chivahous in feeling, brave in action, courtly in manner, handsome in person, a faithful husband, a devoted father, a valiant soldier, a vigorous and persevering explorer, and a wise and statesmanlike thinker, his career was full of absorbing and often exciting interest, as the pages which follow will doubtless prove it to have been, to those who read them.