AND ITS SURROUNDINGS. 189 



country people, before the authorities could take measures 

 for securing the prize in the name of the Queen. 



George Cary, of Cockington,* one of the Deputy Lieu- 

 tenants of the county, received intelligence of the wreck 

 at Plymouth, and immediately rode across the country to 

 Hope, where he took order for the disposal of the crew, 

 and the recovery of the remnants of the cargo. Mr. Cary 

 found the hulk lying, full of water, on a rock, where she 

 soon fell in pieces. He gathered from the sailors that 

 at their departure from Spain they had numbered thirty 

 mariners, a hundred soldiers of various nations, and about 

 fifty persons attached to the duties of the hospital. Out 

 of these, one hundred and forty succeeded in reaching the 

 shore in safety. Of the drugs and 'potecary stuff' of six 

 thousand ducats value which had been on board, the greater 

 part was spoiled by water. The plate and treasure had 

 already been carried off, and even the seamen's chests had 

 been plundered by the wreckers. The ordnance, which 

 was all of iron, appears to have been secured; but of 

 the tackling only one cable remained. 



Twenty of the Spanish officers were separated from the 

 rest : eight of these were left to the charge of Sir William 

 Courtenay, at Ilton Castle, near Kingsbridge, the wreck 

 having occurred on that good knight's property. Mr. Cary 

 undertook the custody of the apothecary and the surgeon, 

 and having caused the remainder to be guarded by day 



* This gentleman was an ancestor of the present R. S. S. Cary, Esq., of 

 Torre Abbey. A member of one of the most ancient and distinguished of 

 our county families, be himself became one of the most illustrious of bis 

 race. He had already done the state good service in tbe measures taken for 

 the defence of the coasj:, and shortly after received the honour of knighthood 

 at the bands of bis kinswoman, Queen Elizabeth. He was a friend of tbe 

 great Secretary Walsingliam, and in later years was successively Lord 

 Treasurer and Lord Deputy, or Viceroy of Ireland. His biograpby will be 

 found in Prince's " Worthies of Devon." 



