•256 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



citrcd, tells how Captain Kich and several sailors saw an island off the west 

 coast ; it had a harbour, with headlands, and vanished in the mist. The 

 famous enchanters inhabiting it by magic skill concealed it.' In 1644, 

 Boullaye Le Gouz, as he came near Ireland, saw a phantom land, 1 to 

 3 miles tUstant from his ship, with trees and cattle. His pilot told him of a 

 spectral island (? Buss), near Greenland, and of many floating islands near the 

 Pole.' 



In the Dublin Parliament of 1663, an Ulster member (W. Hamilton, of 

 Derry) said that a Quaker had a revelation that he (Hamilton) was " ordained " 

 to win the magic land with a new ship. His letter remains (March 2nd, 

 1675), to a fiiend, whose eousiu, " a wise man and a great scholar," had taken 

 out a patent (not to be foimd), granting the island, iu the reign of Charles I. 

 Multitudes (he wrote) had seen " Brazile, or the enchanted island," a " large 

 absolute island," off the coast of Ulster. 



Captaiu John Nisbet, of Lisneskay, in Fermanagh, had settled at Killibegs ; 

 he " fraught " a ship for France in September, 1674. After a clear, frosty 

 night they ran into a fog and high sea near an unknown island. The mate, 

 with eight persons, landed, the ship being in 3 fathoms of water. On landing, 

 they passed a wood, and found cattle, sheep, and horses, with black rabbits. 

 They reached a strong castle, and knocked and called in vain. They returned 

 to the shore and lit a fire, the night being cold ; a hideous noise ensued, and 

 they fled to the boat. Next day an old Scottish gentleman and servants 

 appeared on the shore, and told the captain, when taken on board, that the 

 land was Brazile, and that he and his men were long imprisoned in the 

 castle " by the malicious, diaboHcal art of a great negromancer." The castle 

 had fallen when the fire was lit. The island was 60 miles long by 30 miles 

 wide, and full of fitries ; it was also caUed Oilmn SMar, or West Island. The 

 rescued men were brought to Killibegs ; and by their ancient clothes, money, 

 and old-fashioned talk persuaded many of their truth !^ 



In August, 1668 (Ptoderic O'Flaherty teUs us), one Morough Ley (still 

 hving in 1684) was at Irrosainhagh, to the north of Galway Bay. He was 

 can-ied off by two strangers to O Brasil for two days, and was then brought 

 back to Seapoint, near Galway, hoodwiuked. He had been given a medical 

 work (modern tradition, stUl vivid, says that it was not to be opened for seven 

 years). It is now in the library of the Pioyal Irish Academy. It is a vellum 

 book, written in Irish and Latin ; the date, 1434, is found on p. 76, and the 



'■"Irish Minstrelsy," vol. i, p. 70. He savs that BrasU was marked at longitude 3° and 

 latitude 50' 20'. 



•^ " Tour in Ireland" (ed. Crof ton Croker). 

 " " Irish Minstrelsy," toI. i, p. 369. 



