“The custom of these savages is to live as the brute beasts among the mountains, which are very rugged in that part of Ireland where we lost ourselves. They live in huts made of straw. The men are all large bodied, and of handsome features and limbs; and as active as the roe-deer. They do not eat oftener than once a day, and this is at night; and that which they usually eat is butter with oaten bread. They drink sour milk, for they have no other drink; they don’t drink water, although it is the best in the world. On feast days they eat some flesh half-cooked, without bread or salt, as that is their custom. They clothe themselves, according to their habit, with tight trousers and short loose coats of very coarse goat’s hair. They cover themselves with blankets, and wear their hair down to their eyes… most of the women are very beautiful, but badly dressed. They do not wear more than a chemise, and a blanket, with which they cover themselves, and a linen cloth, much doubled, over the head, and tied in front.”
From the City of Antwerp, 4th October, 1589.
Sgd. FRANCISCO DE CUELLAR
(highlighting added by SDaedalus)
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My commenters often ask, what happened to the Spanish Armada sailors shipwrecked off the coast of Ireland? Did any of them survive?
The answer is, usually not: those who weren’t drowned, were massacred. Occasionally you might get one lucky sailor – like Captain de Cuellar – who was fortunate enough to survive. His tale, as told in the above letter from Antwerp, and published in ‘Captain de Cuellar’s Adventures in Connacht and Ulster’, ed. Hugh Allingham & Robert Crawford, 1897, is harrowing.
Captain de Cuellar (bio here) had an eye for the ladies and one of the few bright points about Ireland, as far as he was concerned, was the beauty of its women. Lolz. Did I mention he landed not far from the SDaedalus ancestral homestead? I hope the girl hermossisma por todo estremo who stole his holy medals wasn’t my Great Great Great Great Grandmother.
You can read the full English text of Captain de Cuellar’s Adventures – not too long, and very interesting, particularly in its descriptions of the savagery of the natives (I blush for my ancestors) here.
“..and as active as the roe-deer..” I assume ‘roe’ is synonomous with ‘buck.’ What is the origin of “roe?”
‘..for they have no other drink…’ I applaud this fellow for declining to participate in the vile practice of ethnic-stereotyping.
@ blue Blazer – Roe deer is a species of small European deer.
A feature of the Armada story I haven’t seen discussed which comes out here is that the ships contained large amounts of gold, not only for pay but for the costs of the planned occupation of England, and also lots of religious bling. The Irish on the coast learned this pretty quickly, so every armada ship driven ashore would have led to a local gold-rush. Are there any Irish fortunes known to have been based on Armada salvage? (to which, BTW, the takers were fully entitled as the ships were abandoned).
I’ve always liked the theory that Armada survivors were the source of the “Black Irish”- dark hair, dark eyes. But I think that’s come up on this blog before and been debunked. I think re attractiveness of the opposite sex in different populations is concerned, there’s a “grass is always greener” phenomenon at work: people are attracted to features and people that are different than themselves. Perhaps a primal, hindbrain-based diversification-of-the-gene-pool at work. I bet a 16th-c. Irishman would have found Spanish women attractive (then as now). I’ll serve SD up a sotfball and add that there was probably no galloping obesity and fake orange tans in the West of Ireland in the 16th-c…
@John- yes, flotsam vs jetsam. Though not sure if this law/convention was observed in the case of invading armies (even if failed) vs commercial shipping.
@ El Sido ‘..small deer..’ So he was saying the Irelanders were incapable of taking down the REAL deer;they were merely capable of thrashing the less-significant game?
Blue Blazer – I’m told that the old trick was to tease them about their size till they became depressed and were consequently easier prey still. Though I can’t vouch for this having never hunted deer, small or large
@John (London)
No, the Armada fortune is even more of a myth than the Black Irish Armada descendants (though from the sounds of it Captain de C might have left a few of them after him).
As far as I’m aware, any salvage by the natives was small-scale and the monies received for their ill-gotten gains were mostly spent on a drink other than sour milk – can you blame them lol?
Two recorded contemporary attempts at large-scale salvage – one by Sir George Carew and the other by Sorley Boy MacDonnell – as well as subsequent salvage attempts – are documented here.
http://www.mariner.ie/history/articles/engineering/historical-diving
@ John – I remember once hearing an Armada story about some lucky fellow who got a shilling a piece for chopping the heads of the ship wrecked survivors. Whilst quite good money in it’s day. It’s hardly lottery winnings.
Beautiful but spirited
This was great. What a life.
Thanks Gorbachev, and good to see you back!
In the Irish’ defence, it REALLY was/is all they can incapacitate with an empty Jameson bottle, after finishing it…
Roe Deer;
Irish Gaelic Rua = dark red = Anglicized Roe
“..all they can incapacitate with an empty Jameson bottle..” I don’t know . I’m certain an empty Jameson bottle has caused many a regular-sized Irish de[a]r to become incapacitated .
we’d have to ask daiedie
to recall her
war tails
“..war tails..” Ah,yes. I vaguely remember SD (sincerely)innocently missing a reference to Irish Cream ending up in her hair. Sighhhh…we were all so young and innocent back in 2010…
yes we were lol, sadly jaded now alas.
“..lol..” Do you have a criteria when using this ,as opposed to using a smiley-face? Is this based upon a hunch at what is appropriate;or do you have a defacto policy in this regard?
no, it usually depends on my mood, if I’m smiling when typing, I often throw in a lol, not quite sure it’s appropriate but I find the smiley faces can get annoying. Possibly some people find lols even more annoying.
I will confess that the reason I’ve a soft-spot for a lol over a smiley face (and you’ll never guess this, so I’ll have to tell) is because lol reminds me of my childhood crush, Laurie from ‘Little Women’. I think that was his nickname? Still gives me a positive feeling, in a way that a smiley face doesn’t.
“..I find that smiley faces can get annoying..” Why? I always find smiley faces annoying. My primary reason is that I am a man.My secondary reason is that “lol” is a generally agreed-upon expression of laughter/entertainment.
“..Possibly..” No; it’s not possible.
“..I will confess..” Are you sure you’re not a middle-aged gay Irishman pretending to be an “early thirties to mid thirties” Irishwoman?
you’ll have to take my word for it that I’m not.
If’n daedie WERE a middle-aged gay Irishman pretending to be an “early thirties to mid thirties”
he/she’d have of course
a Nobel Prize in Lit
No Monster, I
I doth find the lols endearing
I can see Her e-smile
as she makes porridge
in her coldwater flat
in tattered haus coat
That’s actually very lovely, Firepower.