O'Reilly — Remarks on Captain Cuellar's Narrative. 201 



(salvaje), of more than seventy years of age, and two other young 

 men carrying arms, the one English the other French, and a young 

 woman of about twenty years of age, in the last degree handsome. 

 All four were going to the shore to rob the wrecks. Seeing me pass 

 amongst the trees, they drew near me, and up came the Englishman 

 crying out : ' Yield, thou cowardly Spaniard !' and with intent to 

 kill me he made a stroke of a knife at me, which I was able to parry 

 with a stick which I carried in my hand, but finally he got in on me 

 and cut the tendon of my right leg, and sought to follow up the 

 stroke, but the old native interposed, as also his daughter, who must 

 have been the friend of the Englishman. I said to him that he might 

 do his will on me, since I was forsaken by fortune, and had been left 

 without arms when in the sea. Then they separated him from me, 

 and the native commenced to strip me to the shirt, underneath which 

 I wore a gold chain worth more than 1000 reals; seeing this they 

 were delighted, and commenced searching my doublet thread by thread, 

 in which I carried 45 golden crowns (escudos), the double pay which 

 the Duke had ordered to be paid me in Corufia. I^ow the English 

 man seeing that I wore a chain of gold and had gold coins, sought 'to 

 hold me a prisoner, saying that I should offer him a ransom. I 

 replied that I had nothing to give, being merely a poor soldier, and 

 what he saw I had earned on board the ship. The young woman 

 grieved much at seeing the illtreatment they were inflicting on me ; 

 she begged they would leave me my coat, and that they would do me 

 no more harm. They all then left in the direction of the native's 

 hut, and I remained amongst the trees, losing blood from the wound 

 inflicted by the Englishman. I set about putting on again my doublet 

 and coat, the shirt they had carried away, as also some relics which I 

 esteemed very much, and which I had carried in a little vestment 

 (habitillo) of the order of the Most Holy Trinity, which was given 

 me at Lisbon. These relics the young native lady took and put them 

 on her neck, making signs to me that she desired to keep them being 

 a. Christian, and so she was, just as much as Mahomed. They sent 

 to me from the hut a boy with a plaster made of herbs, that I should 

 apply to the wound, and some cheese and milk, and a piece of oaten 

 bread that I might eat. I dressed my wound, and having eaten, the 

 boy accompanied me along the road, pointing out the direction that 

 I should take so as to avoid a certain village visible from that point, 

 and where many Spaniards had met their death, not one having 

 escaped that they could lay their hands on. Eor this good turn I had 

 to thank the Frenchman who had served as a soldier in La Terceira 



R.I. A.. PKOC, SEE. Ill,, VOL. III. P 



