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THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS

RALEIGH

HIS LAST WORDS ON THE SCAFFOLD[1]
(1618)

Born in 1552, died in 1618; commanded, in 1580, an English company in Ireland, where he introduced the potato in 1584; a captain of the guard in 1587; sent expeditions to Virginia in 1584, '85, '87, and '90; served against the Armada in 1588; explored the Orinoco in 1595; commanded a squadron which destroyed the Spanish fleet at Cadiz in 1596; accused of treason and sent to the Tower in 1603, writing while there his "History of the World"; commanded an unsuccessful expedition to South America in 1616; condemned and executed in 1618.

I thank my God heartily that He hath brought me into the light to die, and not suffered me to die in the dark prison of the Tower, where I have suffered a great deal of adversity and a long sickness; and I thank God that my fever hath not taken me at this time, as I prayed God it might not.

There are two main points of suspicion that his majesty hath conceived against me, wherein his majesty can not be satisfied, which I desire to clear and resolve you in. One is, that his majesty hath been informed that I have had some plot

  1. ↑ Delivered in the Old Palace Yard at Westminster, October 29, 1618. When Raleigh's head lay on the block awaiting the ax, some one remarked that it ought to be turned to the East. "What matter," said he, "how the head lie, if the heart be right?" Raleigh's writings, in a complete edition of eight octavo volumes, were published at Oxford in 1829.

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