SNIPPET: In this excerpt from a letter to KING PHILLIP II of Spain dated October 4, 1589, Captain Francisco de CUELLAR recounts his adventures after the shipwreck off the west coast of Ireland the year prior that had claimed more than 20 Spanish ships and their crews. His story is one of survival in most inhospitable surroundings: It is noted that the Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland, has many pieces of jewelry found after the wreck of the Spanish Armada galleon 'Gerona' off the coast of County Antrim in 1588, including a 16th c. Cross of the Order of Santiago of gold and red enamel, measuring 4.4 cm (1-3/4 in.). Per the letter - "When the Englishman saw that I had a gold chain and money, he wanted to keep me prisoner, thinking that he would be offered a ransom for me. I told him that I had nothing to give, as I was only a poor soldier, and that I had got that gold aboard ship. The girl was very sorry to see the ill usage they did me, and entreated them to give me back my clothes and do me no more harm. They all went back to the savage's cabins, and I was left under the trees, bleeding fast from the cut that the Englishman had given me. I put on my doublet and coat. They had even taken away my shirt and some precious relics which I wore in a little jacket of the brotherhood of the Holy Trinity, and which had been given to me at Lisbon. The girl took these and put them around her neck, making signs to me that she wished to keep them, and telling me that she was a Christian, and so she was -- like Mahomet. They sent a boy to me from the hut bearing a poultice made of herbs to put on my wound, also milk, butter, and a piece of oaten bread for me to eat. I poulticed myself and ate. Then the boy went with me along the road, pointing out the direction in which I ought to go, and keeping me away from a village which was in sight of the road, where many Spaniards had been killed, and not a single man on whom the inhabitants could lay hands had escaped. The Frenchman was the cause of doing me this good turn, for he had been a soldier at Terceira, and he was very sorry to see me so maltreated. When the boy turned to go back, he bade me keep straight on to some mountains that seemed to be some six leagues from us, behind which lay a friendly country that belonged to a great lord who was a good friend to the King of Spain, and who harboured all the Spaniards that came to him, and was very kind to them, and had taken in more than eighty of the men from our ships who had gone to him naked. At this news, plucked up courage somewhat, and stick in hand started to walk as best I could, striking north for the mountains that the boy had pointed out." ... (to be continued)

In this continuation of an excerpt from a letter to KING PHILLIP II of Spain dated October 4, 1589, Captain Francisco de CUELLAR recounts his adventures after the shipwreck off the west coast of Ireland the year prior that had claimed more than 20 Spanish ships and their crews. ---- "That night I came to some huts where they did me no harm because there was a young man there who knew Latin, and God was pleased that owing to the necessity of the occasion we should understand one another in that language. I told him my misfortunes. The Latin scholar took me into his hut for the night, and gave me medicine and supper and a place on the straw to sleep. In the middle of the night his father and brothers came home laden with the spoils of our things, but the old man did not mind that they had taken me into his house and had treated me well. In the morning they gave me a boy and a horse to take me over a mile of road which was so bad that the mud was up to the horse's pasterns. After we had gone past it by a bow-shot we heard a great noise, and the boy said to me, making signs, 'Save yourself, Spain,' for that is what they call us. 'Many Saxons are coming on horseback, and they will kill you unless you hide. Come here quick!' They call the English Saxons. We hid in the cleft of some rocks, where we lay safe without being seen. There were more than one hundred and fifty of them on horseback, and they were going all along the coast to rob and kill all the Spaniards that they could find. God delivered me from them, but as we went on our way we met more than forty savages on foot who wanted to murder me, for they were all Protestants, but they did not do it because the boy who was with me told them that his master had captured me and I was his prisoner, and that he was sending me on horseback so that I might get well. All this did not suffice to secure my going on in peace, for two of those robbers seized me and gave me half a dozen blows, bruising my back and arms, and stripped me of everything I had on, and left me naked as when I was born. By the Holy Baptism that I received, this is true. Then, seeing myself in this plight, I gave thanks to God, supplicating His Divine Majesty to fulfill His will upon me, for that was my will also. The savage's boy then turned to go home with his horse, weeping to see me naked, beaten, and cold. I besought God very earnestly to take me where I might confess myself and then die in His grace. Then I plucked up courage, being in the worst extreme of misfortune that ever a man was, and covered myself with some fern leaves and a bit of an old mat, and protected myself from the cold the best I could. I journeyed on, little by little, in a direction they had pointed out, in search of the lands of that chieftain with whom the other Spaniards had taken refuge, and I came to that peak which they had pointed out as a mark. There I found a lake around which there were some thirty huts, all completely empty, and I looked about for a place to spend the night. Having nowhere to go, I went up to the biggest cabin, as that seemed the best place to take shelter in for the night, for all of them were deserted and empty. As I was going in the door I saw there many bundles of oats, which are made into the bread that those savages usually eat, and I thanked God that on them I had a good place to sleep, when of a sudden I saw three naked men get up at one side, and come forward and stare at me. It gave me a start, for I thought without doubt they were devils, and they knew no better what I could be, wrapped up in my mat and leaves. They were so frightened that they did not speak to me, nor I to them, and I could not see them distinctly for the hut was rather dark; and being much confounded I exclaimed, 'Oh, Mother of God, be with me and deliver me from all evil." ... (to be concluded) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jean R." <jeanrice@cet.com> To: <IrelandGenWeb-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2009 7:37 AM Subject: [Irish Genealogy] Recount of Shipwreck West Coast Ireland,1588 -- Francisco de CUELLAR/Capt. Spanish Armada <snip>