A favourite of Elizabeth I, he organized several voyages of exploration and colonization to the Americas, including an unsuccessful attempt to settle Virginia (1584–89) and a journey up the Orinoco River in search of gold (1595); from his travels he brought back potato and tobacco plants to England. Raleigh was imprisoned in 1603 by James I on a charge of conspiracy, but released in 1616 to lead a second expedition up the Orinoco in search of the fabled land of El Dorado. He returned empty-handed after a clash with some Spanish settlers, and was subsequently executed on the original charge.