O'Reilly — Remarks on Captain Cuellar''s Narrative. 205 



had nothing for supper, nor anything to eat except blackberries and 

 watercresses, and when, God favouring, day broke, being early awake 

 by reason of the great pain that my limbs were causing me, I heard 

 talking and a noise of people, and then there came to the door a native 

 with a halbard in his hand, and he commenced looking at his oats and 

 speaking to himself. I remained quite quiet, holding my breath, while 

 the comrades, already awakened, peeped attentively from behind the 

 straw at what he was about to do, which was that he went out and went 

 away with many others, who along with him had come to reap and 

 work close to the huts in a place such that we could not leave the hut 

 without their seeing us. We remained still, buried alive as it were, 

 talking over what had best be done, and we agreed that we should not 

 show ourselves, or move from the spot, whilst these heretical natives 

 (salvajes) remained where they were, they being from the locality 

 where had been so ill-treated the poor Spaniards who had fallen into 

 their power. The same they would have done to us had they perceived 

 that we were in this place where we had no one to look to for help 

 except God. The whole day passed over thus, and as night came on, 

 the traitors went away to their homes, while we lay awaiting that the 

 moon should rise, then, covering ourselves as well as we could with 

 straw and hay, it being extremely cold, we escaped from the great 

 danger in which we found ourselves without waiting for daybreak. 

 We went on our way, falling from time to time into the mudholes and 

 breaking our hearts with hunger, thirst and pain. God was, however, 

 pleased to conduct us to a land where there was some safety, where 

 we met with huts inhabited by a better class of people, although all 

 natives (salvajes), but Christians and charitable. There, one of them, 

 observing that I had been badly treated and was wounded, brought 

 me to his hut, and he and his wife and sons attended to my wounds, 

 and he gave me to understand that I should not leave the hut until 

 he felt satisfied that I would be able to reach the village to which I 

 was going. In this village I found more than seventy Spaniards, all 

 going about naked, and subject to ill usage, the lord of the place not 

 being there, he having gone away to defend a territory which the 

 English were after seizing." 



" For although he be a ' savage ' (salvaje), yet is he a good 

 Christian and enemy of heretics and always at war with them. He 

 is called the Lord (O'Rourke ?) (Seiior de Euerge). I reached the 

 door of his house with much labour, covered with straw and having a 

 piece of old mat round my body, and in such a plight that no one 

 could look on me without being moved to pity. Some of the natives 



