He searched for a lost city of gold but didn't find it

Raleigh's disagreement with the queen broadened his range of potential actions. The myth of El Dorado, a city of riches in the New World, was created by exploration in the 16th century. By the time Sir Walter Raleigh heard of the legend and sought to get in on the action, there had already been several fruitless hunts for this city throughout South America. Raleigh set off in 1595 in search of El Dorado after becoming convinced that it existed somewhere in Guiana (modern-day Venezuela). Despite exploring and plundering the area, Raleigh and his men eventually gave up and left for England with little to show for their search for gold.

This did not deter Raleigh from speculating about the lost metropolis in a book titled The Discovery of Guiana, which also served as an engaging history of the nation. Raleigh referred to the river valley as having "the most beautiful country that my eyes have ever beheld" in his description of it. "Whereas all that we had seen before was nothing but woods, prickles, bushes, and thorns, here we beheld plains of twenty miles in length, the grass short and green, and in various parts groves of trees by themselves as if they had been by all the art and labor in the world so made of the purpose," Raleigh wrote of the landscape.