O'Reilly — Remarks on Captain Cuellarh Narrative. 199* 



disasters of the sea. All the friars had fled to the mountains, through 

 fear of these enemies, who would have sacrificed them had they 

 caught them, as, indeed, is their custom, leaving neither temple nor 

 hermitage standing, destroying them all, and making them watering 

 places for cows and pigs. (Thinking that, betimes, when you are 

 resting after your meal, you may, for distraction sake, take to reading 

 this letter, which seems as if it were copied from some book of 

 chivalry, I have, on that account, gone into particulars, in order 

 that you may learn, what adventures and trials I had to pass through 

 and undergo,) Finding, therefore, no one in the monastery, other 

 than the Spaniards, hanging in the chapel from the iron bars of the 

 windows, I hastened away and got on a road leading through a thick 

 wood and followed it for about a mile, then I met with a woman of 

 about 80 years old, a coarse native (salvaje), who was driving five or 

 six cows to a hiding place in the wood, to save them from being 

 seized by the English who had come to live in her village.'^ Seeing 

 me, therefore, she stopped, seemed to recognize who I might be, and 

 said, ' Tu, Espana ' ! I answered by sign that I was and that I had 

 been wrecked with the ships. She commenced to grieve much and to 

 cry, making signs to me that I was near her house, and not to ga 

 there, because it was full of enemies who had beheaded many 

 Spaniards already. All this was sore affliction and misery for me, 

 fijiding myself alone, and so badly hurt by a piece of timber, which, 

 as I said, had nearly broken my legs when in the water. However, 

 acting on the hint of the old woman, I determined on taking to the 

 sea coast, where the ships had been lost three days before, and 

 whereto were trooping many squads of people engaged in carting off 

 and stowing away in their huts all the goods of which we had been 

 despoiled. I dared not make myself known to, or even approach 

 them, fearing that they would strip me of the poor linen vest that 

 covered my shoulders, or even kill me, until I saw drawing near two 

 poor Spanish soldiers as naked as when they were born, shouting and 

 calling on God to help them. One of them had a bad wound in the 

 head, which they had inflicted when stripping him. Calling to them 

 from the place where I was hid, they came to me and told me of the 

 cruel deaths and penalties which the English had inflicted on more 

 than 100 Spaniards whom they had taken prisoners. This news only 

 added to my affliction, but God gave me strength, and having 

 recommended myself to Him and to his Holy Mother, I said to the 



1 Probably Grange, which is marked on Petty's Map. 



