Keith Thomson's new book examines Sir Walter Raleigh and El Dorado | DON NOBLE
Only two years ago, Keith Thomson published his study of pirates in the Caribbean, “Born to Be Hanged,” which described the swashbucklers’ brutal life, their workman’s compensation plan — so much for an eye, a hand, etc. — and their surprising devotion to the democratic process. Pirates, it seemed, voted a lot.
This new book, “Paradise of the Damned," covers some of the same ground. These seamen “adventurers” are on royal expeditions, Spanish and, in this case, mostly English.
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A good portion of this study has the English Sir Walter Raleigh at the center.
Raleigh, like many, had heard the stories of the golden city of El Dorado — somewhere deep in the jungles of Venezuela, Brazil, Guiana, but who knew for sure?
There was even a Spaniard who claimed to have been there. Gold was so abundant, the ruler moistened his body each day with an oily substance and rolled in gold dust until, covered, he was rowed to the center of the lake and jumped in—all the gold dust settled to the bottom as an offering gift to the gods.
Raleigh had begun life as a soldier, a good choice since he was the youngest of five sons in a not rich Devonshire family, and earned distinction for crazy bravery in battle and for his willingness to follow orders.
In 1580, having captured Fort Smerwick in Ireland, Raleigh and one other captain were ordered to “put to the sword the Fort’s six hundred defenders.” He did it.
Those were tough times. No tribunals at Nuremburg or the Hague.
At about 25, Raleigh decided to become a courtier, one of perhaps 2,000 young men who surrounded the vain, jealous Elizabeth, vying to get her attention. He spent all his money on clothes and, if legend can be believed, as Elizabeth was approaching a mud puddle, laid his “new plush cloak upon the ground whereon the Queen trod gently.”
Oh my.
Raleigh became a favorite: He was handsome, debonair and a renowned poet, but this “virgin” queen was a jealous mistress; courtiers were to love only her. Raleigh fell in love elsewhere, got his girlfriend pregnant, secretly married her, and was thrown into the Tower of London. When he got out, Raleigh began raising funds, royal and otherwise, for expeditions.
The stories of riches in the new world certainly sounded too good to be true but, in fact, the Spanish had brought back mountains of wealth from the Incas and the Mayans. There were gold and silver mines and the plunder could be in the billions.
In this case, the search was up the Orinoco River, through the jungle to no one knew where.
This was suicide-level difficult. Expeditions went in 300 strong and came out a year or two later down to a few dozen, barely alive. Besides Indians killing them from ambush with poisoned arrows, there was “nature” and this was not England’s green and pleasant land of roses and daffodils.
There were anacondas 30 feet long and weighing 550 pounds. The water had piranhas and high-powered electric eels 7 feet long. There were jaguars, scorpions the size of lobsters, carnivorous bats with 3-foot wingspans. Orinoco crocodiles could grow to 23 feet long and weigh 1,000 pounds.
Thomson does a beautiful job of instilling terror into the reader in prose that is authoritative, smooth and effortless to read.
And in all this horror, there is often a spoonful of humor.
The Spaniards and the English would capture natives and, in ways too sadistic for quoting, torture them for information. After considerable suffering, the Indians confirmed they were headed in the right direction. Word spread. Future tribes they encountered would right away give him “confirmation that he was going the right way and should continue.”
After expeditions failed, Raleigh returned to London and Thomson gives us the rest of his story. The victim of his enemies’ slanders, much of his life was spent in prison, ending on the executioner’s block.
Reading of the suffering these men endured, the question is constantly before us: Why did they do it?
Two reasons present themselves. First was, of course, greed — the perennial hunger for wealth beyond need or measure, but beyond greed, there was, in the Renaissance, an even more powerful lust for honor and glory and immortality, not seen much since.
Don Noble’s newest book is Alabama Noir, a collection of original stories by Winston Groom, Ace Atkins, Carolyn Haines, Brad Watson, and eleven other Alabama authors.
“Paradise of the Damned: The True Story of an Obsessive Quest for El Dorado, the Legendary City of Gold”
Author: Keith Thomson
Publisher: Little, Brown and Co.
Pages: 400
Price: $34 (Hardcover)
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Keith Thomson writes about Sir Walter Raleigh, El Dorado | DON NOBLE
