Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/240

 220 REIGN OF ELIZABETH, [CH. 59. teen 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. As a nation, the Irish are most improvident. They live almost wholly on meat, and use but little bread. 1 The fault is not with the land : it is extremely fertile, and if properly cultivated would produce all that Spain pro- duces, except olives and oranges; but the people are lazy, and do not like work. 2 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 1 ' Comiendo mucho carne y poco pan.' The fact of a meat diet being usual in Ireland is confirmed by a curious complaint of Sir John Per- rot, President of Munster, who ac- counted for the excessive mortality in the English troops by saying that ' the continued eating of fresh beef had brought many of them to the flux.' Demands of the President of Munster, August 14, 1571 : MSS. Ireland. 2 ' La gente es muy olgazana, enemiga de trabajar.'