Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/275

 i57o.J STATE OF IRELAND. d$j in high esteem with the Government. When it was proposed to appoint a President for Ulster, Sir Hum- frey Gilbert was thought of for the post, as being likely to govern the North as Agard governed the O'Birnes and the O'Tooles. In May, 1572, a report was sent in by this gentleman of one week's duty, which was en- dorsed briefly at the castle ' A note of the Sergeant- major his Services since the i6th of May/ 1 At the time to which the report refers there was no open re- bellion. The Wicklow marauders had been simply stealing cattle in the Pale, and it was thought desirable to read them a lesson. In the eyes of the Government they were robbers ; in their own eyes they were patri- ots ; just as Drake and Hawkins were called by the Spaniards ' pirates/ while to the English they were the champions of Israel sent forth to spoil the Philistines, The principal offenders were the families of Mac- Hughs, the Eustaces, and the Garralds, who inhabited the slopes of Lugnaquilla, and the glens between Lugnaquilla and Croghan Moira, the highest of the Wicklow hills. The first expedition against these people for, as will be seen, there was a series was of no particular moment. A party of soldiers made their way to the Barony of Shillelagh, where, the report says, ' they burned Garrald's house, with sixteen towns or hamlets, took a prisoner or two and forty-five head of cattle, and had other killing.' 1 MSS. Ireland, May, 1572.