The name of Raleigh, "poet, statesman, courtier, schemer, patriot,
soldier, freebooter, discoverer, colonist, castle-builder, historian,
philosopher, chemist, prisoner, and visionary," is, of course, from the
romantic point of view, principally associated with El Dorado, and his
quest of the magic and imaginary land of gold. It was for this reason
that Raleigh's dealings with the Spaniards in South America were more
circumscribed than those of many of his colleagues. Led to the belief,
both by his own fanciful convictions and by the legends brought him by
the Indians, he had conceived El Dorado as situated somewhere in the
Guianas, and thus his operations were chiefly confined to this part of
the world and to the neighbourhood of the Orinoco River.
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.
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