Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/397

1548.] creeks and coves on the south coast of Ireland. Accounts of these buccaneers are frequent in the Irish State Correspondence. At the beginning of the reign of Edward VI., proclamations were out for the arrest of two famous rovers, named Thomson and Stevenson. The Mayor of Cork wrote to Dublin that they were lying in the harbour there, the country people openly resorting to their ships, and he himself, the Mayor, for fear they should burn the town, allowing them to buy what they wanted in the market. Another letter from the same place described Captain Strangways, another pirate, with thirteen of his men, lounging about Cork, the mayor afraid to meddle with them, and some of the party busy casting cannon.—Irish MSS. Edward VI. State Paper Office.

The following letter from Kinsale is an exact transcript; '

'Right Honourable,—After our humble dutyes premyssyd unto your good Lordship, pleasyd the same to be advertysyd that we resheweth your letter the 13th day of July, and as we persew the tenore, we wyll fulfyll your Lordship is comandiment both nyght and day to the uthermost of our puere, which is lyttel Gode knowis, for all our men dyed with pestelent, and we have a wyde empty thowne and few men, and naghty and unstruly negboris which we rest not nyght nor day buth waget our thowne for ferd of the Irysmen abuthe us be lande and be see allsoo. The centre abuthe us is in wast, and all the socure that we were wonth to have is be our hawen; buth naw ys stoppyth from us be Eglis pyraturs, which wolde not suffure no wyttell no socure comys to us, buth tak it within our hawen. And now of lathe cam on Richard Colle with a Spinache and 18 or 20 men, and maryde with Barry Oghe is aunt, and dwellyth in his castell within our hawen and our lyberty, and there he remanyd and wold not suffure non to cum to the thowne, buthe tak them and spoyl them, whiche is grett henderanche to us Gode knowys, and if it lyeth in our puere to mett with hem, we knowe not what ys your wyll therein; desyring your honourable Lordship to wrytt us what ys best to do. Wrytten at Kynshall the I5th day of July, 1548.

'Your Lordshyps most asuryd,

'.'

Sympathizing readers will be glad to know that these pirates came duly to a becoming end. On the 25th of the same month of July, a large French vessel with a hundred hands came into Kinsale harbour.

Complaints came frequently before the Admiralty