petrated by any of the destroyers of mankind, in any age or nation. The conflagration of all the towns and villages, as far as their power extended, the waste of every thing that could minister to the sustenance of human life,* and the indis *“The next daie following being the twelfe of March, the lord justice and the earle divided their armie into two several companies by two ensigns and three together, the lord justice taking the one side, and the other taking the other side of Slewlougher, and so they searched the woods, burned the towne, and killed that daie about foure hundred men, and returned the same night with all the cattell which they found that day. “And the said lords, being not satisfied with this daie's service, they did likewise the next daie divide themselves, spoiled and consumed the whole countrie until it was night."87 "They passed over the same into Conilo, where the lord justice and the earl of Ormond divided their companies, and as they marched, they burned and destroyed the country; and they both that night encamped within one mile at Kilcolman."88 "Great were the services which these garrisons performed: for Sir Richard Pierce and captain George Flower, with their troopes, left neither corn nor horne, nor house unburnt, between · Kinsale and Ross. Captain Roger Harvie, who had with him his brother, captain Gawen Harvie, captain Francis Slingsbie, captain William Stafford, with their companies of the Lord Barry and the treasurer, with the President's horse, did the like between Ross and Bantry.' 9989 "Immediately, and within an hour after this proclamation, the countess of Desmond came to the camp; but the camp was before dislodged from the town, and all his country forthwith consumed with fire, and nothing was spared that fire and sword could consume."90 $7 Hollinshed, VI. 430. 89 Pacata Hibernia, 645. 88 Ibid. 90 Hollinshed, VI. 424. criminate slaughter of man, woman, and child,* are recorded by themselves, if not as acts of heroism and glory, at least as mere matters of course. "Some were slain of the lord governor's men, though not so many, amongst whom captain Zouches trumpeter was one; which so grieved the lord general, that he commanded all the houses, towns, and villages, in that country, and about Lefinnen, which in any way did belong to the earl of Desmond, or of any of his friends and followers, to be burned and spoiled."91 "Hereupon Sir Charles, with the English regiments, overran all Beare and Bantry, destroying all that they could find meet for the relief of men, so as that country was wholly wasted."92 *"And as they went, they drove the whole country before them unto the ventrie, and by that means they preyed and took all the cattle in the country, to the number of eight thousand kine, besides horses, garrons, sheep, and goats, and all such people as they met, they did without mercy put to the sword; by these means, the whole country having no cattle nor kine left, they were driven to such extremities, that for want of victuals they were either to die and perish for famine, or to die under the sword." 1993 "The soldiers, likewise, in the camp, were so hot upon the spur, and so eager upon the vile rebels, that that day they spared neither man, woman, nor child, but all was committed to the sword." 9794 "The next morning being the fourth of January, 1602, Sir Charles coming to seek the enemy in their camp, he entered into their quarter without resistance, where he found nothing but hurt and sick men, whose pains and lives by the soldiers were both determined."9 91 Hollinshed, VI. 425. 93 Hollinshed, 427. 95 Pacata Hibernia, 659. 92 Pacata Hibernia, 659. 94 Idem, 430. And, from the scenes recorded by Hooker, Spencer, and Cox, it may be said, without exaggeration, that Ireland, for a long period, was literally a great human slaughter-house, where the natives were hunted down and butchered like so many wild beasts, and where many of the rulers appeared under as hideous an aspect as was ever displayed in any country, or at any period. Should this declaration appear to the reader too highly coloured, he has only to read the annexed proofs, to remove all his doubts. The wanton and wicked destruction of the fruits of the earth, expressly ordered and carried into effect to produce famine, was as fatal to the Irish, as the havoc made of the human species in the field of battle, or on the defenceless of both sexes and every age, throughout their caverns and hiding-places, where they were remorselessly pursued. It fulfilled the intentions of the victors, and created a most deplorable famine, whereby scenes of misery were produced, of which the examples are rare.* The natives were driven, Captain Francis Slingsby, with five hundred foot, burned, preyed, and destroyed Owny O'Mulrian's country, and did the like to East Clanwilliam, Arloghwood's, and Muskeykwick, and KILLED EVERY SOUL HE FOUND THERE.' 1996 * "They performed that service effectually, and brought the rebels to so low a condition, that they saw three children eating the entrails of their dead mother, upon whose flesh they had fed twenty days, and roasted it by a slow fire; and it was a 96 Cox, 434. as Hooker states, not only to eat horses, dogs, and dead carrion, but human flesh, and even to take carcasses from their graves.* It is a fact manifest, that some older people had been in that starving condition, that they murdered and eat children, for a long time together, and were at last discovered and executed for that barbarity. In short, the famine of Jerusalem did not exceed that amongst the rebels of Ireland."" "And as for the great companies of soldiers, gallowglasses, kerne, and the common people, who followed this rebellion, the numbers of them are infinite, whose bloods the earth drank up, and whose carcasses the fowls of the air and the ravening beasts of the field did consume and devour. After this followed an extreme famine: and such whom the sword did not destroy, the same did consume and eat out; very few or none remaining alive, excepting such as were fled over into England: and yet the store in the towns was far spent, and they in distress, albeit nothing like in comparison to them who lived at large; for they were not only driven to eat horses, dogs, and dead carrions; but also did devour the carcasses of dead men, whereof there be sundry examples; namely, one in the county of Cork, where, when a malefactor was executed to death, and his body left upon the gallows, certain poor people secretly came, took him down, and did eat him; likewise in the bay of Smeereweeke, or St. Marieweeke, the place which was first seasoned with this rebellion, there happened a ship to be there lost, through foul weather, and all the men being drowned, were there cast on land. The common people, who had a long time lived on limpets, orewads, and such shell-fish as they could find, and which were now spent; as soon as they saw these bodies, they took them up, and most greedily did eat and devoure them: and not long after, death and famine did eat and consume them. The land itselfe, which before those wars was populous, well inhabited, and rich in all the good blessings of God, being plente worthy of observation, that Spencer coolly and deliberately proposed a plan for reducing the country, by the introduction of a new famine, which would force the natives "to devour one another,"* and renew the horrible scenes that had ous of corne, full of cattell, well stored with fish and sundrie other good commodities, is now become waste and barren, yielding no fruits, the pastures no cattell, the fields no corne, the aire no birds, the seas (though full of fish) yet to them yielding nothing. Finallie, every waie the curse of God was so great, and the land so barren both of man and beast, that whosoever did travell from the one end to the other of all Munster, even from Waterford to the head of Smeerweeke, which is about six score miles, he would not meet anie man, woman, or child, saving in townes and cities; nor yet see anie beast, but the very wolves, the foxes, and other like ravening beasts; many of them laie dead, being famished, and the residue gone elsewhere."98 "The end will (I assure me) bee very short, and much sooner than it can be in so great a trouble, as it seemeth hoped for, although there should none of them fall by the sword, nor bee slain by the souldiour; yet thus being kept from manurance, and their cattle from running abroad, by this hard restraint they would quietly consume themselves, and devoure one another; the proofe whereof I saw sufficiently in these late warres of Munster; for notwithstanding that the same was a most rich and plentiful countrey, full of corn and cattle, that you would have thought they should have been able to stand long, yet in one yeare and a halfe they were brought to such wretchednesse, as that any stony heart would have rued the same. Out of every corner of the woods and glynnes they came creeping forth upon their handes, for their legges could not beare them; they looked like anatomies of death; they spake like ghosts crying out of their graves; they did eate the dead carrions, happy where they could find them, yea, and one an 98 Hollinshed, VI. 459. |