On the 31st of July Sir George Trenchard and Sir Ralph Horsey wrote to
Cecil from Dorchester in reply to his instructions, that they had seized
the charts and books of the ' India Voyage' [to Guiana] from one Samuel
Mace and William Downe, which they would send up to the Secretary if
desired. They were desired, and accordingly sent them by post on the
10th of August. A few days later Raleigh returned to Plymouth with the
first glorious news of the success of the English fleet at Cadiz ; which
news completely turned the heads of the people of England one way, and
those of the Queen and the hungry politicians the other. Poor Mace, to
whom Raleigh was much attached, was restored to his confidence. To
Raleigh more than to any one man this triumph over Spain was justly due,
but in the pitiful squabbles that followed in the apportionment of the
honors and the spoils Sir Walter used to aver that his sole gain in this
great national enterprise from beginning to end was but a lame leg. He
might have added that the business had gained for him the envy, malice
and all uncharitableness of those in high places. In worldly wealth he
was now comparatively poor, and his fortunes were broken, though the
Queen at times, only at times, smiled on him.

At what precise time Hariot, who never deserted Raleigh, became
acquainted with Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, with whose honored
name, next to that of Sir Walter's, his must ever be associated, does
not as yet appear. It is known, however, that there was an intimacy
between Raleigh and Percy as early as 1586, when Sir Walter presented
Percy with a coat of mail on his going over to Flanders, and soon after
a bedstead made of cedar from Virginia ; while the Earl about the same
time gave to Sir Walter a ' stroe coloured velvet saddle.' From this
time to the day of Raleigh's triumph on the scaffold there exists plenty
of evidence of their continued intimacy.