CORNWALL AND THE SPANISH ARMADA. 149 



the Haven ; and the morrow after St. Paul's day (January 25th) 

 the Spaniards came up to assault the Frenchmen, and the 

 Frenchmen came up almost to the town of Truro, and went 

 aground there. 



I went to the Admiral of the Spaniards and commanded 

 him to keep the King's peace, and not to follow further ; but 

 the Spaniard would not, but said, ' I will have them or I will 

 die for it,' and then the Spaniards put their ordnance in their 

 boats and shot the French Admiral forty or sixty shots during 

 a long hour, the gentlemen of the city, Mr. Killegrew, Mr. 

 Trefusis, and others, taking pleasure at it. 



Then I went to the Spaniards and told them to leave their 

 shooting or I would raise the country upon them. And so the" 

 Spaniards left. My Lord, I and all the country will desire the 

 King's Grace that we may have blockhouses made upon our 

 haven.* 



And this was not the only time that Truro heard the 

 thunder of foreign guns, as the following petition of a Truro 

 merchant clearly shows, which states that : — 



" There was taken about three months past by one Captain 

 Matheas, of Crosicke, a shippe of 90 tonnes belonging to one 

 John Mychell, of Treroe, upon Faulmouthe, in Cornewall, the 

 sayd shipe and her ladding were worth £800, and she being att 

 an ancker in Tonckett Eodde, within syghte of the towne, the 

 sayed Mathias layed her a borde and tooke her, as maye appere 

 by a testimonial from the inhabitence of the sayd towne ; and 

 having tacken the sayed shippe callid the George, of faulmouth, 

 whent with her to sea and tooke with her two ynlyche shippes 

 more, and towe fflemings, and then brought her back to Crosike 

 and toucke out of her 60 tunnes of wynne and all her ordinance, 

 and other furniture wherewith he rigged forth a greater shippe 

 at the Cappe, and suffered the said George to be beaten, for 

 lacke of ground tackle, upon the rocks that now she is all in 

 pieces. 



This is the third shipe that the said John Mychell hath lost 

 into France by French pirates, and followed tlie same thonco 

 to his utter undoing, and could never get justice at their hands, 



* MS., State Paper Office, 2nd series, vol. 1. 



