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A fewdays after the fight was ended, and the English prisoners dispersed into the Spanish and India ships, there arose so great a storm from the west and north-west, that all the fleet was dispersed, as well the Indian fleet which were then come unto them
A CAPTURED GALLEON
A CAPTURED GALLEON
as the rest of the Armada that attended their arrival, of which fourteen sail together with theRevenge, and in her 200 Spaniards, were cast away upon the Isle of S. Michael’s. So it pleased them to honour the burial of that renowned ship theRevenge, not suffering her to perish alone, for the great honour she achieved in her life time. On the rest of the islands there were cast away in this storm fifteen or sixteen more of the ships of war; and of a hundred and odd sail of the India fleet expected this year in Spain, what in this tempest and what before in the Bay of
Mexico, and about the Bermudas, there were seventy and odd consumed and lost, with those taken by our ships of London, besides one very rich Indian ship, which set herself on fire, being boarded by thePilgrim, and five other taken by Master Wats his ships of London, between the Havana and Cape S. Antonio. The 4th of this month of November we received letters from the Tercera affirming that there are 3,000 bodies of men remaining in that island, saved out of the perished ships; and that by the Spaniards own confession there are 10,000 cast away in this storm, besides those that are perished
between the islands and the main. Thus it hath pleased God to fight for us, and to defend the justice of our cause against the ambitious and bloody pretences of the Spaniard, who, seeking to devour all nations, are themselves devoured. A manifest testimony how injust and displeasing their attempts are in the sight of God, who hath pleased to witness by the success of their affairs His mislike of their bloody and injurious designs, purposed and practised against all Christian princes, over whom they seek unlawful and ungodly rule and Empery.
One day or two before this wreck happened to the Spanish fleet, when as some of our prisoners desired to be set on shore upon the islands, hoping to be from thence transported into England, which liberty was formerly by the General promised: One Maurice Fitz John, son of old John of Desmond a notable traitor, cousin german to the late Earl of Desmond, was sent to the English from ship to ship, to persuade them to serve the King of Spain. The arguments he used to induce them were these. The increase of pay which he promised to be trebled: advancement to
the better sort: and the exercise of the true Catholic religion, and safety of their souls to all. For the first, even the beggarly and unnatural behaviour of those English and Irish rebels, that served the king in that present action, was sufficient to answer that first argument of rich pay. For so poor and beggarly they were, as for want of apparel they stripped their poor country men prisoners out of their ragged garments, worn to nothing by six months’ service, and spared not to despoil them even of their bloody shirts, from their wounded bodies, and the very shoes from their feet; a notable testimony of their
rich entertainment and great wages. The second reason was hope of advancement if they served well and would continue faithful to the king. But what man can be so blockishly ignorant ever to expect place or honour from a foreign king, having no argument or persuasion than his own disloyalty; to be unnatural to his own country that bred him; to his parents that begat him, and rebellious to his true prince, to whose obedience he is bound by oath, by nature, and by religion. No, they are only assured to be employed in all desperate enterprises, to be held in scorn and disdain ever among those whom they serve.
And that ever traitor was either trusted or advanced I could never yet read, neither can I at this time remember any example. And no man could have less become the place of an orator for such a purpose than this Maurice of Desmond. For the Earl his cousin being one of the greatest subjects in that kingdom of Ireland, having almost whole countries in his possession, so many goodly manors, castles and lordships; the Count Palatine of Kerry, 500 gentlemen of his own name and family to follow him, besides others. All which he possessed in peace for three or four
hundred years, was in less than three years after his adhering to the Spaniards and rebellion, beaten from all his holds, not so many as ten gentlemen of his name left living, himself taken and beheaded by a soldier of his own nation, and his land given by a Parliament to Her Majesty and possessed by the English. His other cousin Sir John of Desmond taken by Mr. John Zouch, and his body hanged over the gates of his native city to be devoured by ravens; the third brother Sir James hanged, drawn and quartered in the same place. If he had withall vaunted of this success
of his own house, no doubt the argument would have moved much and wrought great effect; which because he for that present forgot, I thought it good to remember in his behalf. For matter of religion it would require a particular volume if I should set down how irreligiously they cover their greedy and ambitious pretences with that veil of piety. But sure I am, that there is no kingdom or commonwealth in all Europe, but if they be reformed, they then invade it for religion sake; if it be as they term Catholic they pretend title, as if the Kings of Castile were the natural heirs of all the world; and so between both,
no kingdom is unsought. Where they dare not with their own forces to invade, they basely entertain the traitors and vagabonds of all nations, seeking by those and by their runagate Jesuits to win parties, and have by that means ruined many noble houses and others in this land, and have extinguished both their lives and families. What good, honour or fortune ever man yet by them achieved is yet unheard of or unwritten. And if our English Papists do but look into Portugal, against whom they have no pretence of religion, how the nobility are put to death, imprisoned, their rich men made a prey, and all sorts of people
captived, they shall find that the obedience even of the Turk is easy and a liberty, in respect of the slavery and tyranny of Spain. What they have done in Sicily, in Naples, Milan and in the Low Countries; who hath there been spared for religion at all? And it cometh to my remembrance of a certain burgher of Antwerp, whose house being entered by a company of Spanish soldiers, when they first sacked the city, he besought them to spare him and his goods, being a good Catholic and one of their own party and faction. The Spaniards
answered that they knew him to be of a good conscience for himself, but his money, plate, jewels and goods were all heretical, and therefore good prize. So they abused and tormented the foolish Fleming, who hoped that anAgnus Deihad been a sufficient target against all force of that holy and charitable nation. Neither have they at any time as they protest invaded the kingdoms of the Indies and Peru, and elsewhere, but only led thereunto, rather, to reduce the people to Christianity, than for either gold or empery. When as in one only island called
Hispaniola, they have wasted thirty hundred thousand of the natural people, besides many millions else in other places of the Indies: a poor and harmless people created of God, and might have been won to His knowledge, as many of them were, and almost as many as ever were persuaded thereunto. The story whereof is at large written by a Bishop of their own nation called Bartholome de las Casas, and translated into English and many other languages, entitled The Spanish Cruelties. Who would therefore repose trust in such a nation of ravenous strangers,
and especially in those Spaniards which more greedily thirst after English blood, than after the lives of any other people of Europe; for the many overthrows and dishonours they have received at our hands, whose weakness we have discovered to the world, and whose forces at home, abroad, in Europe, in India, by sea and land, we have even with handfuls of men and ships, overthrown and dishonoured. Let not therefore any Englishman of what religion soever, have other opinion of the Spaniards, but that those whom he seeketh to win of our nation,
he esteemeth base and traitorous, unworthy persons, or unconstant fools: and that he useth his pretence of religion for no other purpose but to bewitch us from the obedience of our natural prince; thereby hoping in time to bring us to slavery and subjection, and then none shall be unto them so odious, and disdained as the traitors themselves, who have sold their country to a stranger, and forsaken their faith and obedience contrary to nature or religion; and contrary to that human and general honour, not only of Christians, but of heathen and irreligiousnations, who have always sustained what labour soever, and embraced even death itself, for their country, prince or commonwealth. To conclude, it hath ever to this day pleased God to prosper and defend her Majesty, to break the purposes of malicious enemies, of foresworn traitors, and of unjust practices and invasions. She hath ever been honoured of the worthiest Kings, served by faithful subjects, and shall by the favour of God, resist, repel, and confound all whatsoever attempts against her sacred person or kingdom. In the meantime, let the Spaniard and traitor vaunt of their success; and we her true and obedient vassals guided by the shining light of her virtues, shall always love her, serve her, and obey her to the end of our lives.
FINIS