O'Reilly — Remarks on Captain Cuellar's Narrative. 195 



carried out. I went there accordingly, and although, the auditor, 

 Martin de Aranda as he was named, was a man of great rigour, still 

 he listened to me and had private information furnished him regarding 

 me, showing that I had served his Majesty well, and as a brave 

 soldier. On this account he did not dare to carry into execution the 

 order which had been given him regarding me. He wrote to the 

 Duke about the matter, stating that unless he received his instructions 

 in writing and signed by him, he would not carry out the order 

 received, perceiving that there was no default on my part, or 

 sufficient cause for so doing ; at the same time I wrote a letter to 

 the Duke, such that he was led to look carefully into the matter, and 

 to answer the Auditor-Greneral, that he should not carry out the 

 order previously received regarding me, but should do so as regarded 

 Dn. Christobal, whom they hung most cruelly and outrageously, he 

 having been a gentleman and well known to many. God was 

 pleased to deliver me because of my being without fault, the which 

 you can well know of, or may have learned of, from the many 

 persons who were witnesses of the transaction, and the aforesaid 

 auditor showed me much favour on account of the great respect he 

 entertained for people who could claim to merit it. I remained on 

 board my ship where we were all in great danger of death, rough 

 weather coming on and the seams opening so, that we were deluged 

 with water, to the point that we could not master it with the pumps. 

 We could neither make repairs nor look for help elsewhere than to 

 God, because the Duke did not show himself, and the whole jleet was 

 being scattered by the storm, so that certain vessels made for Germany, 

 while others sought refuge on the islands of Holland and Zealand, 

 then in the hands of the enemy. Others made for the Shetland 

 Islands, others for Scotland where they went ashore and were bui'ned. 

 More than twenty were lost in the kingdom of Ireland with all the 

 •chivalry and best blood of the Armada. As I was saying, the vessel 

 on board which I was, hailed from the Levant, and had for consorts 

 two very large ships, we keeping together so as to be able to aid 

 one the other if necessary. In these sailed D. Diego Enriquez, the 

 hunchback, as Major-General (maese de campo), and it not being 

 possible for us to double Cape Clear in Ireland, on account of the 

 heavy weather which came on heading us, the three ships, which, as I 

 mentioned, were very big, had to make for the land, and came to 

 anchor, at about half a league from the shore, where we remained 

 four days without making further provisions, nor, indeed, could we. 

 On the fifth came on a fierce tempest, which took us on the quarter 



