CHAP XXIV 1567 CHAPTER XXIV. TO preserve some kind of clearness in a narrative the qualities in the people from which alone improvement could be expected were terribly slow in appearing. Nevertheless, there were times and places where happier symptoms prevented absolute despair. As with the great central morasses the bog in some capricious humour for a while recedes, and the margin dries and meadow grass takes the place of the rushes and the peat, so with the Irish people a disposition to industry displaced sometimes for brief intervals the usual appetite for disorder, and the administration would flatter itself that the new era was commencing. Such a fallacious period succeeded on the fall of Shan O'Neil, and in the harbour towns in Cork, Waterford, Youghal, Limerick, to some extent even in Galway, trade began to grow, and with trade a sense of the value of order and law. The steady hand of Sidney had made itself felt especially in the South; the pretended right of the chiefs to levy tribute on the citizens had been abolished; and for a circuit of a few miles about the walls the farmers were cultivating the ground on some better terms than as being sheep to be periodically shorn by the O or Mac of the adjoining castle. 'God be praised,' wrote the Mayor of Waterford to Cecil, the poor people which were so miserably overhaled, begin to savour what it is to live under a most worthy prince, by whose providence they are of slaves become subjects, having felt the benefit of justice whereof they never tasted before, such was the tyranny of their Irish lords. Where before the poor people were so pitifully oppressed as they had no joy of their lives, now they fall to such plays and pastimes as the like was never seen in Ireland; so as if this government continue but three years more, they doubt not to live as merrily in Ireland as they do in the very heart of England. CHAP XXIV 1567 CHAP XXIV 1567 Lands that lay of long time waste, and of no profit to the owners, are now inhabited; and that which before was let for a groat now yields twelve pence. The honest husbandman, whom coyn and livery had so impoverished that he was fain to drive away his servants and family, as not able to sustain them, now calleth them home again, and retaineth more; the idle man that lived before upon coyn and spoil, now falleth to husbandry, and earneth his living by labour; and where before there was so little manurance and so much devouring by those raveners as that the country folk were not able to maintain themselves but by fetching their relief of grain from the good towns, now the country is so replenished that they come daily to the market to sell their superfluous store, so as the towns shall not need from henceforth to travel beyond the seas for their provisions as they have in times past been accustomed. To this time this poor country had in manner no feeling of good order, neither knew the poor fools God nor their prince, but as brute beasts lived under the miserable yoke of their ungodly Irish lords. Now, God be praised, the world is otherwise framed, for they consider that there is a God, and under Him a most worthy prince, by whom they are preserved to live in better estate than ever their ancestors did." This flourishing description did not continue of long application, and the morass soon returned to its ancient limits. Nevertheless, in and about the towns, there was a certain degree of enduring industry, and the reader will be interested in seeing an account of the same part of the island which was drawn up a year or two later by a person who was under no temptation to exaggerate either the virtues or the vices of the Irish race. Philip II., finding himself besieged by the entreaties of the Irish bishops and chiefs to come to their rescue, and having but a vague conception of the country of which he had once been titular sovereign,1 sent an emissary to examine into the capabilities and condition of the people. The following extract contains the more curious parts of the report which was brought back to him:— 'Waterford,' says Diego Ortiz, 'contains nearly a thousand houses. It is surrounded by a stone wall, something less than a mile in circumference, with seventeen towers, and cannon on them to keep off the savages. It is the richest town in Ireland, after Dublin, and vessels of from three to four hundred tons lie at the quays inside the fortifications. The trade of the port is with Gallicia, Portugal, Andalusia, and Biscay, where they send fish, hides, salt meat, and, at times, wheat and barley. The towns control the adjoining country, for the people depend on them to buy such things as they need, and to dispose of their flocks and wool. nation, the Irish are most improvident. They live almost wholly on meat, and use but little bread. The fault is not with the land: it is extremely fertile, and 1 Philip has left on record an amusing illustration of his ignorance. Don Guerau in one of his despatches spoke of Waterford as a desirable post of occupation for a Spanish force, and seemed to describe it as twelve miles from London-doce millas de Londres. The mistake probably arose in the decipher, but Philip gravely wrote on the margin, 'No entiendo donde es este puerto, que en decir que es doce millas de Londres parece que es en Inglaterra, y por otras cosas en Irlanda. No se si As a el Duque de Feria sabia algo de este 2 Comiendo mucho carne y poco CHAP XXIV 1567 CHAP XXIV 1567 if properly cultivated would produce all that Spain produces, except olives and oranges; but the people are lazy, and do not like work. What four men sow, a hundred come to reap; and he who has most success in robbing his neighbours is counted most a man. There is little order among them beyond the jurisdiction of the towns. Every petty gentleman lives in a stone tower, where he gathers into his service all the rascals of the neighbourhood; and of these towers there is an infinite number.' It was the old story, seen from a friendly point of view. Two solitary virtues only Don Diego was able to find-constancy to the Catholic Church, and hatred of the English. They all look to Spain,' he said, to 'deliver them from English tyranny, to save their souls, and give them back the blessed Mass. The Mass, indeed, they everywhere still use in their own houses. In Youghal there are yet two monasteries, a Franciscan and a Dominican. The friars are much troubled by the English. When their persecutors are in the neighbourhood, they emigrate to the mountains, or hide in their cellars; when the coast is clear again, they return to their houses.2 Everywhere, both in the cities and in the country, there is a universal desire for the appearance of a Spanish armada to deliver them from slavery, and to restore their churches to them. There is an English proverb in use among them which says "He who would England win, 1 'La gente es muy olgazana, enemiga de trabajar.' En Youghal hay dos monasterios de frailes, uno de Dominicos y uno de Franciscos. Pasan gran trabajo á causa de los Ingleses que pasan por alli que los persiguen. Se van á la montaña ó se esconden en la tierra y luego vuelven á los monas> terios.' |