26. The Second Guiana Expedition lead to conflict with Spanish settlements
During Raleigh’s first expedition to Guiana he was accompanied by a fellow seaman and longtime friend, Lawrence Keymis (also spelled Kemys). Keymis had been imprisoned for a time in the Tower with Raleigh, though he was released at the end of 1603, and afterwards served Sir Walter as his literary agent while the latter remained in the Tower. Keymis had made a second voyage to Guiana following his first with Raleigh in the 1590s, and related to Sir Walter his certain knowledge of a rich vein of gold unknown to the Spanish near the Orinoco River. When Raleigh obtained the Royal permission to return to Guiana, Keymis joined the expedition as a pilot. It was Raleigh’s second voyage to Guiana, Keymis’s third.