Survival in a Wild and Savage land (Sept 22-25 1588)

In the aftermath of the shipwrecks De Cuellar spent the next three days or so in the Streedagh area. By now the beach was littered with dead bodies and hundreds of tonnes of timber from the wrecked ships. Almost everything of value had been taken but as more objects were washed up on the beach people continued to comb through the debris to lift anything of use. Francisco was unable to move very far. His injured leg severely restricted his movement and his hunger may have kept him by the strand as some meager food supplies in the form of biscuit was occasionally washed up on the beach from the wrecks out in the water.

Alone, De Cuellar moved away from the beach in the search of refuge. To leave the strand he had to move south and this he did, moving away from the strand along the edge of the salt marsh. It seems Francisco was told of one possible refuge not too far from the strand, Staad abbey, a small refuge by the shore no more than a mile and a half from Streedagh. For centuries it had provided a place of shelter for pilgrims traveling to the ancient monastery on the small island of Innishmurray five miles off the coast. After struggling up to the top of a ridge the abbey would have been visible on lower ground very close to the shore a few hundred yards away. Francisco ‘reached it in great pain and discomfort and found it abandoned, and the church and saints burned and everything destroyed; and twelve Spaniards hanged inside the church by English Lutherans who were going about looking for us to finish us off - all of us who had escaped drowning in the storm.’ There was to be no refuge at Staad abbey. The twelve hanging corpses of men who had arrived here earlier were evidence enough of that. It was also the first indication of a manhunt that was underway by the English administration to eliminate all Spaniards who landed in Ireland, shipwrecked or otherwise. Soldiers were instructed to apprehend and execute all Spaniards they encountered. Having survived the storm and shipwreck the three hundred or so survivors now had to avoid capture as it would mean certain death for them. For De Cuellar it was too dangerous to remain at Staad.

Francisco followed a road that led inland from the abbey and entered some woodland. After walking a distance through these woods he encountered an old woman who was driving a small herd of cattle. On seeing De Cuellar the old woman asked him if he was one of the Spaniards. He indicated he was one of those from the shipwrecks. Unable to communicate properly with him she warned him by signs not to continue in the direction he was following. Her village was nearby and in it was a strong body of soldiers who were killing Spaniards. That village was Grange and a body of soldiers under the Sheriff of Sligo was sent here from Sligo town when news reached them that the Spaniards were coming ashore. The old lady was taking her cattle to hide in the woodlands so the soldiers wouldn’t confiscate them. This bad news was a shock to De Cuellar and it began to dawn on him just how perilous his situation was. During these days Streedagh region was one of the most dangerous places in Ireland. He couldn’t go any futher along this track for fear he would be captured by the English soldiers billeted in Grange. Unnerved by the old lady he decided to turn around. ‘In the end, after the old woman’s warning, I resolved to go back to the beach where the ships had foundered three days earlier, and where several gangs were roaming, people pilfering and taking everything of ours as booty to their huts. I didn’t dare show my face or go near them in case they took the poor linen shirt off my back or killed me. What should I see next but two unfortunate Spanish soldiers, naked as the day they were born, screaming and calling on God to help them. One of them had a bad wound on his head, which they had given him while they were stripping him. They came up to me, for I called them from where I was hiding, and they told me about the cruel deaths and tortures which the English had inflicted on more than a hundred Spaniards they had taken.’

Hiding in the dunes with his two new companions De Cuellar was torn by conflicting emotions. On the one hand he was fearful of being discovered by looters or soldiers knowing what would happen in that event. On the other hand his ravenous hunger was drawing him towards the open beach to search for bits of biscuit or other scraps of food he could find there. All three were starving. They resolved to take their chances amongst the looters. Hundreds of corpses still lay on the beach. Passing by many as they searched for food Francisco began to see the bodies of people he knew. Discovering the remains of one of his friends ‘I refused to pass by before burying him in a pit which we dug at the water’s edge, in the sand, and we buried him there with another man, a very fine captain and great friend of mine’. This activity attracted the attention of a large group of people on the beach who came over to see what the Spaniards were doing. They seemed content, however, to leave the three alone once they saw they were burying the dead and not, perhaps, recovering a hidden stash of treasure.

Moving along the beach to pick up scraps of biscuit they were encountered by a small group of four men. This time the strangers were aggressive and intent on robbing De Cuellar. Leaving his two naked companions alone the robbers tried to strip the clothes off his back. As he began to struggle a fifth man came over and dragged the attackers away from De Cuellar. ‘This man, by the grace of God, defended me and my two companions, moving us away from there and staying with us for quite a while until he got us to a road that led from the beach towards a village where he lived. He told us to wait for him there as he would return shortly and direct us to friendly territory.’ This incident is puzzling. Whether this man was from Grange or another village is unclear but there was only one village to which the road from the beach led. Grange is the only settlement of note in the vicinity and given the position of the strand at Streedagh there is only one road to and from the beach. This road leads to Grange. Either this man was unaware of the English soldiers in his village, had word that the soldiers had left, or was deliberately sending these men to Grange knowing that they would be picked up by a patrol who would kill them. De Cuellar doesn’t indicate any real timescale to the sequence of events in the days after the shipwreck but he does state that this incident took place three days after he was shipwrecked. Given that the sheriff of Sligo had been given responsibility for much of the north Connacht coastline and reports were coming in of other landings elsewhere it might be acceptable to assume that the English soldiers, out of necessity, had been deployed elsewhere in the east Sligo, north Mayo district where it was known Spaniards had come ashore. Furthermore the O’Harts and their followers from this area were about to join up with other clans in the region to attack the English so it be might safe to assume that the man’s offer of assistance was genuine. What the incident does illustrate is the confusion and uncertainty of people during these days. Many ships had been seen on the water. They now appeared to be coming to land on many parts of the coastline. Some, as at Streedagh, were wrecked. Reports and wild rumours were taking hold. Whether the arrival of these ships was bringing with them an invasion force from the King of Spain nobody really knew.

The meeting with this ‘chieftain’ as Francisco called him brought the first good news to De Cuellar’s ears. He spoke of giving directions to a friendly territory. With renewed hope the three Spaniards set out towards Grange to wait for the chieftain seemingly undaunted by the earlier killings in the village. The distance between Streedagh and Grange village along the roads is no more then two miles. It should only take 45 minutes to an hour for somebody unfamiliar with the terrain but De Cuellar’s injured leg continued to be a terrible impediment. He was in great pain and had great difficulty walking. Very soon De Cuellar was left behind. ‘……there were lots of stones on that road and I couldn’t manage them or make any progress because I was barefoot and dying of pain in one leg which was very badly injured. My poor companions were naked and freezing, for it was very cold, and since they could neither hold out nor help me, they went ahead, and I stayed behind asking God to favour me.’ Alone, De Cuellar was retracing the route he had earlier taken when he sought refuge at Staad abbey. Making his way slowly with the aid of a walking stick he came to the top of a nearby ridge where he spotted thatched cottages in the distance. He made his way towards them, entering the same wood where he’d previously encountered the old woman.

A track led through the woods but De Cuellar, apparently fearful of being caught on the track seems to have followed the path from a distance, remaining within the cover of the trees. Within sight of the village he was surprised by the sudden appearance of two armed young men, De Cuellar describes them as English and French, accompanied by an old man and his daughter. ‘They were all going to the beach to plunder and, on seeing me go by among the trees, they come after me and the Englishman comes up to me saying, ‘Surrender, Spanish Poltroon’, and, wanting to kill me, takes a swing at me with his sword. I parried the blow with a stick I was carrying, but in the end he got me, slashing my right leg. He would have got me again if the savage hadn’t arrived with his daughter, who must have been this Englishman’s mistress. I replied that he could do what he liked with me since I had already been overcome by fate and disarmed in the sea. They got him away from me. Then the savage started to strip me, even taking my shirt, beneath which I was wearing a gold chain worth more than a thousand reales. When they saw this they were jubilant and searched every stitch of my doublet in which I was carrying forty-five gold escudos which the Duke had ordered that I be given in Corunna for two months salary. The Englishman, on seeing the chain and escudos, wanted to take me prisoner, saying I could offer him ransom money. I said I had nothing to give, that I was a very poor soldier, and had earned that lot on the ship.’ Before he came to any further harm the girl, ‘an extremely beautiful young woman of twenty’ begged the men to leave him alone. She returned his clothes while they took the gold and some holy relics he’d been given in Lisbon back to their hut. Francisco was left to dress himself in the woods as he bled profusely from the wound the ‘Englishman’ had inflicted. A short time later while he lay there among the trees a boy approached him with some food, oat bread, butter and some milk, and a poultice of herbs to apply to his wound. It seems his attackers, after the excitement of acquiring their treasure had subsided, began to feel a certain sense of guilt towards the wounded Spaniard. De Cuellar says ‘I owed this favour to the Frenchman, who had been a soldier in Terceira and felt sorry to see me so ill-treated.’ The boy remained with De Cuellar and took him on a track away from Grange village and whatever dangers may have lain there. What had become of the two companions who had left him behind at the beach? Had they entered Grange village? Had they found refuge or had they been captured? Were they still alive? Leaving the horrors of the coast behind he guided Francisco in the direction of mountains that overlooked the coast some distance inland. They were heading towards Ben Bulben. Before turning back the boy pointed out the route he should take and told him that behind those mountains lay ‘good land belonging to an important savage chieftain (and great friend of the King of Spain) who sheltered and welcomed all the Spaniards that went to him’. He then left De Cuellar to make his own way towards the savage chieftain. The land he was looking for was the kingdom of Breifne. The man he was looking for was its lord, Brian O’Rourke.