284 H. MICHELL WHITLEY ON 



the realm, and if there was one feeling more deeply inwrought 

 than any other into every nerve and fibre of the average 

 Englishman, it was hatred of the Pope, the Inquisition, and the 

 Spaniard. The western seas swarmed with small craft called 

 pirates, who, without the open sanction of the Queen, attacked 

 the vessels and weakened the power of Spain and other foreign 

 nations, and it was in a great measure due not only to this 

 crippling, but also to the practical training it gave the sailors, 

 that the men of the western counties played such a noble part 

 in "Britain's Salamis." 



It appears then that the Mary, of St. Sebastian, a Spanish 

 ship of 144 tons burden, owned by John de Chavis and Philip de 

 Oryo, merchants, the latter being as well the captain, arrived in 

 Falmouth Haven on the 1st of January, 1582, and cast anchor 

 within the Bar, under Sir John Killigrew's house at Arwenack. 

 Here for ''lack of wynde " it remained, whilst the owners took 

 up their quarters at a little inn at Penryn, awaiting a change ; 

 but about midnight on the 7th, the ship was boarded by a boat- 

 ful of men who overpowered and bound the Spanish sailors, and 

 set sail ; the Spaniards appear to have been thrown overboard, 

 and the ship taken to Ballentynmoor, in Ireland, where she was 

 plundered. Formal complaint of their loss having been made 

 by the owners, the Commissioners for Piracy in Cornwall, (who 

 comprised amongst others Sir John Killigrew, Sir Fras. 

 Godolphin, and Mr. Chamond,) held a meeting at Penryn to 

 enquire into the complaint. 



Suspicion appears to have fallen on some of Sir John 

 Killigrew's servants, who bore rather a bad name for dealing 

 with pirates, (indeed a very curious story may be written as to 

 the relations between them and the Cornish gentry of this period) 

 and two of these servants named Hawkins and Kendall, were 

 thought to be the culprits : but one Elizabeth Bowden, who 

 kept a small inn at Penryn, having deposed that these men were 

 at her house, and remained there until 12 o'clock, on the night 

 the attack was committed, the jury returned the open verdict 

 that the ship had been stolen, but by whom there was no 

 evidence to show. 



No doubt it would have been convenient for the matter to 

 have rested here, but Chavis and De Oryo were men of action, 



