the Town but such a Guard as we think fit to send to one of the Gates which shall immediately be delivered to us according to the Custom of War III. That the Garison shall march out to morrow by Ten a Clock and be conducted by a Squadron of Horse to the nearest Garison of the Enemy and there shall be no crowding nor confusion when they march out IV. That nothing be carried out of the Town which belongs to the Protestants or other Inhabitants V. That the Governour obliges himself to deliver all Cannon and other sort of Arms Munition Victuals of any kind into the hands of such a Commissary as shall be ordered by us to receive them to morrow morning VI. That if there be any thing due from the Garison to the Inhabitants of the Protestant Religion it shall be paid and what has been taken from them shall be restored VII That a safe Conduct for all the Inhabitants of the Countrey and such of the Roman-Catholick Clergy that came for shelter to this Garison shall be allowed and that they go to their respective habitations together with their Goods and there be protected pursuant to King William 's Declaration bearing date the 22 d. of February last past VIII That care shall be taken of the sick and wounded men of the Garison that cannot go along with the Regiments and that when they are in a condition to follow the rest they shall have our Pass SCHONBERG Pursuant to which Articles the Irish marched out tho the Duke himself had much a-do to protect them from the Violence of the Countrey People the Injuries they had received in being plundered and stript by them were so fresh in their memories The Irish had about 150 killed and wounded during the Siege and the Duke near the same number and Wednesday the 28th and the day following the Army marched back to Belfast where they were joined by Duke Schonbergh's French Horse Sir Thomas Gowers Foot and some other Regiments sent from England On Saturday the last of August our Army was Our Army mustered at Belfast Mustered being Four Regiments of Horse one of Dragoons and Eighteen Regiments of Foot viz. Horse Earl of Devonshire's Lord Delamere's Col. Coy's and Duke Schonberg's with Col. Leveson's Dragoons Foot one Battalion of Blew Dutch Carleson's White Dutch Princess Anne's Col. Wharton's Earl of Drogheda's Lord Lisburn's Earl Meath's Lord Roscommon's Lord Lovelace's Earl of Kingston's the Duke of Norfolk's Col. Herbert's Sir Edward Deering's Sir Thomas Gower's Col. Earl's La Mellionere's Du Cambon's La Callimot's and a day or two after we were joined by most of the Inniskilling Horse who stayed with us during the succeeding Campaign The Duke having ordered most of his Artillery and Ammunition on Board at Carrickfergus our Train Horses being many of them as yet at Chester and then to go for Carlingford within eight miles of Dundalk he marched The Army march to Newry his Army forwards on Monday the 2 d. of September and came on the 6th to Newry which he found laid in Ashes by the Duke of Berwick who having been there with about 1700 Foot and Dragoons and two Troops of Horse had retired towards Dundalk the evening before and left Newry in a flame Here the General posted Capt. Palliser of Sir Thomas Gower's Regiment with Fifty men in an old Castle that was unburnt and on Saturday the 7th we Thence to Dundalk marched to Dundalk where the Army encamped on a low moist Ground nigh a mile short of the Town On Sunday the 8th Major-General Kirk's Sir John Hanmer's and Brigadier Stuart's Regiments join'd us from the North. The Irish Army were at this time in a great Consternation The Irish in confusion and it was debated whether they should quit Drogheda and Dublin and so retire towards the Shannon but my Lord Tyrconnel opposed it and when Marshal De Rose understood that Duke Schonberg halted at Dundalk He was sure he said that he wanted something necessary for their going forwards and therefore part of their Army advanced first to Ardee and then in a day or two to a place called the Bridge of Fane upon a small River within three miles of Dundalk whither the late King with his whole Army being about 28000 well arm'd and nigh Ten thousand indifferently arm'd men followed about the 15th at what time we began to intrench our Camp and also some shipping with Provisions came to us Friday the 20th we were alarm'd with the Enemies The Irish make a shew of fighting approach and they did appear upon the Hills above the Town next day drawing out their whole Army with a Train of Artilery which the Duke seeing ordered all his men to stand to their Arms and expected the Enemies attacking him but that they had no great mind to and after a Discovery of a Plot by some French to carry the rest over to King James one Du Plessy and five more being hanged as also Two hundred others sent for England the Enemy seeing that opportunity lost they returned with the main Body of their Army to Ardee where they encamped till about the 4th of November and then they marching off we thought it high time to do so likewise after being encamp'd almost Ten weeks in a very unwholsome place and pestered with all the disadvantages of bad weather by reason of which we lost in the Camp in our going to Quarters and in them and the Hospitals at least one half of our men the Army consisting then of Nine Regiments and Two Troops of Horse Four Regiments of Dragoons and Thirty Regiments of Foot whereof Two Regiments of Horse One of Dragoons and Six of Foot did not come to the Camp but were quartered in the Countrey The English Camp near Dundalk Towards the latter end of November the General ordered a Meeting of all the Countrey Gentlemen then in the North of Ireland to be at Lisburne where his Grace's Head Quarters were fixed at what time they presented the Duke with an Address and then agreed upon Rates for all sorts of Provision which by Proclamation from the General were commanded to be sold accordingly December the 12th Collonel Woolsly marched with a Party towards Belturbet which was surrendred to him by the Irish and on the 13th the Duke went to view Charlemont a strong-hold which the Irish then had and kept for some time afterwards Towards the latter end of December the Irish began to lessen the Coin of their Brass-Money calling in the large Half-Crowns and stamping them a new for Crowns and near the same time Major-General Major-General Mackarty makes his escape Mackarty made his escape from Inniskilling where he had remained a Prisoner ever since the Rout at Croom Castle Collonel Hambleton Governour of the Town was Tried by a Court-Marshal for it afterwards but producing Major-General Kirk's Letter to him wherein he desired that some further Conveniencies might be allowed Mackarty than formerly upon which it
he admitted my Lord Dover to a more particular Protection than ordinary because he had applied himself formerly by a Letter to Major-General Kirk to desire a Pass for himself and Family to go into Flanders His Majesty at his return to the Camp declared The King intends for England his Resolution to go for England and leaving Count Solmes Commander in Chief he went as far as Chappel-Izard nigh Dublin with that Intention ordering one Troop of Guards Count Sconberg's Horse formerly my Lord Devonshires Collonel Matthews's Dragoons Brigadier Trelawny's and Collonel Hastings's And sends some Forces thither Foot to be shipt off for that Kingdom And on the first of August His Majesty published a Second Declaration not only confirming and strengthening the former but also adding That if any Foreigners then in Arms against him in that Kingdom would submit they should have Passes to go into their own Countries or whither else they pleased A Proclamation was also published for all the Irish in the Countrey to deliver up their Arms and those who refused or neglected to be abandoned to the Discretion of the Soldiers As also another Proclamation for a Weekly Fâ—st And then His Majesty appointed Richard Pine Esq Sir Richard Reves and Robert Rochfort Esq Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal who began now to act accordingly But the King received a further Account from England But returns to the Camp That the loss at Sea was not so considerable as it was at first given out and that there was no danger of any more French Forces landing in that Kingdom they having already burnt only a small Village and so were gone off without doing any further damage The danger of that being therefore over His Majesty returned to the Army which he found encamped at Golden Bridge nigh Cashell and about seventeen miles from Limrick where His Majesty had intelligence of the Posture of the Enemy in and about that City August the 8th Lieutenant-General Douglas and his Limerick Besieged Party from Athlone joined the King's Army at Cariganlis And on the 9th the whole Army approached that strong Hold of Limerick without any considerable loss the greatest part of their Army being Encampt beyond the River in the County of Clare His Majesty as soon as his Army was posted sent a Summons to the Town which was refused to be obeyed by Monsieur Boiseleau the Duke of Berwick Sarsfield and some more though a great part of their Army were even then willing to Capitulate Next Morning early the King sent a Party of Horse and Foot under Major-General Ginckell and Major-General Kirk to pass the River which they did near Sir Samuel Foxon's House about two miles above the Town The same day some Deserters from the Enemy gave his Majesty an account of their Circumstances and one of our own Gunners did as much for us who informed the Enemy of our Posture in the Camp as also of Eight Pieces of Cannon with Ammunition Provisions the Tin-Boats and several other Necessaries then upon the Road which Sarsfield with a Party of Horse and Dragoons had the luck to surprize two Some of our â—â—ns surprized days after at a little old Castle called Ballynedy within seven miles of our Camp killing about Sixty of the Soldiers and Waggoners and then marched off with little or no opposition tho his Majesty had given Orders for a Party of Horse to go from the Camp and meet the Guns the night before Tuesday the 12th Brigadier Stuart went with a Party Castle Connel taken and four Field-Pieces to Castle-Connel a Strong-hold upon the Shannon four miles from Limerick the besieged being 126 under one Captain Barnwell after some time submitted and were brought Prisoners to the Camp Sunday the 17th at night we opened our Trenches Our Trenches opened which were mounted by Seven Battalions under the Duke of Wirtenbergh Major-General Kirk Major-General Tetteau and Sir Henry Bellasts beating the Irish out of a Fort nigh two old Chimneys where about Twenty were killed and next night our Works were relieved by Lieutenant General Douglas my Lord Sidney Count Nassau and Brigadier Stuart with the like number and the day following we planted some new Batteries which his Majesty going to view as he was riding towards Ireton's Fort he stopt his Horse on a sudden to speak to an Officer a Four and twenty pound Ball the very moment grazing on the side of the Gap where his Majesty was going to enter which certainly must have dash'd him to pieces had not the commanding God of Heaven prevented it who still reserves him for greater matters This I saw being then upon the Fort as I did that other Accident at the Boyne before Wednesday the 20th we attack'd a Fort of the Enemies A Fort taken nigh the South East Corner of the Wall which we soon took and killed 50 taking a Captain and twelve men Prisoners and about an hour after the Enemy sallyed with great Bravery thinking to regain the Fort but were beat in with loss there being killed in the Fort and the Sally about Three hundred though we lost Captain Needham Captain Lacy and about Eighty private men A PROSPECT of LIMERICK BEARING DUE WEST Exactly shewing the Approaches Batteries Breach ct Sold by R. Chiswell in St. Pauls churchyard Next day the Soldiers were in hopes that his Majesty would give orders for a second Attack and seemed resolved to have the Town or lose all their lives but this was too great a risque to run at one place and they did not know how our Ammunition was sunk especially by the former day's work we continued however our Batteries and then a storm of Rain and other bad weather begun to threaten us which fell out on Friday the 29th in good earnest upon which his Majesty calling a Council of War it was concluded the safest way was to quit the Siege without which we could not have secured our heavy Cannon which we drew off from the Batteries by degrees and found much difficulty in marching them five miles next day Sunday the last of August all our His Majesty raised the Siege Army drew off most of the Protestants that lived in that part of the Countrey taking that opportunity of removing further into the Countrey with the Army and would rather leave their Estates and all their Substance in the Enemies hands than trust their persons any more in their power His Majesty seeing the Campaign nigh an end went towards Waterford where he appointed Henry Lord Viscount Sidney Sir Charles Porter and Tho. Conningsby Esq Lords Justices of Ireland and then setting And returns to England sail with a fair Wind for England his Majesty was welcomed thither with all the Joy and Satisfaction imaginable CHAP. III. September 1690. The French Forces quit Ireland Birr besieg'd by the Irish who draw off towards Banoher Bridge Count Solms 's Answer to the Duke of Berwick 's Letter Lieutenant-General
Ginckel made Commander in Chief of the Army Lords Justices begin their Government The Earl of Marlborough sent with a Fleet into Ireland Cork and Kinsale taken The Irish make Attempts upon our Frontiers Part of our Army move towards the Shannon Rapparees in the Bog of Allen Those People serviceable to the Irish Interest and how My Lord Tyrconnel returns from France Sarsfield made Earl of Lucan The Irish defeated at the Mote of Greenoge Several Adventures with the Rapparees and Parlies of the Irish Army Some of our Regiments take the Field at Mullingar ON the sixth of September our Army marched to Tipperary about fourteen Miles from Limerick where they begun to disperse towards their respective Quarters And we had an Account by some Deserters that my Lord Tyrconnel and all the French Forces were Ship'd off at The French leave Ireland Gallway for France The reason of this was also enquired after by a great many that the French shou'd absolutely quit Ireland at a time when we had raised our Siege which might have given them hopes of re-gaining the next Year what they lost this at least to defend the Province of Connaught against us and so protract the War beyond what they cou'd have hoped for if the Town had been taken and that if the want of Provisions was an Objection it was easier to carry those to the Men than bring the Men to their Provisions But the reason that I have heard given for their departure was That the late King appearing very unexpectedly in France at a time when all People were over-joyed with the News of the Battel of Flerus won at Land and a Victory also gained at Sea to palliate matters therefore as to himself he laid all the blame upon the Irish that they wou'd not fight but many of them laid down their Arms in such order as if they had been Exercising which indeed some of them did Upon which the Fr. K. concluding that all was lost in that Kingdom he sent Orders to Count Lauzun to make the best of a bad Market and so come off for France as well as he could with all his Men. But the Irish taking heart of grace at our Fleets and the Dutch Armies misfortunes they held out beyond expectation And those Orders of the French Kings not coming till after His Majesty had raised the Siege of Limerick Count Lauzun waited about twelve Days for a Countermand but that not appearing he set sail for France tho' he met with contrary Orders at Sea but then it was too late For His Majesty had been a Fortnight at London before they heard at Paris that the Siege of Limerick was raised which shewed that whatever good Intelligence they might have from England or Ireland at other times they wanted it now but whether the Wind was cross or what else was the reason I am uncertain About the fourteenth we heard that Sarsfield with a part of the Irish Army had marched over the Shannon at Banoher-Bridge and besieged the Castle of Birr wherein Birr besieged by the Irish was only a Company of Colonel Tiffin's Foot who stoutly defended the Castle the only temble place but Major-General Kirk marching thither with a part of our Army the Enemy quitted the Siege and marched off At this time Count Solms who commanded in Chief was at Cashel where he received a Letter by a Trumpeter from the Duke of Berwick then at Limerick complaining that they heard of a Design of ours to send all those Prisoners we had taken at several places to be Slaves in the Foreign Plantations and withal threatning ours with the French Gallies But this was only a trick of the Irish Officers themselves to prevent their Soldiers from deserting making them believe there was a Contract to sell them all to Monsieur Perara the Jew for so much Bread which made the name of the Jew very terrible to the Irish But this was a mere Story of their own framing and therefore Count Solms sent the following Answer to the Duke's Letter Henry Count de Solms General of Their Majesties Army in their Kingdom of Ireland HAving never before heard of a Design to send those Numbers Count Solms's Answer to the Duke of Berwick's Letter of your Men we have Prisoners to the Foreign Plantations we detained your Trumpeter here for some Days in hopes we might have been able to trace this Report which you send us word is spread about of such our Intentions but no enquiry we have made giving us the least light therein we have reason to think that neither those Prisoners we have of yours need fear so long a Voyage nor those few of ours in your hands be apprehensive of yielding a small Recruit to the French King's Gallies However we think fit to declare that your Men shall severely feel the effects of any ill usage you shall offer to ours for which they may reckon themselves obliged to their Generals Given at our Head-Quarters at Cashel the 21st Day of September 1690. To the Duke of Berwick or the Officer in Chief commanding the Enemies Forces Soon after this Count Solms went for England and the Lieutenant-General Ginckel made Commander in Chief Baron de Ginckel was made Lieutenant-General and Commander in Chief of the Army who went to his Head-Quarters at Kilkenny Towards the middle of September Henry Lord Viscount Sidney and Thomas Coningesby Esquire two of the Lords-Justices went to Dublin where they took the usual Oaths of Chief Governors of that Kingdom before the Commissioners of the Great Seal and immediately begun their The Lords-Justices go to Dublin work of putting the Country in as good a condition of Safety as the nature of the times would bear Whilst the King was imployed in the Field with his Army against the Town of Limerick it was first proposed by the Earl of Nottingham to my Lord Marlborough and afterwards approved of in Councel as very Advantageous to Their Majesties Affairs to send a Party from England who joyning with a Detachment from the King's Army might reduce those two important Garrisons of Cork and Kinsale and provisions were made accordingly But not being ready so soon as was designed His Majesty upon His return for England sent the Earl of Marlborough with his own Regiment of Fusiliers Brigadier Trelawny's Princess Ann's Earl of Marlborough sent into Ireland Colonel Hastings's Colonel Hales's Sir David Collier's Colonel Fitz-Patrick's one hundred of the Duke of Bolton's and two hundred of the Earl of Monmouth's with my Lord Torrington's and Lord Pembrook's Marine Regiments CORK CITY After the taking of those two Towns the Irish that lay October 1690. in the County of Kerry made several Incursions and burnt some small Villages in the County of Cork and near the same time another Party burnt Balliboy a Village 8 miles The Irish make some attempts upon our Quarters from Birr wherein there was then six Companies of the Earl of
some of O Donnel's Men then in that Country which was done accordingly There hapned about this time two Violent Flashes of Lightning and Claps of Thunder at Kinsale by the latter of which the Portsmouth Frigatt suffered great damage having her Main To and Main Yard broke to pieces and the Main Mast split for twelve foot downwards breaking throw the Larboard side of the Ship twelve foot in length and did some other mischief tho only one Man was hurt by it Nigh the same time the Officers belonging to the Train of Artillery The Waggoners and others of that Society were broke as being no farther useful in this Kingdom And January 23 being the first day of the Term the The Oaths taken according to the new Act of Parliament Lords Justices came to the Court of King's-Bench and there took the Oaths to Their Majesties and Subscribed the Declaration required by the late Act of Parliament in England as did also several of the Nobility Whence the Lord Chancellor returned to his High Court of Chancery where the Judges of the several Courts Masters of Chancery King's Councel the Lawyers and several other Persons of different Qualities and Imployments took the prescribed Oaths c. For the Act of Parliament being Reprinted at Dublin and spread abroad by the Lords Justices Order and requiring all Persons whatever in any Imployment within Thirty Miles of that City to take the said Oath and subscribe the Declaration before the end of Hillary Term January 1692. and no exception being made or excuse allowed for Men's being Sick or otherwise disabled several were brought up to Town with great difficulty and the Courts daily throng'd 'till the Term was over Great quantities of Wheat and other Grain were ordered from Cork and Kingsale to furnish the Stores of Limerick that part of the Countrey being now very much put to it for want of Bread as being the seat of War this two years past The 25th Colonel Mathew's Dragoons were Shipp'd at Belfast as Sir John Lanier's Horse had been some time before and on the 27th my Lord Portland's Horse were Shipp'd at Passage near Waterford A Declaration was Publish'd by the Lords Justices A Declaration forbidding the buying Debenters or Arrears forbidding any Officer Clerk or other Person whatever belonging to imploy'd in or depending on their Majesties Treasury either by himself or any other directly or indirectly to buy any Arrears or Debenters due to any Officer or Souldier or any other Persons who have been imploy'd in Their Majesties Service during this present War upon pain of losing the benefit of such Contract or Agreement as also of being dismissed their Imployments and of being declared uncapable of being Imployed in the Treasury for the future The buying of such Debenters being adjudged dishonourable to Their Majesties Service and Government and to the loss of the persons to whom the same are payable And nigh the same time another Order was sent Another Order to turn out all the Irish Papists out of our Regiments out Commanding all Colonels and others in Their Majesties Army who had entertain'd any Irish in their respective Regiments Troops or Companies forthwith to dismiss them and not to keep any one Irish Papist under their Command upon pain of having January 1692. such Regiments broke where any such were found A great Frost began January the 19th and is now so violent that Multitudes of the poor People and especially of the Irish perish for Cold The Lords Justices and Council very Charitably order all the Poor then in and about the City of Dublin to be taken up and put into sveral Convenient Houses being in all 640 odd who were provided for with Meat and Fire without which Care several hundreds must have perished in the Streets And yet a great many of them had been so used to that Trade of Begging that the being provided for with Necessaries and Confin'd to a Place was uneasie to them so that several stole out and fell to Begging again But this Charitable Care was not taken in other parts of the Kingdom so that a Man might every where see a great many Objects of Pity and Misery and they continue so to this very day Some time before this the Danes were Shipp'd as is said having four Men of War and 46 other Vessels to Transport them but being driven back by contrary Winds and kept in the Harbour by stress of weather a new supply of Provisions was Ordered them Two Proclamations were Publish'd at Dublin one Commanding all Persons that were not qualified by the Articles of Limerick and Galway which were Noble-Men and Gentlemen who were House-keepers and have Estates of Freehold of one Hundred Pounds a year which by the said Proclamation was declared to be the qualification of the Persons Compriz'd in the said Articles to deliver up their Arms of all sorts before the Tenth of March and if they failed therein to be prosecuted with the utmost severity of Law And whosoever shou'd discover any Fire Arms so detain'd after the 10th of March shou'd have Ten Shillings Reward February 1692. and Five Shillings for every discovery of other Arms to be paid him by the Sheriff of the City or Justice of the Peace to whom such Discovery shou'd be made the same to be repaid by the Sheriff of the County and allowed in his Accounts in the Exchequer And the Persons in whose Custody such Arms are found shall lose the benefit of the said Articles and be bound over to the next Assizes or Sessions which shall first happen And all Persons who had Arms before the first day of November last being not qualified to keep them and shall not give a satisfactory Account how they have disposed of them shall be look'd upon as guilty of a Contempt against the said Proclamation And the Sheriffs of the respective Counties were to give an Account from time to time of what Arms were brought in to the Clerk of the Council or his Deputy And that all Persons that were qualify'd to keep Arms might wear the same without being affronted or have the same taken from them on any pretence each Person was to apply himself to the Lords Justices for a License for that purpose which was to be granted without any Fee or Reward whatever Which Proclamation was to be publish'd three Market-days successsively in each Town in Ireland and then affixed Dated the 4th of February 1691 2. The other Proclamation was to forbid all Justices of the Peace Mayors Sheriffs and other Magistrates whatever to presume so far upon their Authority as to meddle with the Property Right Title or Possession of the Estate or Goods of any of Their Majesties Subjects other than as by due Course of Law they are required or can justifie By which Proclamation some of the Irish that had been wronged were set to rights and satisfied tho' they were not so forward in obeying February 1692. the former in
the same Religion with the Irish yet they cou'd never be perswaded to stand up for a mere Irish Interest till the Irish in the What Methods the Irish first took to make the old English joyn with them Province of Vlster especially found out the two following Expedients first to intermarry with the English of the Pale and to seek all opportunities of making alliance with them and secondly to perswade the English Gentry always to breed up one of their Sons a Priest by whom and their Irish Wives the English were managed to that degree that tho' at the first breaking out of the Rebellion in 1641. they seemed to detest the Irish ways of proceeding yet in a few Months after a great part of them openly joyned with the Irish and this with the constant troubles in England were the Reasons why that Rebellion was the longest in suppressing A Brief Account of the Expences of the former War and also the most expensive of any before it being on foot 12 Years viz. from the 23 d. of October 1641. until the 26th of September 1653. The Charge to England in suppressing of which and the loss that the Protestant Party in Ireland sustained during this War being computed by Sir John Burlace in his History to amount to Twenty two Millions One Hundred and Ninety One Thousand Two Hundred and Fifty Eight Pounds Three Shillings and Three Pence And others compute the whole Loss Cost and Charges of the King and Protestant Party to suppress the said Rebellion to amount to 34480000 l. And that the English Adventurers who advanced Money upon the Credit of two Acts of Parliament in the Years 41 and 42 paid 70 Years Purchase for that which was not worth above eight and that the Souldiers paid 115 Years purchase for their Debenters but those People have a mad way of reckoning in the multiplying several of their particulars However as to this last War that we have all seen An Essay towards this I pretend not to so great Skill as to know the Expences of it only thus far is easily computed 1. The Army that Landed with Duke Schonberg and that came some time after into Ireland with those of the Derry and Inniskillin Troops received into Pay under his Grace's Command in the Year 1689. being 9 Regiments and 2 Troops of Horse 4 Regiments of Dragoons and 30 Regiments of Foot the whole pay for which in one Year comes to 869410 l. 7 s. 06 d. 2. His Majesty's Royal Army in that Kingdom in the Year 1690 Consisting of 2 Troops of Guards 23 Regiments of Horse 5 Regiments of Dragoons and 46 Regiments of Foot the Pay of which considering the difference between the Numbers in the Foreign Regiments and our own amounts to 1287630 l. 02 s. 00 d. 3 The Army in that Kingdom in the Year 1691. Commanded by Lieutenant General Ginckel being 20 Regiments of Horse 5 of Dragoons and 42 Regiments of Foot whose Pay for that Year came to 1161830 l. 12 s. 10 d. Then the General Officers Pay the Train Bread Waggons Transport Ships and other Contingencies make at least as much more which is 6637742 l. 05 s. 00 d. And the Irish Army living for the most part upon the product of the Country cou'd not cost much less Besides the farther Destruction of the Protestant Interest in that Kingdom by cutting down Improvements burning of Houses destroying of Sheep and Cattle taking away of Horses with Infinite other Extortions and Robberies as also the loss of People on both sides most of which however disaffected yet they were Subjects to the Crown of England As to the particulars of our and their losses of People A modest Conjecture at the Numbers lost on both sides during the War in both Armies since the Landing of Duke Schonberg in Ireland the best Computation I have been able to make by comparing Accounts and conferring on both sides with those that have made some Observations on that matter the thing runs thus Irish Officers killed 00617 Souldiers killed belonging to the Irish Army 12676 Rapparees killed by the Army and Militia 01928 Rapparees hanged by Legal Process or Court-Marshal 00112 Rapparees killed and hanged by Souldiers and others without any Ceremony 600 Officers killed in the English Army 00140 Soldiers killed in the Field 02037 Murdered privately by the Rapparees that we had no account where they died 00800 English and Foreign Officers died during the three Campaigns 00320 Souldiers dead in the English Army since our Landing in Ireland 7000 Tho' its to be observed that in the two last Campaigns there died very few except Recruits and such as died of their Wounds Nor are we to believe that the Irish did not lose a great many by Sickness also but no doubt the Destruction of the People in the Country wou'd do more than double all these Numbers so that by the Sword Famine and all other accidents there has perished since first the Irish began to play their mad Pranks there have died I say in that Kingdom of one sort and another at least One Hundred Thousand Young and Old besides treble the Number that are Ruined and undone All which being considered it 's certainly most expedient to find out an Eternal Remedy that the like may never happen again And this I humbly suppose must not be any endeavour to root out and destroy the Irish but in the advancing the English Interest both in Church and State in that Kingdom so as to make the Irish themselves in love with it And tho' it has been the Ruining Fate of that Kingdom The Interest of England to advance the Power of the English in Ireland to have some great Men both in Court and Parliament Judge it the Interest of England to keep Ireland poor and low and it may seem strange to hear an English Man by Birth and a meer Stranger to the having any Interest in Ireland to endeavour the contradicting of it But in my humble Opinion whatsoever may be allowed in this as to the promoting the private Advantages of a great many Trading People and even Men of Estates in England which all would suffer by the advancing of these in Ireland yet it 's so far from being the real Interest either of the Kingdom of England to cramp Ireland in its Prosperity that the Wealth and Greatness of Ireland in Trade and Manufactures is to be promoted both by the King and People of England as much as possibly it can And first as to the Kings of England it is the same thing to them whether they have their Customs from Bristol or Dublin from Cork or Newcastle c. or whether their Levies of Men when occasion offers are made in the Counties of Wickloe and Waterford Cumberland or Yorkshire provided the Interest were one and the same in both Kingdoms And as to the People of England in general one shou'd think it 's their business to promote and encourage the Trade and
forced most of them to fly from thence to secure their Lives against an Insolent and ungovernable Irish Army who by order from the Government seized upon all the Horses and Arms they could find in the Hands of the Protestants throughout the Kingdom and made all possible Preparations to resist a powerful Army from England which was but reasonable to look for since it 's so inconsistent with the Laws Interest and Policy of this Kingdom to have Ireland in any other hands but their own On the 12th of March the Late King with about The Late King lands in Ireland 1800 men from France landed at Kinsale in the West of Ireland And on the 14th several of the Northern Protestants that had betaken themselves to Arms were routed at a place called Drummore by Lieut. Gen. Hambleton who was some time before sent into Ireland to treat with my Lord Tyrconnel to deliver up the Sword but joining with his Lordship and the Irish at his Landing he was preferred to that Post He had with him at Drummore about 2000 of the Irish standing Army and nigh as many Rapareers though he killed but few of the Protestants they making a Running Fight of it as others also did at Killileigh Claudyfoord and some other Places several flying into England or Scotland though the most resolute amongst them went towards London-Derry where in a short time they were actually besieged by the greatest part of the Irish Army And then the Irish make Preparations for the sitting of their Parliament which was on the 7th of May 1689. wherein all the mere Irish were admitted as An Irish Parliament called Members and most of the English Nobility Gentry Clergy and substantial Tradesmen of that Kingdom were attainted by name their Estates and Goods being declared forfeited if they returned not by a certain day which to the greatest part was next to an impossibility There were some Protestants however in this Parliament who endeavoured to do their Absent Brethren and the Protestant Interest all the faithful service imaginable particularly the Bishop of Meath who made several excellent Speeches in the House of Lords in opposition to their Proceedings but the Current was then too strong to be stopt and whoever endeavoured it their Attempts were fruitless But the greatest Thorn in their sides at that time in The Siege of London-derry Ireland was the City of London-derry which contemned both their Threats and fair Promises baffling the chieâ— of their Forces for at least Four Months together without any extraordinary Supplies from England till they were reduced to the last Extremity Yet on the 25th of March the Besieged had some Arms and Ammunition brought them by Captain James Hambleton And on the 13th of April Collonel Richards and Collonel Cunningham were sent with Two Regiments from England to their Assistance who coming to the Lough of Derry and being ordered to obey the then Governour Lundy's directions they were told by him That the Town could not hold out a Week and that their coming in would only be the loss of their men and the Besieged also and advised them to return which they did tho they lost their Regiments upon it A GROUND PLAT OF LONDON-DERRY tc Then went Major-General Kirk with his own Regiment Sir John Hanmer's and Brigadier Stuart's who anchor'd in the Lough Two Months during which Major-General Kirk sent to their relief time a great many French Commanders were sent to the Irish Camp and also the late King himself went down to encourage the Besiegers fresh Supplies of men going thither daily but all to no purpose which when he saw how unsuccessful the Attempts of his Irish Army against the Town were like to prove it 's confidently reported that he exprest himself to this effect That if he had had as many English-men in his Army as he had of others they would have brought him it stone by stone ere that But being weary of so tedious a Siege he returned to Dublin and at last the Dartmonth Frigat forced her way up to the Town and the Irish raised their Siege on the last of July The Management of this Affair was blamed by some of themselves who were either for pushing on the Siege with their whole Army or else for making a Blockade and so going into Scotland with the rest of the Army as my Lord Melfort advised and as my Lord Dunee earnestly writ for several times but some of the Irish Officers advised the late King to a Medium by making a slow and regular Siege which would teach his men to be the better Soldiers but thereby he lost his opportunity in not sending to reinforce Dundee whereby he might at least have changed the seat of the War Nor were the Inniskilliners behind their Neighbours of Derry in opppsing the Irish on all occasions for besides several Actions of moment performed by them at other times the very day before the Siege of Derry was raised the Inniskilliners hearing of about Six thousand of the Irish Army commanded by Major-General Mackarty commonly called my Lord Moncashel that were marching towards them in order to Besiege their Town also they very bravely met them nigh Twenty Miles from home and at a place called Newtown Butler near Croom-Castle they fought and routed the Irish killing and drowning in Loughs and Bogs nigh Three thousand The Battel at Newtown Butler Mackarty himself and some few more being taken Prisoners The whole Body of the Inniskilliners both Horse and Foot were not above Two thousand and scarce Twenty of those were killed with about Fifty more wounded This I have had confirmed by several very good men of that Party and it 's in a great measure owned by the Irish themselves After these Affronts the Irish Army retire into Leinster Duke Schonberg lands with an Army in Ireland and Munster in order to recruit and refresh themselves when they had soon an account to their sorrow That Duke Schonbergh General of all Their Majesties of Great Britain's Forces was landed with an Army at Bangor in the North of Ireland This was on Tuesday August the 13th and on the 17th the General with his Army marched to Belfast from whence on the 20th he sent Five Regiments of Foot with some Horse to Invest the Town of Carrickfergus and the next day followed himself with the remainder of the Army There were Two Regiments of Foot in the Town under Mackarty Moore the Governor and Owen Mackarty who held it out till the 27th at what time the following Articles were agreed to and signed Articles of Agreement between Frederick Duke of Schonbergh General of Their Majesties Forces and Col. Charles Mackarty Moore Governor of Carrickfergus August 27. 1689. Art I. THAT the Garison shall march out with flying Articles of Carrickfergus Colours Arms lighted Matches and their own Baggage to morrow by Ten a Clock II. That in regard the Garison are in such Disorders none be admitted into
in the Afternoon some of our Field-pieces came up which were immediately planted and then played into the Enemy's Camp the rest of the day was spent in our Army 's Encamping and in firing Great Guns one upon another from several Batteries without any extraordinary loss Whether His Majesty had already an Account of what had happened to the Confederate Army at Flerus I am not able to give an Account but it 's probable he had some intimation of it since in a Council of War held that night His Majesty seemed positive in passing the River next day and therefore gave Orders for his Army to be ready accordingly The late King had likewise another Council of War on his side the River wherein all the French and Irish Officers agreed which was the only time they ever did so before or after Not to give us Battel but to march off in the night and then retreat towards Athlone and Limerick filling all their Towns that were tenable as they went with sufficient Garisons to defend them And their reason was this as soon as Sir Cloudsley Shovel with his Squadron of Men of War had seen the King safe in Ireland he was ordered to sail immediately and join my Lord Torrington then at Sea with the English Fleet which the French having notice of and that all our Transport Ships with our Provisions and other Necessaries for War were left at Carigfergus-Bay with little or no Convoy and would have Orders to coast along as the Army marched they resolved to send Ten small Frigats and Twelve Privateers into the Channel and burn all our Ships which if it had been done then our Communication from England had been in a manner cut off and our Army forced to subsist upon the Countrey or starve at least we had been debarred those Necessaries without which the War could not have been carried on This Design of the French was not unknown to the King and therefore he was the more earnest in going forward It was advised therefore in the Irish Camp That seeing we had a better Army by much in the Field than theirs and might probably beat them if they engaged to march away and so protract the time till they saw what became of the Design about burning our Ships which they were confident would take effect But the late King himself was very much bent upon fighting alledging That if he retreated with his Army and left Dublin and other places to the Enemy the Irish who are soon disheartned and only judge according to appearance would all desert him by degrees and then himself and those that stood by him would be delivered up to the Mercy of the Enemy So that seeing him in this humour they were in hopes that a vigorous fit of Valour had seized him and that he would next day play the Hero in either Conquering Valiantly or Dying Gloriously and then having ordered the disposing of their Army they concluded to stay and watch our motion The Battle at the Boyne On the Irish side were killed my Lord Dungan my The number of the Dead Lord Carlingford Sir Neal O Neal with a great number of other Officers and about Thirteen or Fourteen hundred Soldiers and we lost on our side nigh Four hundred but the loss of Duke Schonberg who was killed soon after the first of our Forces passed the River near the little Village called Old-Bridge was much more considerable than all that fell that day on both sides whom his very Enemies always called a Brave Man and a Great General whose Name will make a considerable Figure in History whilst there are such places as Germany Flanders France England and Ireland Monsieur Callimot a brave and worthy Gentleman died soon after him of his Wounds having followed that great man in most of his Fortunes whose elder Brother the Marquess Ruvigny had Duke Schonberg's Regiment of French Horse bestowed upon him by the King For the further Particulars of this Battel and what hapned during the preceding Campaign and also the most material Circumstances of this I refer the Reader to the First Part of this History already printed Some will pretend to say That his Majesty was a little too soon in the passing his Foot over the River for the Left Wing of the Irish Army seemed resolved to fight Douglass but when they heard how things went at Old-Bridge they retreated immediately towards Duleek and so marched off untouched But there was a very good reason for what his Majesty did in this case for it was about a quarter past Ten when our Foot first entred the River and if the King had deferred it an hour longer then the Tide which generally comes up above Old-Bridge would certainly have prevented our men from passing either there or below so that the Right Wing of our Army had been exposed to the hazard of fighting all theirs and the rest not able to come to their relief till possibly it had been too late and this may serve to answer whatever can be objected in that case The late King at the beginning of this Battel stood by an old Church near the Village called Dunore but assoon as he saw his men give way he made haste to Duleek and from thence to Dublin whither he got that Evening by Nine a Clock and early next morning sent for the Popish Lord-Mayor with some other Officers of the City and gave them a charge not to burn it and then going towards Bray scarce looked behind him afterwards till he got to Waterford and so on Ship-board for France leaving his poor Teagues to fight it out or do what they pleased for him And what was more remarkable finding some of the Frigats at Waterford that were to go upon the Project of Burning our Ships he told them all was lost and that it was past time and so took them along with him which prevented any further Attempts upon our Ships Whilst his present Majesty King William gave his Army other kind of Proofs both of his Courage and Conduct having a Soul far above Fear or any thing that may look mean in so Great a Prince Nor ever had an Army a more entire Affection for their chief Commander than his Majesty 's for him his Resolution being always undaunted and their only Fear being for his Majesty's Person And whatever difference happens hereafter between his Majesty and his Army can only be this That they desire to stand between his Person and all Danger but he always has a mind to put himself between them and it May we long therefore have such a General in a King and he not only Soldiers but Subjects too of all other Professions that honour him to that degree Those of our English Forces that were engaged and had opportunity to shew themselves gave signal demonstrations of their Courage and Bravery the Inniskilliners and French too both Horse and Foot did good service and the Dutch Guards deserve no small Honour for their
were informed of but being betray'd by one Terence Mackgrah who had all along been protected and pretended a particular Friendship to Captain Palliser our Men fell into an Ambuscade ordered for them by Long Anthony Caroll and having freed themselves of that they found themselves beset on all sides so that they were forced to take into an old Castle and after being almost smothered in it with Smoak they surrendered themselves all Prisoners of War Lieutenant Armstrong paid Money to be released Captain Palliser made his escape the beginning of June from Limerick but the poor Men were kept Prisoners till Limerick was surrendred Fifteen Rapparees took the Northern-Male going from Dublin at a place called Moyery-Castle between Dundalk and Newry six of which were some small time afterwards apprehended and hanged for it April 29. A Party of one hundred and fifty Foot A Party of the Irish beat off who designed to intercept the Relief of Ballynagooly commanded by Captain Clayton were sent to Relieve Ballynagooly some distance from the place they espied a Party of the Enemies Horse who did not care to meddle with them because they supposed them well provided with Ammunition and about twelve at Night the Party reliev'd march'd out It was no sooner Day-light than they espied near three hundred of the Enemies Horse and Dragoons and about the same Number of Rapparees who had way-laid them expecting they would bring but little Ammunition from the Garrison but Captain Thornicroft Lieutenant Hayes and the Ensign with the Party resolved to make the best of it and so drew their Men into an old Pound Breast-high which they had scarce done till the Advance-Party of the Enemy came up and proferr'd them Quarter which they refused and fired upon them then the Irish main Body advanced and made several very brisk Attacks which our Men resisted stoutly killing several and wounding others who were carry'd off The Garrison of Cork taking the Alarm sent out a Party to Relieve our Men but the Enemy were march'd off before The Enemy left Captain Coppinger two more Captains and ten Men dead and Major Slingsby was left wounded who confessed their Party carry'd off between fifty and sixty kill'd and hurt and withal that it was a Judgment upon them since they designed to promise fair Quarter but afterwards to destroy our whole Party We lost eight Soldiers and two Carr-Men and had five more wounded This Party of the Irish it 's said was commanded by Brigadier Caroll and Sir James Cotter Near this time one Captain Duffee his Lieutenant Twenty three Rapparees hanged at Belturbet and twenty one more Rapparees were hanged by Brigadier Stuart's orders at Belturbet and another as a Spie at Cavan A Detachment of five hundred Men out of the Militia of the City and County of Dublin joyning with Colonel Piper march'd towards Clanbullock where they expected to meet with a Body of the Irish Army and Rapparees but these having Notice of our Design the Night before they dispersed to their several places of shelter so that few of them were taken or kill'd April the 30th being Her Majesties Birth-Day was observed with great Solemnity and all Hands were then at work in order to the fitting every thing for the ensuing Campaign Cloaths Arms Ammunition and Recruits arrived daily at Dublin from England CHAP. IV. Thirty Rapparees killed Major Wood defeats a Party of the Irish Several Skirmishes between the Irish and the Militia One Captain Johnston surprizes a Party of the Irish Army The Irish take a Prey nigh the Black-Water Some of our Sea-men and Militia joyn and march into the Enemies Quarters Monsieur St. Ruth lands in Ireland to Command their Army Mark Baggot hanged Lieutenant-General Douglas encamps with a Party at Ardagh Our Great Officers take the Field The General goes to Mullingar SEveral Ships arrive at Kinsale from England and the Charles Galley and Assurance Frigat at Waterford with four other Ships under their Convoy all loaden with Cannon Ball Bombs Powder and several other Materials necessary for the Campaign The Governor of Clonmel and Colonel Blunt went Thirty Rapparees kill'd out with a Party of the Army and Militia towards Michelstown but not meeting with any of the Enemy they were returning home when some of the Men stragling behind one Cashean a known Rogue shot at a Corporal from behind a Bush which occasion'd the Party to return and surround the Wood in which they kill'd thirty Towards the beginning of this Month two hundred May 1691. and fifty Foot and a small Party of Horse commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Hudson and Major Wood went from Montmelick and posted themselves amongst the Woods and Bogs towards Portarlington At break of Day the Foot entred and scoured the Thickets whilst the Horse secured the adjoyning Passes by which means they kill'd eighteen and took an Ensign one Moor with a Sergeant and six Men Prisoners they took also one of the Guards and one O Rourk who had formerly stole several of the Dutch Horses at Munster Evan. May the 1st Major Wood having Notice that the Major Wood defeats a Body of the Irish Rapparees were in great Bodies about Brittas in the Queen's County he went out with three hundred of my Lord George Hamilton's and Colonel Lloyd's Foot and fifty of Colonel Byerly's Horse with which he first kill'd nigh seventy Rapparees and leaving part of his Men to secure several Passes he went three Miles further beyond a place called The Tougher of Malahone having with him one hundred and ten Foot and thirty Horse but instead of the Rapparees whom he only expected he espied two Bodies of the Irish Army said to be near eight hundred in Number Those he encountred and after several Charges at different places he put them to the Rout killing one hundred and fifty on the place amongst whom were one Captain Schales and two Lieutenants he took Major John Fitz-Patrick Prisoner who commanded the Party and seventeen Officers more with six Sergeants sixteen Corporals two Drummers and a Chirurgeon and also eighty private Centinels In all this Action we lost but a Corporal and a Trooper two Foot-Soldiers wounded and Lieutenant Robinson This may seem incredible to those that are strangers to this Country but I shall in convenient time give you several Instances both Ancient and Modern which deserve as much to be admired And I can find no other reason for it than that it 's no easie matter to persuade the Irish to fight whilst there is a Bog or a Wood nigh them tho' take them abroad and they make no contemptible Soldiers Nigh this time Captain Johnston of my Lord George Captain Johnston surprizes some of the Irish Army Hamilton's Regiment went with one hundred Men from Tyril's Pass to Ballimona in the King's County and towards break of Day he surprized two Troops of Clifford's Dragoons and a Party of my Lord Merion's Horse with some Foot killing a Lieutenant a
indeed the Militia were as active to suppress them However the White Serjeant with one Mackabe and Cavenagh were very troublesome nigh Kildare Those were three Fellows all under the same Circumstances who running away from the Irish Army they got small Parties of Rogues together and haunted the Bogg of Allen and other places of the Country thereabouts which were particularly well known to them and by that means gave the Inhabitants no small disturbance They were hunted by the Militia nigh this time and three of the White Serjeant's men Shot at one time and two of Mackabe's at another and soon after three more were killed near Murney And our publick Accounts tell us of a hundred and ten Rapparees killed by Captain Baggott's Militia Dragoons since the beginning of this Month in several Parties But Cavenagh and his Men being afraid to trade any more in the Bogg of Allen they remove towards the Mountains of Wicklow where Lieutenant Cooly met with them and killing fifteen took their Captain upon which the rest dispersed or joyned with Mackabe and the White Sergeant May the 20th Mark Baggot formerly spoke of Mark Baggâ— hanged being condemned and reprieved till now was this Day hanged having said nothing to the purpose but that our best places to pass the Shannon were Melick and Banoher May 24. Major Welden of the Militia and Captain Phillips of Colonel Earls's Regiment kill thirteen Rapparees near Montmelick Captain Vnderhill of my Lord Lisburn's Regiment with sixty Foot and ten Dragoons goes to Ballenderry May the 26th where they met with a Party of nigh three hundred of the Irish Army whom they engaged killing Captain Geoghagan and four more Officers and as the Account was fifty private Men. Next Day the same Captain went out with only twenty four Men and kill'd twelve but being set upon by a good Party of the Irish commanded by Colonel Geoghagan he made his retreat to Dunore Castle having only one Man kill'd and another wounded The same Day some Dutch Horse being come to the Camp now at Mullingar a Party of them went abroad kill'd several Rapparees and brought in thirty Prisoners At this time Lieutenant-General Douglas was marched Lieutenant-General Douglas encamps with a Party at Ardagh out of the North with a Body of Men and encamped at a place called Ardagh in the County of Longford twelve Miles from Mullingar And the Duke of Wirtenberg was gone towards Thurles where the Foreigners that quartered last Winter in Munster were ordered to Rendezvouz and to be ready to joyn the rest of the Army nigh Banoher where our Great Men had some thoughts at that time of passing Our Train of Artillery was also upon their march from Dublin to Mullingar being such an one as never had been seen before in that Kingdom Major-General Ruvigny is now at the Camp at Mullingar Our Great Officers take the Field whither went Major-General Mackay on the 28th who came lately from Scotland Major-General Kirk and Sir John Lanier go for England and land at Neston on the thirtieth And much about the same time the Duke of Leinster's Regiment of Horse formerly my Lord Devonshire's landed in England and march'd towards Coventry Major-General Talmash being sent by His Majesty to assist the other Great Officers this Campaign in Ireland landed at Dublin the latter end of May having with him Sir Martin Beckman chief Ingineer and in a Day or two he went towards the Camp About this time the Gentlemen of the County of East-Meath meeting at Trim agreed to scoure the Red Bog nigh that place where the Rapparees haunted and had done much mischief during the last Winter the issue was that thirty five were kill'd and six more fairly hanged Some were also kill'd by the Militia of the County of Waterford and others near Kilmallock by Parties that advanced so far By Packets from England the General had an Account by Letters from Monsieur de Opdam Lieutenant-General of the Horse in Holland who went to Breda about the exchange of Prisoners taken at the Boyne Cork Kinsale c. with the Dutch taken at the Battle of Fleur that the French refused to release the Irish Officers under such Characters as they gave themselves but left them under very ill Circumstances upbraiding them in terms very disrespectful tho' they released the Irish Soldiers and sent them to Thoulon Marseilles c. for the Sea-service This Month now draws towards an end and all People that had any business towards the Camp are resorting thither in order to which the Lords-Justices set out a Proclamation Commanding all Sutlers and others to carry no Ale or other Liquors to the Camp but what was good and well brewed and to be at least six Days old to prevent Fluxes and other Distempers There was also another Proclamation Commanding all Persons that designed to be Sutlers to come to Dublin for Licenses and to renew those each Journey But this being found inconvenient for the Army it was recalled May the 30th Lieutenant-General Ginckel went The General goes to the Camp from Dublin and lying that Night at Tycroghan next Day his Excellency came to the Camp at Mullingar where he found Foot viz. Major-General Kirk's Lord Meath's Lord Lisburn's Lord Cutts's Colonel Foulks's Colonel Brewer's Lord George Hamilton's and Colonel Earls's Horse Sir John Lanier's Brigadier Villers's Colonel Langston's Rydesel's Roucour's and Monopovillon's with Colonel Leveson's Dragoons who before his coming over was made a Brigadier by His Majesty The Soldiers every Day in one Regiment or another began to appear fine in their new Cloths and before the Army took the Field the Lords-Justices with the Advice of the General appointed several Officers that had been or were actually then in the Army to Command the Militia in different places of the Kingdom not as being Absolute but rather Superintendents of the whole As in the County of Cork Major Stroud was imployed in the Counties of Wickloe and Wexford Major Brooks and Captain Phillips as were also Major Tichburn Lieutenant-Colonel Toby Caulfield and others in several other places CHAP. V. June 1691. The Fortifications at Mullingar contracted into a narrower compass A Stratagem of the Irish to get Horses The Irish march towards Athlone Our Army goes towards Ballymore That place besieged Its Situation described Four Batteries planted The General 's Message sent in writing A Parley beat The Fort surrendred Ballymore better fortified The Army march towards Athlone and joyned by the Duke of Wirtenberg We approach the Town Batteries planted The order of the Attack The English Town taken Batteries against the Irish Town The Enemy ruin our Works A design to pass the Shannon The Enemy burn our close Gallery A Councel of War held A Party ordered to pass the River The Town stormed An Express sent to St. Ruth A part of our Army left in the Country and why Major Culliford surprizes some of the Irish Inniskeen fortified JVne the 1st Very
ten Granadiers who are to take to the Left and clear the Rampart of the Enemy 5. After these fifty Work-men whereof Twenty-five are to follow the Lieutenant-Colonel to the Right and Twenty-five to go after the Major to the Left with Hatchets Pick-Axes Shovels and Hammers 6. After them shall follow the two Battalions of Stuart and Prince Frederick whereof Stuart is to go to the Right and Prince Frederick to the Left and the Officers are to take care that the Men do not press on too fast but cover themselves from the Enemies Fire as soon as they can 7. After these two Battalions two hundred Foot to carry Fascines and each of them to carry Tools along with them 8. After these shall follow the Regiments of Brewer to sustain Stuart and Count Nassau to sustain Prince Frederick 9. The Work-men are to open as soon as possible the two Gates of the Town that the Horse and Foot may come in that way 10. The Lieutenant-Colonels or Major or both that shall come first to the Ford on the left of the Bridge is to take care to prevent the Enemies Sallying that way and also that their Men do not fire one upon another 11. All these foregoing Detachments are to be Commanded by Major-General Mackay and the Brigadiers Stuart and Vittinghoff To sustain all these a good Body of Horse were got ready and a Lieutenant of Colonel Cambon's Regiment according to Orders having the Advance Party of thirty Men went under Covert of certain Hills within a hundred and fifty Yards of the Breach then Advanced upon the Plain before his Men and the rest of the Detachments following the Enemy fired upon us very smartly but our Men went on and kept their fire till they were at the Breach which the French Lieutenant first mounted throwing his Granade and firing his Piece ordering his Men to do the like and with great bravery encouraged his Party though he lost his Life in the Action Our Granades so galled the Enemy and the Men pressed so fast upon the Breach that the other quit their Works and run towards the Bridge whither we pursued them and even to the foot of the Draw-Bridge the The English-Town taken Irish in their hurrying over the Bridge crowded forwards so fast that several were crushed to death and not a few forced over the sides of the Bridge who were either kill'd or sore bruised When our Men had possession of the Town they rung the Bell and covered themselves at the Bridge foot We lost not above twenty men and had about double the number Wounded the Enemy had about sixty killed and more wounded Brigadier Stuart was Wounded in this Action and one Captain with three private men of the Enemies taken Lieutenant-Colonel Kirk of Brigadier Viller's Regiment was unfortunately killed by a great Shot from the Town as he lay viewing the Action upon the side of an Hill That Evening our three Guns were drawn off from the Ford and nine Guns from the Battery into the Town June the 21st several Detachments of Horse were Batteries planted against the Irish-Town sent abroad one Commanded by Colonel Woolsley went towards Ballymore to meet the eleven Guns and three Mortars that were upon the Road and also to hasten the Pontoons This Evening a Battery was begun at the foot of the Bridge to the Right for five Twenty-four Pounders and a Floor made for six Mortars The 22d about five in the Morning our Batteries were finished and by six the Cannon and Mortars begun to play very briskly on the North-East side of the Castle where it was weakest and by seven in the Evening a large Breach appear'd in the Wall In the Afternoon a French Lieutenant-Colonel was brought off by our Men who had laid under the Bridge since the Attack he was sore bruised and his Back almost broke but seemed not to be so much afflicted with his own private Misfortune as in being engaged with a People who were like to prove but very indifferent defenders of his Master the French King's Interest in that Kingdom The 23d our Guns and Mortars continued firing all Night with that success that by five in the Morning the whole side of the Castle was beaten down and our Bombs had that effect upon it as to make it very unserviceable to the Enemy who were now forced to make an Hole on the West-side of the Wall to get out and in though in a day or two they had no business there at all About two that The Tin Boats come up Afternoon our Tin Boats Floats and other Materials came to the Camp with Colonel Byerley's and my Lord of Oxford's Regiments and a great many People were set to work to repair those Boats that were spoiled the Year before nigh Limerick for there being more New ones expected from England than really came and what we had being judged too few those Old Boats were brought out of a place where they had been thrown by and so were fitted up to lay next the Shore which occasion'd a Report that they were concealed on purpose by the Store-keeper but the thing was as it is here related The same Afternoon a Prisoner was taken nigh the Bridge who gave an Account that Sixty-four Men were in a Mill upon the Bridge which being fired by our Granades and those within not being able to quench it nor get thence they were all consumed with the Fire except the Prisoner and one more that escaped by leaping into the Water A Drummer comes to the General from the Town with an Answer of his Letter sent the Day before about the exchange of Prisoners The 24th was spent in raising three Batteries one below the Bridge another above it and a third without the Town-Wall by the River-side opposite to a Bastion the Enemy had made on the other side the River That Evening one of my Lord Lisburn's Men going under the Bridge to see for Plunder found a pair of Colours amongst the dead Men and tho' the Enemy fired a great many Shot at him yet he brought them off flying and presented them to the General who rewarded the Soldier with five Guinnea's We begin now to contrive Methods of passing the River and a Lieutenant of Horse was commanded with a Party to a Ford towards Lanesborough where the General was informed there might be an easie and undiscovered Passage for most of our Army whilst our Cannon amused the Enemy at the Town This Party went and found the Pass according to Information but tho' he was positively ordered to return as soon as he had passed the River yet such are the powerful Charms of Black Cattle to some sorts of People that the Lieutenant espying a Prey some distance from him on the other side must needs be scampering after them by which means our Design was discovered and the Enemy immediately provided against it by throwing up strong Works on the other side The Lieutenant I beard was afterwards try'd and
killed with a great Shot from one of our Batteries as he rid down the Hill of Monsiuer St. Ruth killed Killkomodon the place where the main stress of the Battle was fought being just under the Enemies Camp When Monsieur St. Ruth fell one of his Retinue threw a Cloak upon his Corps and soon after removed him beyond the Hill his Guard going off at the same time which the Irish Horse perceiving a great many of them drew off also I never could learn what became of his Corps some say that he was left stript amongst the other dead when our men pursued beyond the Hill and others that he was thrown into a Bogg However tho the man had an ill Character in being one of the greatest Persecutors of the Protestants in France yet we must allow him to be very brave in his Person and indeed considerable in his Conduct since he brought the Irish to fight a better Battle than ever their Nation could boast of before And this was the reason as the Irish report that the General being killed tho it was not presently known yet their Army was soon in Confusion for want of Orders and so the Horse forced to draw off But the truth of it was the Irish before they began to shrink had behaved themselves beyond all expectation and had fought longer than ordinary yet when they saw our Horse come over so dangerous a Pass and our Foot in the Centre Rally and resolve to dye every man rather than be beat back again the Irish then thought they must be beat if the other would not so that notwithstanding all their advantages of Hedges and Ground Sun and Wind they were forced to quit one advantagious Post and after that another till being beat from Ditch to Ditch they were driven up to the Top of the Hill of Killkomodon where The Irish Army Routed their Camp had laid which being levelled and they exposed to our Shot more openly they began now to run down right the Foot towards a great Bogg behind them on their Left and the Horse on the High-way towards Loughreagh The Irish upon their advantage in the Centre of the Battle had taken some Prisoners as has been said but not being able to carry them off they killed Col. Herbert and one or two more which several have lookt upon as a piece of cruelty and yet it 's no more than what has been often practised in such Cases and that to a greater degree for at the Battle of Agincourt Fought between Hen. 5th of England and Charles the 6th of France upon the 24th of Octob. 1414. the number of the Prisoners taken by the English being very great and King Henry after the Battle perceiving fresh Troops of the King of Sicill's to appear in the Field and these strong enough without any new rallyed Forces to Encounter his wearied Soldiers that he might not therefore have both Prisoners to Guard and an Enemy to fight at once he commanded every man to kill his Prisoner contrary to his Generous Nature which was immediately done some principal men excepted and then upon his Message to the Enemy either to Fight or immedately to quit the Field they chose the latter And some say that My Lord Galway had hard measure from some of our Foreign Toopers who kill'd him after he had surrendered himself a Prisoner not to themselves but to some others The place where this Battle was fought will make a noise in History for the future tho there 's nothing worth taking notice of near it For that which they call the Castle of Aghrim is only an old ruinous Building with some Walls and Ditches about it and never has been a place of any Strength only as it 's seated upon a Pass There are about half a score little Cabbins on the other side a small Brook with the Ruins of a little Church and a Priory Dedicated to St. Catherine and founded by the Butlers the whole being at this day the Estate of the D. of Ormond After things went clear on our side this old Castle Aghrim Castle taken was taken and a great many put the Sword in it Col. Burk the Commander his Major Eleven Officers more and Forty Soldiers were made Prisoners In this Battle we took from the Enemy nine pieces of Brass Cannon which they had planted at several places to their greatest advantage all their Ammunition Tents and Baggage with most of their small Arms which they threw away to run the faster we took also Eleven Standards and thirty two pair of Colours The General rewarding every one that brought any in the next day and sent them afterwards by my Lord O Bryan as a present to Her Majesty We killed seven Thousand of the Irish upon The number of the Dead the Spot as was generally believed and there could not be many fewer for looking amongst the Dead three days after when all our own and some of theirs were buried I reckoned in some small Inclosures 150 in others 120 c. lying most of them by the Ditches where they were Shot and the rest from the top of the Hill where their Camp had been looked like a great Flock of Sheep shattered up and down the Countrey for almost four Miles round And the Irish themselves tho they will not allow so many to be killed yet they own that they lost more which they could never have any account of except they stole home privately or else turned Rapparees We took also above four hundred and fifty Prisoners of the chief of whom and those killed there was shortly after a List in Print which time has informed me of some mistakes in tho possibly there may be some as yet remaining The General and Field Officers taken Prisoners 26. viz. Lord Duleek Lord Slane Lord Buffin Sir Nicholas Brown alias Lord Killmare Major General Dorrington Major Gen. John Hambleton Brigadeer Tuite Col. Walter Bourk Col. Gordon O Neal. Col. Butler of Kilkash Col. O Connel Col. Edmund Madden Lieut. Col. John Chappel Lieut. Col. John Butler Lieut. Col. Baggot Lieut. Col. John Border Lieut. Col Mack Genuis Lieut. Col. Rossiter Lieut. Col. Mack Guire Major Patrick Lawless Major Kelly Major Grace Major William Bourk Major Edmund Butler Major Edmund Broghill Major John Hewson with 30 Captains 25 Lieutenants 23 Ensig 5 Cor. 4 Quarter-masters and an Adjutant KILLED Monsieur St. Ruth General of the Irish Army Lord Killmallock Lord Galway Brigadeer Connel Brigad W. Mansfield Barker Brigad Hen. Mack J. O Neal. Col. Charles More his Lieut. Col. and Major Col. David Bourk Col. Vlick Bourk Col. Cohanaught Macguire Col. James Talbot Col. Arthur Col. Mahoony Lieut. Col. Morgan Major Purcel Major O Donnell Sir John Everard with several others not yet known besides at least five hundred Captains and Subaltern Officers We lost Seventy Three Officers who were killed in this Action with an Hundred and Eleven Wounded Six Hundred Soldiers were Killed and Nine Hundred and
detached a Party towards a Bridge about half a mile from the Place thinking to maintain that Pass till his Men might march safely off towards Limerick but at his coming to the Bridge perceiving our Men marching to the Right and Left to incompass him after some few shots he retreated to Nenagh setting the small part of the Town that was left on fire which was soon Nenagh deserted by the Irish quenched by some English Prisoners that had been kept there but now released when the Irish made towards Limerick when our Men got to Nenagh Major VVood was ordered with a Party to pursue the Irish which he did almost to Cariganlis taking most of their Baggage and about four hundred large Cattle which the Irish were in too great haste to carry off The Third our Army marched to Bi r but the passage over the Bridge at Banoher being exceeding troublesom it was late before the Guns and Carriages could be got up and therefore we rested on the Fourth And now we found that notwithstanding all the supplies of Horses that we had out of England yet there still wanted a great many for the use of the heavy Cannon and therefore it was proposed to bring them down from Athlone to Limerick by Water but that being found impracticable the General sent to Dublin where most of the Nobility and Gentry furnished him with their Coach Horses but all those not being sufficient a great many more were pressed by an Order from the Government The Fifth we marched to Burasicane where there had been a pretty English Plantation but burnt down the former Winter by the Garrison of Bi r because they did not desire to have the Rapparees in so near a Neighbourhood The Sixth we marched to Ninagh where we stayed four dayes for want of Bread and other Necessaries The Army march thither it being no small difficulty to furnish an Army with constant Supplies in a desolate Country when they are still upon their march and where every thing must he carried upon the Axletree Friday the Seventh The Lord Justice Coningesby came to the Camp where he staid nigh a Fortnight And Saturday the Eighth a Party of Horse and Dragoons with several Pioneers went towards the Silver Mines to mend the Roads for our heavy Carriages Another Party at the same time marching towards Killalow Pass who brought in seven or eight Prisoners A Brigadier of the Guards and two more Horsemen desert the Enemy and inform us that they were encamped nigh Cariganlis and making what preparations they could to withstand us forcing all the Irish into Arms that were within their Jurisdiction and arming their Foot anew out of the Stores at Limerick and that they talked of giving us Battle again before we should approach the Town The same day one Mr. Richards came A Treaty with Balderock O Donel. from Balderock O Donel to our Camp where he stayed two or three dayes and then went towards Dublin in order to wait upon his Majesty who was then in Flanders His business was to assure the General of Balderooks affections to their Majesties Service and that if he might have the Men he brought over with him admitted into pay in order to serve his Majesty in Flanders or elsewhere himself made Earl of Tyrconnel to which he pretended a Title from his Ancestors and have two thousand pounds given him for his expences he would then come over to us and bring a considerable Body of the Irish along with him The General therefore considering that it was no ill policy to get the Irish to draw bloud one of another consented to some of O Donnels proposals and the business was shortly after compleated tho' Balderock complained heavily that the thing should be made publick to the great hinderance August 169â— of the Numbers of Men he designed to bring off and almost to the hazard of his own life for this Treaty was first in the Dublin Intelligence and then in the London Gazette dated August the 13th which was before the thing was really compleated but those that have seen Balderock will believe that it was partly his own fault There was also an Officer sent at the same time by Sir Teague O Regan from Sligo about the surrender of that place the Articles being in a manner agreed to but this business was afterwards delayed and the Government obliged to be at the expence and trouble of sending a Body of men from Dublin and other parts of the Kingdom to reduce it by force and it s confidently averred that this hapned meerly by the covetousness of one of our Colonels who had the Secreet of this Affair committed to his management August the 9th Lieutenant Colonel Oxborough of Colonel Lutterill's Horse his Lieutenant and their Attendance desert and come to our camp and a Foot Officer with eleven Musquiteers and their Arms came in also A Man and a Woman were this day hanged in the Camp the Man for robbing Tents and the Woman for being accessary to the Murther of one of our Souldiers nigh Gallway The time limited in the Lords Justices Proclamation dated July the 7th being now expired and the General willing still to use all fair means possible to bring in the Irish without the effusion of more Blood he therefore orders the following Declaration to be prepared By Lieutenant General Ginckell Commander in Chief of Their Majesties Forces August 1691. THE Enemies of Their Majesties Government A Declaration from the General to the Irish and the Disturbers of the Quiet of this Kingdom having been very industrious to conceal the Grace and Favour which has been offered to such as should return to their Duty To take away all manner of excuse for the future from those that still continue in Arms I have thought fit to publish that tho' the Term prescribed by the Lords Justices in their Proclamation of the seventh of July is expired so that no man can lay claim to the Condiscentions therein made yet if within ten days from the date hereof any Person or Persons shall do the Services therein mentioned I promise with the Consent of the Lords Justices who are thereunto impowered by Their Majesties that they shall have a full and free Pardon of all Treasons Crimes and Offences by them committed against Their Majesties Government and be restored to their Estates forfeited by the said Treasons c. And to shew their Majesties Bounty and Confidence in them that leave the Enemy and have a mind to testifie their Zeal and Affection to Their Majesties Service I do hereby engage that all such Officers and Souldiers as come off from the Irish with a Body of Men or surrender any Town or strong Castle into our Hands within the abovesaid ten days shall have if they desire it the same or better Post or Employment in the Army then they left and a Reward suitable to the Merit of the Service they perform as those have already had
prevented a great many Followers of the Army from committing several Disorders that of themselves they were very much inclined to August 22. the Weather begun to amend and Francis Burton Esq was sent by the General to the Squadron of Ships then in the River with Orders for them to sail nearer the Town The 23 d two hundred and fifty fresh Draught-Horses were sent out to hasten up the Train and each Regiment was ordered to make ready 2000 Fascines to begin the Work at Limerick One Dowdall a Counsellor and Sheldon a Lieutenant in the Irish Foot-Guards desert and two Troopers and a Sutler were condemned at a Court Martial the two Troopers for robbing and the Sutler for buying Goods of them contrary to the General 's strict Orders That Evening also our Guns came within sight of the Camp and the Weather now seeming to promise us our wonted Success the General resolved to move forwards but since the Irish Army were all in and about the Town and 't was probable they might design us some Trouble in our Approach therefore it was ordered that at break of Day next Morning the Army should be ready to march but without beat of Drum six hundred Horse three hundred Dragoons and one thousand Firelocks and two hundred Granadeers out of each Line for an Advance-Party these were to march in two Lines at the Head of either Wing with four Field-pieces each and twenty five Pioneers a piece to cut down any Rubs that might be in their way the whole Body of Horse were to march after the detached Foot with each Man three Fascines before him which they were to leave where ordered so that the Enemy might see we were resolved to spare no Pains rather than go without the Town a second time Then all the Foot were to march and after them the Train and no Baggage whatever to march near the detached Party who were to march directly to the Quakers House and there to make a Halt till the Foot came up Then the Right Line to fall into the Road on the right Hand and the Left Line on the other Road from the Quakers House and all to draw up afterwards in order of Battel so to march easily towards the Town making several Halts to observe the Enemies Motion These Orders I have set down to shew the Reader the Method of approaching Towns when an Army expects Opposition from an Enemy though the Irish did not give us much disturbance in this But before we leave Cariganless I know not whether it may be worth the Reader 's while to be informed of a Tradition that the People in the Neighbourhood have concerning 2 old Castles that stand nigh half a Mile from this place and not above a stone's cast one from another they say that in former times two Brehons or Irish Judges lived in those two Castles who hapned at last to have some Disputes about their Properties and their Wives though they were Sisters used to stand upon the Battlements of their own Houses and scold at one another for several hours together which at length one of them being weary of she found out a Trick only to appear and begin the Fray then she would place an Image that she had dress'd up in her own Clothes in such a posture as her Sister could not discern it from her self at that distance who not sensible of the Cheat she used to scold on and at last fretted her self to death because she could not be answered in her own Language But I 'm afraid the Women in this Country will scarce pardon this Story And therefore according to the former Orders Friday the 25th the Army marched towards Limerick Our Army approaches the City of Limerick leaving two Regiments of Foot and one hundred Horse till the Cannon come up next day Our Advance-Party of Horse and Dragoons met with no great Opposition only some small firings between them and the Irish Out-Guards with no great damage to either side We made our Approaches much after the same manner we did the Year before tho we drew more to the Left and nearer the Shannon but fix'd our Camp further from the Town When greatest part of our Army was got up our Detached Body of Foot under the Command of Lieut. Gen. Mackay was ordered to Attack Ireton's Fort and the old Church-Fort where we expected the Enemy had lodged a Party our Men made a Line cross the Fields and were sustained by several entire Regiments of Foot and a Body of Horse We advanced towards both the Forts at one time and found the upper one deserted and when we came almost within Musquet-shot of Ireton's Fort the Irish quitted that also and retired towards a little stone Fort nigh the Outworks of the Town Our Men seeing them draw off rushed forwards and fired but to no great purpose for the Enemy after some faint Returns presently lodged themselves in the other Fort And towards the Evening Count Nassau with a Party attacked Cromwel's Fort standing to the left of the other which the Irish had made pretty defensible and wherein they had then about 500 Men lodged Our Granadeers were in the Front who were saluted with a Volley of Shot from the Enemy but this being a thing they were now pretty well used to they ran forwards and threw in their Granades and then being followed by the whole Party the Irish in less than half an Hour left the Fort to our Discretion We had only tow or three killed and the Enemy about ten though some made them a great many more Oliver Cromwel in the former Wars of Ireland never went further than Clonmel for there receiving Orders from the Parliament to go for England he entrusted the Management of the Army to Ireton who at the besieging of Limerick built several Forts two of the most remarkable bearing the Names of Ireton's and Cromwel's were now ordered to be called Mackay's and Nassau's Forts because gained under those Commanders and by those Names we shall call them for the future when there is occasion to mention them When we came up towards the Town we found a Man newly hanged upon the Gallows who the Irish said was an Officer of theirs and put there for endeavouring to desert to our Army The General having some Intimation of a Salley designed from the Town that Night and judging it not improbable since they had so good a Body of Horse behind it he commanded therefore that our Horse should not unsaddle but each Troper to lie all Night by his Horse's Head to be ready upon the first Alarm Col. Donep who commanded our advance Party of Horse was killed that Evening by a random Shot being a Gentleman who had a very good Character both among the Danes and English The 26th all our Train came up as also a great many Carriages with Bombs Ball Shovels and Pickaxes and 800 Barrels of Powder This Night we broke Ground and made our Approaches with no great
loss casting up some Works nigh the Shannon towards the West behind which the Danes encamped and maintained that part of the Work during the Siege We improved also these Forts deserted by the Irish and drew a new Line from the old Church Fort to Mackay's The 27th in the Morning the Prince of Hess with his The Prince of Hess sent to Castle-Connel own Regiment Col. Tiffin's and Col. St. John's five pieces of Cannon and about 700 Horse and Dragoons marched to Castle-Connel which we had not blown up effectually last Year and wherein the Irish had now a Garison of 250 Men. They refused the Prince's Proffers to them at first but after two Days Siege were content to be all made Prisoners of War The same Day Maj. Gen. Scravemore went with another Party and four Guns to Carick-a-Gunnel a Castle upon the River three miles below the Town wherein was a Garison of 150 Men who also submitted to be Prisoners of War as did one or two Castles more the leaving these Detachments in such places being very inaccountable since they had a mind to defend them no better This seems rather want of Instructions what to do than Courage to perform it for to give the Irish their due they can defend stone Walls very handsomly We read that Sir George Carew President of Munster in Queen Elizabeth's Time took the Castle of Dunboy in the West of Ireland by Assault where the Irish made the most resolute Defence of any of the like nature before or since for the Garison being 130 choice Men were all either killed or hanged for holding out and some of them defended the very Vaults during a whole Night though all the rest of the Castle was taken and one Mack Geoghagan being desperately wounded when he saw the English enter the Vault he endeavoured to cast a lighted Candle into a Barrel of Powder to blow himself and them up together but was prevented in his Design and so died The Irish planted two Field-pieces on the opposite side the River by which they obliged two Regiments of our Dragoons that lay close to the Shannon to remove but as soon as we had placed some Guns to flank their small Battery they drew off Orders were given to fit up 600 Bombs and 1000 Hand-Granades and in the Afternoon eighteen of our Ships came up the River within a mile of the Town and fired some Shots into the Irish Our Ships come nigh the Town Horse-Camp as they sailed along they being encamped at that time nigh the River at a place called Craightulagh This put several of the Irish much out of Countenance for till then they were made believe that either we had no Ships in the River or else those we had would quickly be swallowed up by the French Fleet which they hourly expected The 28th an Order was sent to Kinsale for the rest of the Provision-Ships then in that Harbour to sail to the Shannon And the General went on board some of those Ships that came up the Day before giving Command to bring on shoar several Pieces of new Cannon and Mortars which was performed on the 29th And all the Prisoners that had been taken in several Castles being about 400 in number were sent towards Clonmel with a Party of Horse and Dragoons to guard them This Evening our Line of Circumvallation was finished and our other Works by hard labour much improved the Enemy playing hot upon us from the King's Castle and three more Batteries Our Business was now to raise a Battery for ten Guns and seven Mortars which was performed before next Morning and August the 30th our Guns and Mortars were drawn down to it the first began immediately to play on Thoumond-Bridg and the Houses on that side the Town at Night also our Bombs began to fly with pretty good Success 101 being thrown before next Morning The Enemy now desert Killmallock a Town upon the The Enemy desert Killmallock Road between Cork and Limerick whither the Irish flocked in great Numbers in former times to welcome the Earl of Desmond out of England who was sent over upon some Reasons of State by Queen Elizabeth their first Saluations were to throw Wheat and Salt upon him in token of Peace and Plenty But next day when they saw him go to Church they fell to murmur and spit at him and never would own him more And so hateful was not only our Religion but even the Civil Habits and Customs of the English to some of them that in the same Queen's Reign it was with much difficulty that some of the Irish Nobility could be perswaded to put on their Robes when they were to appear in the House of Lords in time of Parliament And I have heard it affirmed by those that knew it that even in this last War and if I am not much mistaken in the Parliament that was held at Dublin by the late King too it was proposed by some to destroy all fine Houses and every thing else that look'd like Improvement and so return to the former barbarous way of living of their Ancestors that it might not be worth the while for England or any other Nation to seek a new Conquest over them but these Men did not consider that England has been at too much Expence and is now too well acquainted with Ireland ever to be without it August 31. One Capt. Morice a Lieutenant and eleven Dragoons belonging to Sir Donald O-Neal's Regiment deserted from beyond the River and tell us that the Enemy were mightily apprehensive of our getting over but that their Horse and Dragoons would endeavour to watch our Motion and do all they could to prevent us Our Batteries play very hard all this Day and at Night four out of each Troop of Horse and Dragoons throughout the Army were ordered to work at a new Battery to the Right of the former and somewhat nearer the Town they wrought very stoutly and finished their Battery before next Morning This was a thing very unusual for Horsemen especially to work in Trenches but there was in a manner a Necessity for it for our Foot were upon Duty by whole Regiments every second Night beside Detachments and Workmen upon sundry Occasions every Day And therefore Adjutant General Withers was commanded to order the Regiments that marched to the Trenches not to mount with Colours that the Enemy might not be sensible how fast our Duty came upon us The same Day a Party of four hundred Horse was Brigadeer Leveson sent into Kerry sent abroad to scour the Country And Brigadeer Leveson with seven hundred Horse and Dragoons went into the County of Kerry to reduce the Irish in those Parts Which some of the Inhabitants in other Places will needs call the most natural Irish in the Kingdom and yet they say every Cow-boy amongst them can speak Latin on purpose to save them from the Gallows when they come afterwards to be tried for Theft For though
of the Irish Officers came again and dining with the Duke of Wirtemberg they went all afterwards to the General 's Tent where the following Articles Articles signed were interchangeably signed The former about the Surrender of the Town signed by the Generals and the latter about the Privileges granted to the Irish signed by the General and Lords Justices jointly being afterwards ratified by their Majesties Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England in Form following The Civil Articles of Limerick GVlielmus Maria Dei gratia Angliae Scotiae Franciae Hiberniae Rex Regina Fidei Defensores c. Omnibus ad quos praesentes literae nostrae pervenirint salutem Inspeximus Irritulament quorund literarum patenttum de Confirmatione geren dat apud Westmonasterium vicessimo quarto die Februarii ultimi praeteriti in Cancellar nostr Irrotulat ac ibidem de Record remanen in haec verba William and Mary by the Grace of God c. To all to whom these Presents shall come greeting Whereas certain Articles bearing Date the third Day of October last past made and agreed upon between our Justices of our Kingdom of Ireland and our General of our Forces there on the one Part and several Officers there commanding within the City of Limerick in our said Kingdom on the other Part Whereby our said Justices and General did undertake that we should ratify those Articles within the space of eight Months or sooner and use their utmost Indeavours that the same should be ratified and confirmed in Parliament The Tenor of which said Articles is as follows viz. Articles agreed upon between Lieutenant General Ginckell Commander in Chief of the English Army on one Side and the Lieut. Generals D'usson and De Tesse Commanders in Chief of the Irish Army on the other Side and the General Officers hereunto subscribing 1. THAT all Persons without any Exception of what Quality or Condition soever that are willing to leave the Kingdom of Ireland shall have free Liberty to go to any Country beyond the Seas England and Scotland excepted where they think fit with their Families Houshold-stuff Plate and Jewels 2. That all General Officers Colonels and generally all other Officers of Horse Dragoons and Foot-Guards Troopers Dragoons Souldiers of all kinds that are in any Garison Place or Port now in the Hands of the Irish or encamp'd in the Counties of Cork Clare and Kerry as also those called Rapparees or Volunteers that are willing to go beyond the Seas as aforesaid shall have free leave to embarque themselves where-ever the Ships are that are appointed to transport them and to come in whole Bodies as they are now composed or in Parties Companies or otherwise without having any Impediment directly or indirectly 3. That all Persons above-mentioned which are willing to leave Ireland and go into France shall have leave to declare at the Times and Places hereafter mentioned viz. the Troops in Limerick on Tuesday next at Limerick the Horse at their Camp on Wednesday and the other Forces that are dispersed in the Counties of Clare Kerry and Cork on the 8th Instant and on none other before Monsieur Tameron the French Intendant and Colonel Withers and after such Declaration is made the Troops that will go to France must remain under the Command and Discipline of their Officers that are to conduct them thither and Deserters on each Side shall be given up and punished accordingly 4. That all English and Scotch Officers that serve now in Ireland shall be included in this Capitulation as well for the security of their Estates and Goods in England Scotland and Ireland if they are willing to remain here as for passing freely into France or any other Country to serve 5. That all the Generals French Officers the Intendant the Engeneers the Commissaries of War and of the Artillery the Treasurer and other French Officers Strangers and all others whatsoever that are in Lymerick Sligo Ross Clare or in the Army or that do Trade or Commerce or are otherways imployed in any kind of Station or Condition shall have free leave to pass into France or any other Country and shall have leave to Ship themselves with all their Horses Equipage Plate Papers and all their Effects whatever and that General Ginckel will order Pasports for them Convoys and Carriages by Land and by Water to carry them safe from Lymerick to the Ships where they shall be Embarqued without paying any thing for the said Carriages or to those that are imployed therein with their Horses Carts Boats and Shallops 6. That if any of the aforesaid Equipages Merchandize Horses Money Plate or other Moveables or Houshold Stuff belonging to the said Irish Troops or to the French Officers or other particular Persons whatsoever be Robbed destroyed or taken away by the Troops of the said General the said General will order it to be restored or payment made according to the Value that is given in upon Oath by the Persons so robbed or plundred and the said Irish Troops to be Transported as abovesaid and all Persons belonging to them are to observe good Orders in their March and Quarters and shall restore whatever they shall take from the Country or make restitution for the same 7. That to Facilitate the Transporting the said Troops the General will Furnish fifty Ships each Ship Burthen two hundred Tuns for which the Persons to be Transported shall not be obliged to pay and twenty more if there shall be occasion without their paying for them and if any of the said Ships shall be lesser Burthen he will furnish more in Number to countervail and also give two Men of War to Embarque the Principal Officers and serve for a Convoy to the Vessels of Burthen 8. That a Commissary shall be sent forthwith to Cork to Visit the Transport Ships and see what Condition they are in for Sailing and that assoon as they are ready the Troops to be Transported shall March with all convenient Speed the nearest way in order to Embarque there and if there shall be any more Men to be Transported than can be carryed off in the said fifty Ships the rest shall quit the English Town of Lymerick and March to such Quarters as shall be appointed for them Convenient for their Transportation where they shall remain till the other twenty Ships are ready which they are to be in a Month and may Embarque on any French Ships that may come in the mean while 9. That the said Ships shall be furnished with Forage for Horse and all necessary Provisions to subsist the Officers Troopers Dragoons and Souldiers and all other Persons that are shipt to be Transported into France which Provision shall be paid for assoon as all are disembarqued at Brest or Nantz upon the Coast of Brettany or any other part of France they can make 10. And to secure the return of the said Ships the danger of the Seas excepted and the payment for the said Provisions
Muskery O Connor Roe Sir Francis Talbot Sir William Dungan and several others submitted upon those Conditions That they should abide a Trial for the Murders committed in the beginning of the Rebellion and those that only assisted in the War were to forfeit two Thirds of their Estates and to be banished And what I would further observe is this That when the General Assembly of the Popish Clergy and others at Loughreagh desired the then Marquess of Ormend's leave to treat with the Enemy for the Nation in general at the Surrender of Galway Cromwel's Army positively refused it being resolved not to admit of any Treaty for the whole but those that would capitulate should do it only for themselves or the Towns and Places they respectively belonged to By which means tho' the Town of Galway was the last considerable one that was surrendered being on the 12th of May 1652. yet it was the 26th of September 1653. before it was declared That the Rebels were subdued and the Rebellion appeased and ended And though His Majesties Proclamation about the ending of this present War was nigh six Months after the Surrender of Lymerick yet this was deferred only with respect to the poverty of the Country in forgiving the Kingdom half a years Quit-Rents and had not the least relation to any appearance of a further Disturbance as appears by the Proclamation it self Now if Lymerick had been no stronger Town when we last besieged it than it was some time after the first Conquest of Ireland when Earl Reymond Son-in-Law to Strongbow and General of the Army with David Walsh and others swam into the King's Island who taking the City without any sort of Cannon and plundering it they left a Garrison of their own men there or indeed if it had been in no better condition than in the former Wars when there appeared nothing like Works without the Walls themselves or if the Irish People were no better skill'd in Arms now than they have been heretofore even in the late times being most of them rather a confused Rabble than any thing that deserved the Name of an Army then it had been a Reflection upon an Army so well disciplin'd and in so good order as ours was not to have humbled them without any Terms But besides the natural strength of its Situation Lymerick is now improved by Art to that degree that it is very much stronger than it was when we laid Siege to it the former year the Enemy with extraordinary diligence and industry having since that cast up very strong new Works round the Irish Town with great Improvements in the King's Island and elsewhere And the Irish had not only the Advantages of being train'd up to the use of Arms by my Lord Tyrconnel and serving in an Army for some years past but several of them have been abroad in foreign Service besides the being for the most part in Action during the three Campagnes in Ireland and Custom it self is no doubt of it one Point of Courage But those who ever read the Story of Noteburg will not wonder at this Capitulation this they say is a Town built in an Island at the Entrance of the Lake Lagoda made by the Muscovites and encompassed with a strong Wâ—ll against the Attempts of the Suedes it standing upon their Frontiers This the Suedes took under the Command of James De la Garde but not till the Extremities of the Siege and a contageous Disease had consumed the whole Garrison to two Men who yet made a very advantageous Capitulation vid. Ambassadors of Hollands Travels into Muscovy and Russia And as to the Irish it must needs be acknowledged that they never had formerly so fair a Pretext as now nor had they ever been so unanimous since in the late Wars they had at least three different Armies on Foot at the same time they had now also the Assistance and Encouragement of France which is without question at present one of the most powerful Interests in the World and if they had held out till the following Winter they must needs have much fatigued our Army by continual Alarms and Watchings besides other Difficulties that would have attended us in a Blockade in which there 's no subsisting without continual Supplies of Money Ammunition and Victuals and especially near such a place as Limerick then was the Countrey thereabouts being ruined and exhausted in continuing the Seat of War for two Campaigns so that abstracting from the deepness of the Soil and the sharpness of the Winter as it afterwards proved unless we had been full as carefully supplied with Necessaries as ever we had been formerly the whole Design had been still in hazard besides the loss of Time and Treasure And though we had passed the River yet we were still as far from entring the Town as ever What might have been done some time before I am no competent Judge of but since the Irish had it still in their Power to give us the Town or keep it to themselves I see no Reason why they ought not to make a Bargain for it and expect the performance of their Contract which Their Majesties have been graciously pleased to ratifie under the Great Seal of England It may rationally be here demanded why the Irish would treat with us for the Town since they had full as many Foot within as we had in our Army without and and notwithstanding all the Stories told us by Deserters about the scarcity of Provisions they had a quantity of the finest French Bisket I ever tasted sufficient for the whole Garrison for two Months some of which I saw and Commissary-General Aspole assured my self and some other Friends that they had the rest Upon which I asked him the reason of giving us the Town And his Reply was That if they had been driven by necessity to yield they must then have accepted what Terms we had pleased to give them but since they were not they had stood upon such as were for the Advantage of their whole Party But the Truth of it is the Irish were either weary of the War or jealous of one another or it may be both it being no ill Policy on our side to foment their differences and make their private Quarrels advance our Publick Service And as for what happen'd at this Juncture it 's certain that the French Lieutenant-Generals were jealous of the Irish betraying or at least forsaking them And 't is without question they used their Interest in persuading the Irish to hold out till Relief came for they knew considering all things it had been very improper for us to endeavour the forcing the Town by a Breach But I imagine Monsieur D'Vssone's Case now was much the same as that of Don John de Aquila at Kinsale in the Year 1601. who finding the Town was like to be lost and that instead of conquering a Kingdom his Men and himself were like to become a Prey to the Enemy He then
desires a parley with the Lord-Deputy wherein he mentions that having found his Lordship though a sharp and powerful Antagonist yet an honourable and generous Enemy and the Irish not only weak and barbarous but as he feared perfidious Friends he therefore desired to depart upon such Terms befitting such Men of War as are not by necessity enforced to receive Conditions but willingly induced for just Respects to disengage themselves and to relinquish a People by whom their King and Master had been so notoriously abused if not betray'd Pacata Hib. p. 241. And its probable that upon some such Motives as those Monsieur D'Vssone consented to the Irish Capitulations though we heard afterwards that the French King was so far from thanking him for it that after some publick Indignities he sent him to the Bastile I humbly therefore am of Opinion that the Lords-Justices and the General did nothing in this Affair without Command or at least Instructions from Their Majesties and that it was neither inconsistent with the Rules of Prudence or Policy to grant the Irish what Terms they did which for the future may help to moderate the Passions of some sort of People Nor were the Lords-Justices Proclamations for the bringing in of the Rapparees and others not included in the Articles less seasonable since by this means the Kingdom became so calm and quiet all on a sudden that within one Fortnight after our Army was removed from Limerick a Man might have travelled alone through that whole Kingdom and that with as great Safety as through any part of England but if this had been delayed and the reducing those Scamperers attempted altogether by force pray let it be remembred how securely the Banditto's of Italy have November 1691. lived between the Power of the King of Spain and that of the Pope and how many Men in all Countries have prospered in doing mischief but especially in Ireland where there are so many Difficulties to march an Army and the Irish so well acquainted with the Boggs and other Fastnesses that it is impossible to beat them sooner out of one place than they 'll out-strip you to another being by constant practice extremely well skilled in making use of those Advantages but the aforesaid Articles and Proclamations have remedied all those Inconveniences and that Kingdom never enjoyed a more profound Peace than at present since every Insurrection when it is subdued makes an Addition to the Power of the Government But I 'm afraid a good Cause may suffer by ill management and therefore as to my business Towards the latter end of October we had an Account of his Majesty's safe Arrival in England from Flanders and that the English Parliament met on the 22 d. according to their Prorogation November the first all the Irish march out of the English Town of Limerick and our Men take possession of it The last of the Irish quit the English Town A great many of the Irish were shipp'd in the River some on Board the French Fleet and others in some of our Transport-Ships The number shipp'd in the River and that march'd towards Cork this last time is said to be 5650. But those that march'd by Land several of them deserted upon the Road notwithstanding the care of the Irish Officers to secure them for they begun to be sensible of the kind Treatment of those that were already returned home and were sorry to quit a Country they saw already so peaceable The Rose of Chester going down the Shannon with 120 of them drowned 120 Irish on Board was overset amongst the Rocks and all the Irish drowned tho' the Seamen were most of them saved The French Lieutenant-General took this very ill as if done on purpose by the Master and would needs have him tried for his Life for it but it appearing to be a perfect Accident he was satisfied And now the Irish Horse as many as were left were Their Horse shipt at Cork shipp'd off at Cork and with them Daniel Butts Esq Deputy Commissary-General of the Danish Forces to receive their Bills of Exchange and to see the Transport-Ships returned November the 3 d. the General came from Kilkenny The General goes to Dublin to Dublin being met and complemented on the Road by the Nobility Judges and Gentry Col. Byerley's Horse and the Prince of Hesse's Foot with the City-Militia both Horse and Foot being in Arms to receive him The Lord Mayor Aldermen Sheriffs and Citizens being all in their Formalities the Canons discharged several times and all the Demonstrations of Joy that could be made upon such an extraordinary Occasion Next Morning His Excellency was waited upon by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen and the other Citizens the Recorder Tho. Coote Esq in the Name of the City making a Speech to this effect That the City throughly sensible of the Dangers that lately The Recorder's Speech to him threatned them from an implacable Enemy that aimed at nothing less than the total Extirpation of the Protestant Religion and English Interest in this Kingdom to the tyrannical and slavish Government of the French King And finding themselves by your Excellencies Courage and Conduct not only delivered from those their just Fears but placed in view of a lasting Peace and Security And being zealous to express as much of their Gratitude as their present Circumstances will permit they are unanimously come to congratulate your Excellency on your great Success and to assure your Excellency that tho' they have many Grievances to place to the Account of that Enemy you have so gloriously subdued yet there are none they resent more than the having rendered them unable to raise to your Excellencies Memory those Monuments your Merits and their Obligations challenge yet what will be wanting in Brass and Marble they will endeavour to make up by their perpetual Applications to serve your Excellency And shou'd the rest of the World be so far ungrateful as to forget what your Excellency has done for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion and publick Liberty of Europe this City will while one stone stands upon another in it perpetuate to Posterity the glorious Actions you have performed this Campaign To which the General made return that he was extremely sensible of the Honours and Kindness the City had tendred him which he would upon all occasions acknowledge Next Day being the Anniversary of His Majesty's Birth it was observed with all the Splendour and Greatness imaginable my Lord Justice Conningsby entertaining the General with most of the Nobility at the Castle of Dublin And the Day following being Gun-Powder Treason had its usual Observations where at the end of the Service appointed for the Day the Baron de Ronsill a Flemish Lord who has lived these five or six years past in this Kingdom made a solemn Renunciation of the Romish and Profession of the Protestant Religion and was received at Christ-Church by the Arch-Bishop of Dublin After Sermon
the General and State being entertained by my Lord Chancellor Porter the Night concluding with Bonefires and other Demonstrations of Joy An Order was directed to Abraham Tarner Esq Commissary-General Orders for Mustering ouâ— Army of the Musters to take a Muster of all their Majesties Forces both English and Foreign now in their Majesties Pay in this Kingdom dated Novemb. 5th by which Muster all their Accounts were to be stated and satisfaction given them for their Arrears of Pay due to them since their first coming into that Countrey November the 9th Major General Talmash who had full Power and Authority to transact all things necessary for the Transporting the Irish and now having seen them all from Limerick Major General Talmash leaves Limerick and the Town put into as good a Condition as the shortness of the time would allow he left the place and went to Dublin and from thence to England Lieutenant General Mackay being ship'd off some Days before And now greatest part of Their Majesties Forces in this Kingdom being at liberty to be imployed elsewhere Orders for the Danes to Ship off as there was occasion and His Majesty giving directions to that purpose the General sent the following Letter To the Duke of Wirtenberg Commander in Chief of the Danish Forces HAving received His Majesties directions for the Embarking with the first opportunity the Danish Forces employed in Their Service within this Kingdom under your Grace's Command I desire that your Grace will please to cause the several Battalions of Foot of the said Forces to March forthwith from their respective Quarters to Cork and Kinsale and Embark there upon such Ships of War and Vessels of Burden as shall be appointed to take them on Board and Sail with them for the Downs where they will receive further Orders from Their Majesties as to their Transportation to Ostend And of this your Grace will please not to fail Given at the Castle of Dublin the 10th of November 1691. Bar. de Ginckell November the 16th my Lord Lisburn's and my Lord Drogheda's Regiments March'd from Limerick lying Encamp'd without the Town ever since the Army lest that place the former went towards Ross and the other towards the North the poor Men enduring a great deal of Hunger and Hardship in so long a March. November the 21st Colonel Byerley's and Colonel Boucour's Regiments of Horse were Ship'd off at Dublin for England and near this time Colonel Gordon O Neal's and Colonel Phelim O Neal's Regiments being Encamp'd in the County of Kerry as part of the Irish designed for France they came over to our side as several others did daily being every Day more and more satisfied with the Indulgence of the Government towards them The 23 d the Barbadoes and Virginia Fleets which came in August and September last Sailed from Kinsale for England under the Convoy of Twelve Men of War but whether they wanted a Wind all this while which seldom happens in that Countrey or that they now took this opportunity of a Cessation others are more Competent Judges than I shall pretend to Colonel Brewer's and Colonel Herbert's Regiments March'd from Galway to Kinsale there to be Embarked And Two French Men of War with some of their Ships of Burden and the last of our Transport Ships in the River being in all Thirty Sail went thence for France November the 25th An Order was Signed for the Demolishing Fortifications at Mullingar and Ballymore demolished the Fortifications at Mullingar and Ballymore the Irish Souldiers Quartered in the Neighbouring Garrisons being ordered to assist when required And several Complaints being made to the Lords Justices and the General of the Irregular and Arbitrary Proceedings of some Officers and Souldiers in their Quarters another Order was Signed for the holding frequent Court-Martials at Limerick Galway and Athlone for the Redressing of such Inconveniencies and satisfying the Parties aggrieved Another Order was likewise Signed to break Six of the youngest Troops of Colonel Woolsley's Regiment according to directions from England The 28th Col. Hales's Regiment of Foot and Col. Langston's Horse came to Dublin in order to be shipp'd for England And now the Danes are got to Cork and Kinsale to be embarked also according to the former Order sent to the Duke of Wirtenberg In their March they committed some Irregularities knowing they were to leave the Kingdom without hopes of ever seeing of it more tho' to do them Justice they behaved themselves more mildly than Northern Soldiers generally do especially at their going off who often prove the Ruine of that Country who employ them And towards the Close of this Month some Ships arrive from England at Sligo with Supplies of Provisions and other Necessaries very much wanted before in that part of the Country December 1691. Tuesday December the 1st Colonel Monopovillon's Regiment of Horse came to Dublin and on the 3 d. Colonel Hales's Regiment set sail for the North of England The Lords Justices and the General being sensible that both the Country and the Souldiers were at a loss by reason a good part of the Money designed for the Armies Subsistence was forced to be given to the Danes the Irish and other Publick Uses they therefore Order a Proclamation to be Published to the effect following Charles Porter Tho. Coningesby Baron De Ginckel WHereas there are several Sums due from the Army A Proclamation to Persons in this Kingdom for their Subsistence in their Quarters as also from the said Persons to Their Majesties for Excise and other Branches of the Revenue which Debts or Arrears the said Persons are not able to pay by reason of the Debts due to them from the Army We do therefore require and authorize the several Collectors of Their Majesties Revenue to give Discharges to all such Persons as are indebted to Their Majesties upon any Branch of the Revenue or to their Assigns for so much of their Arrears respectively as shall be equal to the Sums hereafter certified to them by the Commissioners of Their Majesties Revenue to be deducted and stopt for the said Persons from the Pay of the Army And We do hereby direct the Commissioners for stating the Accounts of the Army to transmit Certificates to the said Commissioners of the Revenue of all such Sums as they have stopt or shall stop from the Pay of the Army writing therein each Person 's Name and Place of Abode for whom any part of the said Deductions have been made and particular Sums stopt for him And for so doing this shall be to the said Collectors a sufficient Warrant and Discharge on their Accounts as also to the said Commissioners appointed for stating the Accounts of the Army a sufficient Warrant Given at Their Majesties Castle of Dublin the Third of December 1691. By Command of the Lords-Justices and the Commander in Chief of Their Majesties Forces Geo. Clarke December the 5th Lieut. General Ginckel being accompanied The General goes
for England with the Lords Justices and most of the Nobility and Gentry in and about Dublin went to Ringsend and there taking leave he went on board the Monmouth-Yacht which sailed next Morning for England The 6th several of the Transport-Ships that went with The Transport-Ships return from France the first of the Irish Forces to France returned to Cork having Landed the Men at Brest and the Week following about Twenty more came back to Dublin they all spoke well of the French Treatment of them in accommodating them with several Necessaries which they extreamly wanted but that the Irish did not find themselves so very welcome as they expected to have been though at their Landing an Express was sent to the late King to St. Germains to give him an Account of it he seemed to be very well pleased with their coming and sent the following Letter to Lieut. General Sheldon then the Officer in Chief with the Irish JAMES Rex HAving been informed of the Capitulation and Surrender of Limerick and of the other Places which Remained King James's Letter to the Irish to us in our Kingdom of Ireland and of the necessities which forced the Lords Justices and the General Officers of our Forces thereunto We will not defer to let you know and the rest of the Officers that came along with you that we are extreamly Satisfied with your and their Conduct and of the Valour of the Souldiers during the Siege but most Particularly of your and their Declaration and Resolution to come and Serve where we are And we assure you and Order you to assure both Officers and Souldiers that are come along with you that we shall never forget this Act of Loyalty nor fail when in a Capacity to give them above others Particular Marks of our Favour In the mean time you are to Inform them that they are to Serve under our Command and by our Commissions and if we find that a Considerable number is come with the Fleet it will induce Vs to go Personally to see them and Regiment them Our Brother the King of France hath already given Orders to Cloath them and furnish them with all necessaries and to give them Quarters of Refreshment So We bid you heartily Farewell Given at Our Court at St. Germaine the 27th of November 1691. But how good soever the Late King's Intentions towards Their Reception in France his Irish might be yet it was and is the French King who Orders every thing in his own Dominions as he Pleases nor had the French any good opinion of the Irish at their Landing as appeared by the Quarters of Refreshment assigned them which were at first only the Lanes and Hedges about Brest not admitting any of them into the City and at the same time this Letter was sent from the Late King there came Orders from his Brother of France to Reduce all or most of the Irish Officers the Colonels to Captains and the Captains to Lieutenants and Ensigns and the Subalterns to Sergeants or private Centinels and no wonder for what ever the Irish might hope for before their departure yet it was very improbable that they who only were put into such Posts in Ireland upon point of necessity because they could get no better should be continued so in France which is one of the most Warlike and Refin'd Nations in the World however this ill Treatment as the Irish took it to be did so exasperate them that several would gladly have returned into Ireland and offered largely for their Passage but were prevented by the strict Guards that were set upon them But they wrote to several of their Friends in Ireland giving an Account of their severe usage which made several Desert from my Lord Lucan that were not as yet gone as more would have done had he not soon after this Advice put them on Ship-Board One of those Letters sent from France after their first Landing since it gives a full Account of their Reception and Usage I think it worth my Pains to Transcribe SIR NEver People that left their All to come hither to Serve were so meanly received as those miserable Irish were here they have been much longer than necessary in Disimbarking them and will be at least Three days more though the Intendant has been pressed with great earnestness to take them a Shoar when they are Landed they lye in the Fields a Night or two at least before they are sent into their Quarters and then they get neither Money nor Cloaths and but little of any thing else The Major Generals are made Colonels the Colonels Captains the Majors Lieutenants and the Captains Serjeants and many of them but Private Men insomuch that as I pass along the Streets the Souldiers wish they had died in Ireland before they came here and many of the Officers express themselves to the same purpose and are extreamly dejected and melancholly some of them hope this will be Regulated tho' I see no great reason for it for this day there came a frivolous Complaint against some of Colonel Nugent 's Men and the Intendant threatned to break him for it and I do not doubt but he 'll be as good as his word in a short time For upon all occasions he uses their Officers with the greatest Insolence and Contempt imaginable Some of them having complained and told him they hoped to have been advanced here rather than thus reform'd he told them if they did not like it they might go back the Ships were in the Harbour that brought them tho' at the same time the Owners on Board the Transport Ships were ordered not to take any of them on Board again upon pain of Death This is all matter of Fact and a great deal more such usages they meet with too tedious to relate c. This News spreading abroad in the Country on Several desert that were not yet Shipt off Tuesday the 8th of December Colonel Mackdermot's and Colonol Brian Oneal's Regiments and a day or two after Colonel Foelix Oneal's who were part of the Irish Forces designed for France they quitted their design and refused to go on Board returning to Clare where some of them delivered up their Arms to Colonel Tiffin and went homewards in order to their living peaceably in the Country and the rest were subsisted as the other Irish Forces were Those that were now Embarquing had not much The Irish severely dealt withal at their Embarquing better usage on this side the Water for a great many of them having Wives and Children they made what shift they cou'd to desert rather than leave their Families behind to starve which my Lord Lucan and Major General Waughop perceiving they Publish a Declaration That as many of the Irish as had a mind to 't should have Liberty to Transport their Families along with themselves And accordingly a vast Rabble of all sorts were brought to the Water-side when the Major General pretending to Ship the
Souldiers in order according to their Lists they first carried all the Men on Board and many of the Women at the second return of the Boat for the Officers catching hold to be carried on Board were dragged off and through fearfulness losing their hold were drowned but others who held faster had their fingers cut off and so perished in sight of their Husbands or Relations tho' those of them that did get over wou'd make but a sad Figure if they were admitted to go to the late Queen's Court at St. Germaine The Sheriffs for the several Counties in Ireland were prick'd and the same day all the Irish Prisoners that were in Newgate in Dublin were released and my Lord Lucan finding that he had Ships enough for all the Irish that were like to go with him the Number that went before and these Shipt at this time being according to the best computation about 12000 of all sorts he Signs the following Releasement WHereas by the Articles of Limerick Lieutenant My Lord Lucan 's Release to the General General Ginckell Commander in Chief of the English Army did engage himself to furnish ten thousand Tun of Shipping for the Transporting of such of the Irish Forces to France as were willing to go thither and to facilitate their passage to add four thousand Tun more in case the French Fleet did not come to this Kingdom to take off part of those Forces and whereas the French Fleet has been upon the Coast and carried away some of the said Forces and the Lieutenant General has provided Ships for as many of the rest as are willing to go as aforesaid I do hereby delare that the said Lieutenant General is released from any Obligation he lay under from the said Articles to provide Vessels for that purpose and do quit and renounce all farther Claim and Pretension on this Account c. Witness my Hand this 8th of December 1691. Witnesses Lucan Mark Talbot F. H. de la Forest Susannel December the 20th Colonel Langston's and Colonel Monopouillon's Horse and the Prince of Hess's Foot Shipp'd at Dublin for England and Colonel Neuhewson's Horse and the Brandeuburgh Foot march'd into Dublin The 22 d my Lord Lucan and the rest of the Irish Great Officers went on Board the Transport Ships leaving Hostages at Cork for the return of the said All the Irish go off except the Hostages Ships And at the same time Colonel Hasting's Sir David Collier's Colonel Brewer's and Colonel Herbert's Regiments were Shipp'd for England the Government taking all possible Care to Discharge the Kingdom of both Armies who had already brought it into a very low Condition December the 24th an Order was given out to the Comissary General of the Musters or his Deputies to An Order for Mustering all the Irish that came over to us take an exact Muster of all the Irish Forces now in Arms that had come over to our side since the beginning of the Truce at Limerick and they had Quarters allotted them in several places of the Kingdom but behaved themselves after their usual rate for tho' they had Changed their King yet not their Customs for they Taxed the People where they Quartered as they pleased themselves Imprison'd several and Released others as they saw good forced The Irish very unruly in their Quarters the Markets and did a great many other Illegal Tricks Insomuch that Complaint being made to the Lords Justices of those Disorders they writ a Letter to my Lord Kingston December 31. Desiring his Lordship to do them the Country and His Majesty what Service he cou'd in suppressing those Irregularities and to have the Court Martials that were Ordered in several Places put in Execution January the 6th there being no further use of a Marching Hospital in this Kingdom and the same The Marching-Hospital broke being expensive to the Government an Order was given out for the discharging several Physicians and others that attended on the same And now Their Majesties Pleasure being known about the Irish Orders and Instructions were directed to Colonel Foulk Colonel St. Johns and Brigadeer Villers to view and discharge all the Irish Forces except 1400 Choice Men the form of their Commissions for it ran thus By the Lords Justices of Ireland WHEREAS Their Majesties are pleased to Direct Orders and Instructions for breaking the Irish Forces that there be an immediate Regulation of such of the Regiments whether Horse Foot or Dragoons of the late Irish Army as came in and submitted to Their Obedience And We being well assured of the Care Diligence and Circumspection as well as of the Loyalty and Readiness of Colonel John Foulks to do Their Majesties good and faithful Service do hereby appoint him to make the said Regulation and Reform c. The Irish being by the said Instrument commanded January 1692. to obey him and our own Troops and Militia to observe his Directions in their Marching from place to place as he saw occasion The said Colonel Foulk and the other Officers aforesaid had Directions to assure the Irish both Officers and Souldiers of Their Majesties Gracious Disposition towards them tho' the present State of their Affairs wou'd not admit of any more than 1400 Men to be employed at this time and those to be divided into two Battalions Commanded by Colonel Wilson and Balderock O Donnel And that the Officers that were not willing to go home might attend those two Battalions where they wou'd have Subsistance till better provided for As for those that returned to their Habitations and desired to live peaceably at home if they were Souldiers and had their Arms nine Shillings a piece was ordered them but if without Arms they had six Shillings The Officers had a Fortnights Subsistence each to bear their Charges home These Orders and Instructions bore Date the 11th and 12th of January pursuant to which as soon as it cou'd conveniently be done Colonel Wilson's Colonel O Ryley's Colonel Nugent's Lord Iveigh's Lord Dillon's Colonel Cormack Oneal's Colonel Foelix Oneal's Colonel Geoghagan's Colonel O Donnel's Colonel Rourk's Colonel Oxborough's Colonel Lutteril's Horse Colonel Tho. Burk's Troop of Horse Sir Colonel John Burk's Troop Briggadier Clifford's Draggoons Colonel Mackgenni's Draggons were all broke by Colonel Foulk In Munster also Colonel Corbet's Horse were broke by Brigadier Villers And Colonel Mackdermot's Foot Colonel Bryan Oneal's Colonel Rob. Purcel's and Lieutenant Colonel Cahan's were broke by Colonel St. Johns only two Battalions being drawn out of the whole as is said and had Quarters assigned them in the Barrony of Muskerry These Irish had the Name of a great many January 1692. Regiments but scarce an hundred Men in each one with another for they were thin at best and several of them were gone into France having the Names of Regiments there also But after some time all the Irish not laying down their Arms an Order was directed to Sir Francis Hambleton Governour of Donegal to break
themselves whether of English or Irish Extraction to advance the Power of England in that Kingdom Two main Objections answered Religion in the first place to be taken care of An Invasion from France upon that Kingdom England or Scotland at this juncture very improbable A Remark upon the last that endeavour'd it I Have now given you all that I know of this last unhappy Irish Wars that is fit at this juncture to be sent to the Press And it 's more possibly than some Men will thank me for or yet the following Remarks that I am going to make upon the Affairs of that Kingdom and its present Circumstances upon which if any please to throw away another half Hour tho' they find nothing worth taking notice of Yet I hope they 'll have no Reason to be angry since Opinion in things indifferent is free to all Men And we have no better way to conjecture what may be hereafter than by comparing our thoughts of it with what now is and formerly has been Ireland next to Great Brittain is the greatest Island The Circumference of Ireland in Europe esteemed by Sir William Petty at Ten Millions Five Hundred Thousand Irish Acres and by others at Ten Millions Eight Hundred and Sixty Eight Thousand Acres which they reckon to be above 17 Millions of English Measure 121 Irish Acres making about 196 English and yet Sir William Petty computes the Irish Acres to make not above 14 Millions of English accounting nigh two Millions of Acres in Mountains Bogs Strands and other unprofitable Land a great part of which however is capable of improvement and makes Ireland in circumference almost equal to England Wales excepted The Latitude of Ireland North is said to be parallel with Dumfrese in Scotland and South to St. Michael's Mount in Cornwal its Longitude West to the utmost point of Ire Conaght in the County of Galway and East to the head of Houth The Kingdom for many Ages past has been divided Itâ— Division into Provinces and Counties into four Provinces three of which before that Division were commonly distinct Monarchies and sometimes the fourth which by degrees as the English Interest prevailed were subdivided into Counties of which there are thirty two at this day in all the Kingdom The Provinces are Leinster Munster Conaght and Vlster Leinster has eleven Counties Dublin Wicklow and Wexford on the Sea-side East-Meath West-Meath and Carlow within Land tho' with a corner reaching to the Sea Kilkenny Kildare Kings-County Queens-County and Longford are Inland Counties also Munster has six Counties two within Land as Tipperary and Limerick but Waterford Cork Kerry and Clare all on the Coast Conaght has Galway Mayo and Sligo towards the Sea with Roscomon and Letrim within Land Vlster has six Counties on the Sea-side Fermanagh Donegal London-Derry Antrim Down and Louth and four within Land as Cavan Monohan Armagh and Tyrone In the Year 1151 according to Cambden Christianus Into Arch-Bishopricks and Bishopricks Bishop of Lismore Legate of all Ireland and Johannes Paperon Cardinal Priest according to Sir James Ware brought four Palls from Eugenius the third and held a Synod or Council at Kells as some say or at Mellefort according to others whereat were present the Bishops Abbots Kings Captains and Elders of Ireland when by General consent four Arch-Bishopricks were Constituted Armagh Dublin Cashel and Tuam under whom there were 34 other Bishopricks viz. ten subordinate to Armagh five to Dublin twelve to Cashel and seven to Tuam But now they are reduced to 21 in all and those divided into 2278 Parishes and those in a political capacity have eight that are called Cities Dublin Kilkenny Waterford Cork Cashel Clogher Limerick and London-Derry besides about ninety Boroughs and Corporations As to the Natural Advantages of Ireland many People The Soil of Ireland can confirm what Sir John Davis a Man of Wit Learning and Prudence has writ several Years ago viz. That having been in all the Provinces of that Kingdom he had observed the good Temperature of the Air the fruitfulness of the Soil the pleasant and commodious Seats for Habitation the safe and large Ports and Havens lying open for Traffick unto all the West parts of the World the long Inlets of many Navigable Rivers and so many great Lakes and fresh Ponds within Land as the like are not to be seen in any part of Europe the rich Fishings and Wild Fowl of all Kinds And lastly the Bodies and Minds of the People Endowed with extraordinary Abilities of Nature And however it has become a Proverb in England The Irish no such Fools as the World Commonly makes them to call a dull unthinking Fellow a Man of an Irish Understanding yet for any thing appears to the contrary they have acted a Prudent part for at least these Five Hundred Years nor is their crafty insinuating wheedling way as yet any thing abated and whosoever will look amongst the Natives of that Countrey at this juncture will probably find some Knaves but as few Folls as in any other Kingdom of the World But since I have mention'd so Judicious an Author Sir John Davis his Reasons why Ireland has been so long in reducing to the Crown of England as Sir John Davis I suppose it will not be unpleasant to hear some of his Reasons why it has been so long a time before Ireland was entirely subject to the Crown of England and why the English were more apt to run into the Irish Barbarous Customs and imitate their way of living than on the Contrary As to the first of these he mentions four main defects of the Armies that at different times were sent out of England to Conquer Ireland 1. They were for the most part too weak for a Conquest 2. When otherwise as in both the Journies of Richard the Second they were too soon broken up and dissolved 3. They were ill paid and 4. They were ill Govern'd a necessary Consequence of the former Which Inconveniences happen'd because the King 's of England for many Ages together were generally otherwise imploy'd either in the Holy-Land or in France or in their Wars with Scotland or else in that unhappy fewd between the two Houses of Lancaster and York So that they cou'd neither attend the Irish War in their own Persons nor spare a Competency either of Men or Money to compleat the Work which was only begun in King Henry the Second's days rather by a few private Adventurers than by any thing that had the face of a Royal Army And besides the standing Forces were seldom or never reinforced out of England that is in the times towards the beginning of the English Government only the King's Treasure there was spent and wholly spent in the King's service so that in the Reigns of four successive Kings Viz. Henry III. Edward I. Edward II. and Edward III. between the Receipts and Allowances this Entry is commonly found in the Pipe-Rolls In Thesauro
Rex sub eo paratus ad servitium suum ut homo suus c. And King Henry the II. making William Fitz Audelm his Lieutenant of Ireland he hath it thus in his Commission Archiepiscopis Episcopis Regibus Baronibus omnibus fidelibus suis in Hibernia salutem King John also granted divers Characters unto the Irish Lords under the Title of Kings and so did Henry the III d. unto a Petty-King of Thoumond Rex Regi Thoumond Salutem c. Those Governed the People by their Brehon Laws they made their own Magistrates and Officers they Pardoned and Punished all Malefactors and made War and Peace one with another without Controulment After which several Attempts were made and Rebellions more or less broke out in every King's Reign And to omit those of Perkin Warbeck and others in the Reign of Henry 7. The Rebellion of Fitz Gerald and the rest of that Faction in King Henry 8th's time in the Year 1535. cost England Forty Thousand Pounds a Summ reputed so great in those days and so much disturbed that blustering Prince that he called the appeasing this Rebellion a New Conquest and put the Question to his Council how Ireland should be managed to bear the Charge of its own preservation and whether by Act of Parliament every Man's Estate should not be made liable to contribute its proportion or wehther by Virtue of this New Conquest the King might not seize on all the Estates of that Kingdom Temporal and Spiritual Cox 242. But tho' this wou'd not do yet he found out another A Statute against Absentees way to make a Statute against Absentees whereby a great part of the County of Carlow was taken from the Duke of Norfolk and other Lands from other great Men and from some Monasteries in England that held Land in Ireland for that by the absence of these and the neglecting their own private Estates whereby the Irish daily gained ground they brought the Publick into danger However this Rebellious Spirit continued in Ireland all Queen Elizabeth's time even to the ninth of King James the First as Sir John Davis observes but if he had lived in our days he wou'd have seen good reasons to say it was always the Genius of the People And one Mr. Lawrence has since that endeavoured to prove that Ireland was never intirely subjected to the Crown of England nor the Lands properly called the King's Lands until the Act of Settlement passed in the 12th Year of King Charles the Second for before this the Chief Inhabitants in all Cities and Towns were Papists as Sheriffs Justices of the Peace c by which means that Party was wonderfully encouraged and strengthened and besides the Irish before the late Rebellion were by far the greatest Proprietors tho' afterwards they enjoyed not much above a fifth part of the whole that is in propriety by which means and the industrious Management of some of the Chief Governours the English Interest was very far advanced in this Country before the death of King Charles the Second for tho' some Clouds arose before yet the Sun shone pretty clear till the Death of that Monarch made it more than Twilight with the English of that Country and then the late dark Night of Confusion approached so suddenly that it gave them no time to set things in Order till they cou'd not in a manner see where they were a going This put a full stop to the Carreer of all their Prosperity for a great many considerable Buildings and other Improvements in and about Dublin and other places in the Kingdom being pretty far advanced at that Juncture they were left off very abruptly the Workman throwing away his Tools and the Husbandman neglecting his Plow at the News as if they had then foreseen their approaching Misery and were amazed to find the Irish arm so fast on all hands by which they were assured that other sorts of Weapons than they had used for the Country's improving were soon like to grow more in fashion and that to the undoing of what themselves had so honestly endeavoured to make up So that the Irish were not then nor indeed are as yet so subdued as that no further Storm may ever be feared to arise from that corner And certainly the not thorowly endeavouring to make Ireland bear the Charge of its own preservation has in all Ages been very much to the disadvantage of Ireland shou'd be put into a Condition to bear its own Burden England But to carry this no higher than the Year 1595 the time of Tyrone's Rebellion which Cambden in his Annals tells us cost 1198717 l. to suppress Or if we compute the Charge of its first Conquest and the suppressing the several Rebellions from that time till this of Tyrone's to cost but double as much as this did as they needs must since before that Ireland never enjoyed seven Years peace at one time Then I say long e're this all those Rebellions had been forgot and the Trade and Product of Ireland more than trebly recompenced England for her former Blood and Treasure But as the Degenerate English grew more and more in love with the Irish and their Customs and so took their part against England The Charges encreased to more prodigious Sums and they generally make use of it as a great Argument for what they did of late that it was the Blood and Treasure of their Ancestors that first gained that Kingdom to the English Interest and therefore tho' they differed in Opinion yet it was very unreasonable that they should be quite excluded from sharing in the Government with those that were of a much later Date But this Objection is of an older standing than either the former War or this last for we are told that so great Heats have arose formerly between the English of Birth and the English of Blood in Ireland that they held different Parliaments and endeavoured by all means Possible to ruine one another But 't is observ'd by very Learned Men in this Kingdom that tho' the English have often fallen out amongst themselves and there were generally found in many places of the Kingdom such of English extraction as would joyn with the Irish against England yet the People of the Pale were always firm and Loyal to the Crown and the greatest strength that England had against the Irish Nation for which they were often plentifully Rewarded 'till in the Year 1641 they all broke loose which they say was occasioned thus Tho since the first Conquest of Ireland there have been continued feuds in that Kingdom between the People of both Nations upon the account of Interest yet when the Reformation was once set on foot the Breach was widned upon that account it being what the Natives of that Country have always endeavoured to destroy and with it the English Interest there but finding this a very difficult Task by reason that the old English of the Pale tho' many of them were of
Prosperity of Ireland that thereby it might not only support it self in time of Peace but defend and maintain it self in War which nothing but promoting its Trade and Wealth will do For what Ireland cannot do in order to its safety England must supply to prevent its own danger since if ever a Foreign Enemy Surprize and Possess Ireland especially the French then England must maintain a greater Standing Force to secure themselves than wou'd have secured Ireland if imploy'd in its defence it being no groundless Saying of some Old-fashion'd Poet. He that wou'd England win Must with Ireland first begin For tho' in former times when little or no Shipping appear'd upon these narrow Seas and France and other Countries knew not what it was to have a Fleet and there was but small Commerce even between England and Ireland themselves yet in this active Age of the World it wou'd go very hard with England if the French shou'd possess Ireland who have all the Harbours from Dunkirk to Brest and if they had Cork Baltimire and Bantry where wou'd our Western Trade be Besides by the possessing the Eastern Coasts of Ireland they wou'd surround three parts in four of England and a great part of Scotland and cou'd Invade either when they pleas'd which wou'd necessitate England to be always at the Charge of a Considerable Standing Army and then farewell both their Wealth and long enjoy'd Liberty And so sensible have our Ancestors been of something or other to be done in this Affair that Sir Henry Sidney that most excellent Governour who had spent great part of his time in that Kingdom holding a Parliament Our Ancestors sensible of this there for a Subsidy in the Eleventh Year of Queen Elizabeth He with the Lords and Commons in the Preamble to the Act of Parliament thus express themselves to the Queen Considering the infinite masses of Treasure able to purchase a Kingdom that your Noble Progenitors have exhausted for the Government Defence and Preservation of Your Majesties Realm of Ireland c. Which Evils still remaining the Remedies are as yet The former Evilâ— still remain to be found out at least to be put in practice for tho' the War be now happily ended yet there are at this day at least three differnt Interests on Foot in that Kingdom the English Irish and Scots the first of which seem to be the least concern'd in their own advancement but the last gain ground daily in the North there being at least Ten Thousand People come thither out of Scotland within these Twelve Months which in time will make their Party Considerable for the People of England live better than the Scots at home and so are not so easily invited to look abroad Whereas the Scots their part of Ireland by this means in a few Years is like to be more than it has been And as to the Irish every one sees their indefatigable Industry in promoting the Interest of their own Party no discouragements being able to blunt but rather serve to sharpen their endeavours for the effecting of what they believe may be some steps towards their future Prosperity making every particular Man's Case a general Grievance and each assisting other as being all concerned in the same general cause whilst the English even in that Country who still feel the smart of their former Calamities will yet rather sett their Lands to an Irish Man or a Scot that shall give them Sixpence in an Acre more and never improve it further than to an English Farmer that if he had Encouragement wou'd in a few Years make good Improvements which will still continue one great reason why Ireland will not easily be made an English Country But I can carry the matter yet higher and affirm that The Interest of the Irish Papists themselves to Advance the Power of England it 's the real Interest of the Roman Catholicks of Ireland themselves whether of Irish or English Extraction to promote that of England as much as they can in their Country if they will but consult the future safety of themselves and their Posterity since without the support of some other Nation they can never hope of themselves to be an Independant Kingdom and if they were we scarcely can find out how they wou'd agree amongst themselves who should Command or who Obey which they never could yet from the beginning do and what did the Irish ever get by accompanying either their Lords or Followers into Rebellion Or what should they have gotten if the late Attempt had absolutely succeded but a more absolute Servitude under the French And therefore it 's better for them to have their old English Friends they have been so long acquainted with than run the hazard of either setting up new Tyrants of their own or having them come to 'em from abroad Besides if the English Interest were strong and powerful in Ireland this wou'd cut off the hopes of all disaffected People for ever thinking to withstand it and wou'd make them reject all Tenders from abroad and Inticements from their Jesuited Priests at home and never wou'd they more run such desperate Risks which still fall upon their own heads at last so that if the English Interest were so fortified that all hopes of removing it were cut off the Irish would not be prevailed upon to make such destructive attempts to themselves and Posterities as they often have done hitherto by the Insinuations of their Priests who have nothing to lose nor Families to provide for but only hazard the Lives and Fortunes of others that have both Since as Sir William Petty observes there are and ever will be in England Men ready for any Exploit and Change either by being discontented with their present Condition or otherways well inclined to the service more than are sufficient to quell any Insurrection which the Irish can make and abide by Which wou'd spare both the Blood and Treasure of England if those of that Nation in Ireland cou'd do it of themselves There are only two Objections that I know of which Two Objections answered seem to be considerable against this Opinion of promoting the Trade and Wealth of Ireland The first that if Ireland should be encouraged so far as to make it altogether an English Country it would drain the wealth and Inhabitants of England to that degree that we should impoverish our selves by putting our Trade into their hands who wou'd be equal if not Superiour to us in a small time since their Country lies as Convenient in all respects for Trade as ours and has several Advantages above it Answer This would rather incourage England to be more industrious in Trade and Manufactures when they saw their younger Sister of Ireland by having the same priviledges of Trade with her self begin to contend with her in this particular and would create a profitable emulation amongst the People of both Kingdoms since I have not that Opinion of Trade that
News to one another but not one in twenty either at work in the Fields or otherways Honestly imploy'd which is the Reason that at this very day most of the Goals of the Kingdom are filled with Thieves and the Streets with incredible numbers of importunate houling Beggars who yet most of them had rather Live so than otherways But I 'm afraid a great many People will think I have been too busie and therefore I have only this to say further that notwithstanding all the Wagers that have been proffer'd of late whether Ireland would not be in the French King's Hands by such a time I dare freely venture one of as great value as I am able that tho' he begin to morrow it will not be in his Power with all the Force he can spare to take it from that handful of Men left in that Kingdom for its security these Seven Years for if the Irish who were but indifferently provided for at best were able to hold it out so long against all the Power and Strength of England what can Men that have better Supplies and full as good Hearts do And as for those vain hopes of that unhappy Party An Invasion from France upon any of the three Kingdoms not very practicable at this time who are still buoyed up with the Fancy of the French King's Greatness and that he will at some time or other certainly make an Invasion either upon England Scotland or Ireland any who know what War means can assure them that it 's much sooner said than done For if his present Majesty of England was obliged to imploy nigh 600 Vessels when at his first coming he Transported only 14000 Men into this Kingdom and if the Irish War has for Three Years past imployed such a considerable number of Transport Ships in that narrow Channel between England and Ireland which lye so convenisently and contiguous one to another what Provision must needs be made in France for such an Attempt as an Invasion upon any of the Three Kingdoms which if it miscarries they are certainly undone For suppose the French still a match for our Fleet which I hope they will never be now whilst the World stands and the French Invasion designed upon England tho' there be a Factious and unnaturally discontented Party there that are no well wishers to the present Government vet there are so many Loyal and True Hearted English-Men still left at home that all the Ships in France are not able to Transport Men enough from thence to subdue them since we know their affection to both the French and Irish that are with them should they once indeavour to look into England whose Strength is in the Hearts and Affections of the People intirely devoted to Their Majesties Service I allow that 20000 well Disciplin'd and Experienc'd Men are able to beat four times the number of Raw unexperienc'd Country People but then I leave the English standing Army and a well Disciplined Militia especially in and about the City of London to shew how unwelcome the French wou'd be to them And as for Scotland its Soyl in most places is Naturally poor and barren and an Army of Foreigners Landed there must either eat Heath or one another in a small time if once they leave the Coast for admit they have Provisions brought by Sea into their Harbours yet the Country in few places is so level as to admit of either a marching Train of Artillery or of Provision Waggons which an Army has no Business any where without and soon wou'd look very foolish for want of suppose but an indifferent Enemy to oppose them Then as for an Invasion to be made upon Ireland the Country is already so destroyed by being the Seat of War that whosoever attempts it must bring all from abroad likewise as well Horses as Provisions which is no easie Task of it self suppose no opposition either at Sea or in the Country but then our Garrisons especially upon the Coasts are made so strong to our Hands by the Irish themselves by the help and directions of the best French Ingineers and are Manned with part of an Experienced and Victorious Army that it will not be the work of a few days to pick any of them out of our hands since there is Ammunition Artillery and Provisions suitable to each Garrison's Necessities And as an advantage to the established standing Army now in Ireland consisting of Colonel Woolsley's Horse Colonel Wynns and Colonel Eiklin's Dragoons Sir Jo. Hanmer's Briggadeer Stuart's Colonel Gustavus Hambleton's Earl of Drogheda's Sir Henry Bellisis Colonel Roe's Colonel Coot's Colonel St. John's Colonel Muthelburms and Colonel Creighton's Foot besides Colonel Frederick Hambleton's and three French Regiments all upon the Irish Establishment as also the Earl of Donegal's Foot and Colonel Cunningham's Dragoons now raising besides all these I say what deserves no mean Character is the Militia of Ireland being formerly at least Twenty Five Thousand Men and tho' they cannot make so many now this War having destroy'd a great many Protestants yet whoever serve now upon that account are all well Armed and Experienced Active Men which circumstances being all known to France they will scarce hazard all upon such uncertainties suppose they were really at leisure to do it as an Invasion upon any of their Majesties Dominions must needs prove It may also be remembred that the Spanyards in the A Remark upon the last that endeavoured it Year 1588 had not only a great mind to Ireland but with a powerful Army endeavoured also to Invade England in which Attempt their loss was so considerable that they have not as yet recover'd it And the disappointment that the French King met withall the very last Year in such another undertaking gives us more than ordinary hopes that thro' God's Blessing it will always so be done to the Enemies of England FINIS