The Discovery of Guiana

The book includes some material of a factual nature, but postulates the existence of a gold-rich civilisation (El Dorado) on the basis of little evidence.

[3] In an attempt to bring himself back into favour, Raleigh sailed to Guiana in 1595, hoping to find gold and other material to exchange or extort.

One modern scholar remarks of this journey, "Although the expedition itself was hardly a success—Raleigh conquered no lands, found no stores of wealth, and discovered little not observed by earlier adventurers—he created a triumph for himself by publishing The Discovery.

But the scholar argues that this came from Raleigh's prodigious literary skill, wherein he was able to make it sound like he had found much gold, but without ever saying or relating the precise finding of it, or bringing anything back.

At Raleigh's subsequent trial, he was not only tried for treason against the crown for disobeying King James I's orders to avoid engaging in combat with the Spanish,[3] but, argues one scholar, also for essentially lying about the abundance of gold to be had in Guiana.