_Translator's Preface._
Shortly after the publication in Madrid of the second volume of Captain
Duro's book--"_La Armada Invencible_"--the Earl of Ducie drew special
attention to it in an article which appeared in the number of the
_Nineteenth Century_ for September, 1885.
Subsequently Mr. Froude took up the subject, and discoursed upon it in
_Longman's Magazine_ for September, October, and November, 1891, giving
a general sketch of the salient features of the ill-fated expedition
from the Spanish point of view, as disclosed in the pages of the book in
question.
These glowing pictures aroused much public interest at the time; but
they were especially attractive to those persons who happened to combine
the conditions of possessing antiquarian tastes, and living near the
localities brought into prominence by the recital of the great disasters
which befel the "Invincible Armada."
Of all the exciting scenes in that eventful episode in our history, none
was more tragic than the wreck of three of the largest of the Spanish
ships, which took place, simultaneously, in the bay of Donegal, on the
north-west coast of Ireland, in September, 1588.
The fact that in Captain Duro's book there appeared a hitherto
unpublished narrative of the event, written at the time by Don Francisco
Cuellar, one of the survivors of the catastrophe, and giving a minute
account of his wanderings and adventures in the country where he was
cast away, contributed to increase the local interest in the matter.
Mr. Hugh Allingham at once began a series of exhaustive investigations
in relation to Cuellar's descriptions, the results of which he
subsequently placed before the public in the pages of the _Ulster
Journal of Archæology_, April, 1895.
It was solely with the object of assisting him in the researches he then
undertook that this translation was prepared, and there was no intention
at the time of any future publication of it.
It was a matter of importance to facilitate the process of
identification as regards the various localities referred to, as well as
to avoid the danger of misinterpreting the writer's meaning when dealing
with obscure passages; conditions requiring the translation to be as
literal as possible, and leaving the translator with but little freedom
in treating a language that at best does not lend itself easily to
reproduction in the English idiom.
These facts are mentioned to account for the style in which it has been
prepared, as it has no pretensions to merit, except in so far as care
has been taken to follow closely the wording of the original Spanish.
As Mr. Allingham is now about to publish a new edition of his "Spanish
Armada in Ulster and Connacht," it has been considered desirable that
this translation should be added to it _in extenso_ for the convenience
of reference. I have, therefore, gone carefully over it again, comparing
it with the Spanish text, and have made some slight alterations of an
occasional word or phrase in it to make the matter more explicit.
This will explain why in some of Mr. Allingham's quotations from the
original translation, as given in the first edition of his paper on this
subject, a word here and there may be found to differ from those
contained in the present version; but the change does not affect the
sense or meaning of any passage, with, I think, a couple of exceptions.
The first of these relates to where Cuellar describes the English as
going about searching "for us who had escaped [from the perils of the
sea. All the monks had fled] to the woods," etc. The part within the
brackets was left out in the original translation by the accidental
omission of a line in copying the rough draft; and, as the mutilated
sentence still made sense, the omission was not detected at the time.
The other is the only really important change, and I will now proceed to
deal with it.
The Spanish words are: "_Hacienda Norte de las montañas_," which I
originally translated as "making for the north of the mountains"; but
now prefer to render by the alternative reading: "_Making for the
direction of the mountains_."
I will first show that this latter translation is also perfectly
correct, and that I am justified in adopting it, and then explain my
reason for doing so.
In Spanish dictionaries generally the meaning of _Norte_ is given,
primarily, as North, signifying either the Arctic pole, the northern
part of the sphere, the polar star, the north wind, etc.; but it is also
used in another and metaphorical sense.
In the best authority we have on such matters--the Dictionary of the
Spanish Academy--we find that _Norte_ also means _direction_, guide, "the
allusion being taken from the North Star, by which navigators guide
themselves with the direction of the nautical needle" [or mariner's
compass]. With such an authority to support me, I think it can scarcely
be disputed that the alternative translation, which I recommend, is a
fair one.
I will now explain why I prefer it to my first reading of the passage.
Cuellar's statement leaves no room for doubt that it was to O'Rourke's
country, lying along and to the south of the Leitrim range of mountains,
he was bound; while Mr. Allingham's investigations make it equally
certain, in my opinion, that Glenade was the particular place Cuellar
came to, as described in his account of his wanderings.
Now, as Glenade is among the Leitrim mountains, not on their northern
side--along which, in the first instance, I had supposed Cuellar's route
to lie--it became necessary for me to re-examine my position and make
sure whether the Spanish text required a rigid adherence to my first
translation, or might admit of some alternative reading that would
account for the apparent discrepancy.
The result was, as already explained, that the pages of the dictionary
disclosed a perfectly easy and admissible treatment of the passage in
question, that solved the difficulty without the necessity of resorting
to any postulates, or putting a forced or novel interpretation upon the
words.
Here, perhaps, I should refer to the fact that two other translators of
Cuellar's narrative--Professor O'Reilly in the _Proceedings of the Royal
Irish Academy_, December, 1893, and Mr. Sedgwick in a small volume
recently published by Mr. Elkin Mathews, of Vigo Street, London--give
this passage a very different meaning to that which I attach to it,
while they agree tolerably closely with each other.
Professor O'Reilly omits all mention of the mountains, and translates
only the rest of the sentence, as: "_Taking the northerly direction
pointed out by the boy_"; while Mr. Sedgwick puts it in this form:
"_Striking north for the mountains_ the boy had pointed out."
This latter reading gives the preposition (_de_) exactly the opposite
signification to that which it usually bears.
But, apart from this, there is another and, I think, a fatal objection
to the two foregoing translations of the phrase.
Both agree that the boy told Cuellar to go _straight on_ to mountains,
_pointed out_ by him, as the place behind which O'Rourke lived. If so,
these mountains could not have been situated to the north of where he
was at the time, as to go from thence in anything like a northerly
direction would have brought him at once into the sea, which lay to the
north of him, and extended for several miles farther eastwards.
That this fact must have been apparent to both Cuellar and his guide as
they went along will be recognised by those who are acquainted with the
locality, which everywhere looks down upon the ocean.
There is another rather important point upon which I differ from the two
gentlemen already named, who here again agree closely with each other.
It relates to the position of the village in which MacClancy's retainers
lived. Cuellar says it was established upon "_tierra firme_," which one
translates as _firm_, the other as _solid_, ground. To me the context
appears to indicate clearly that the expression was intended to bear its
ordinary idiomatic interpretation of _mainland_ in contradistinction to
the position of the castle itself, which we are told was built in the
lake.
There are several other expressions about the meaning of which we
differ; but I will only refer to some of them, that are of sufficient
importance, either directly or indirectly, to make it desirable that
Cuellar's statement concerning them should be correctly given. I do not
refer to them in any spirit of adverse criticism, but in the interests
of accuracy, as regards details, in the description of an important
historical event.
Both parties translate _montes_ as _mountains_. This, I think, is a
mistake: it should be _woods_. Cuellar repeatedly uses the correct word,
_montañas_, to express mountains; so that when we find him writing
_montes_, the natural inference is that he was referring to something of
a different nature; besides, _montes_ is frequently made use of in
Spanish to denote woods.
Professor O'Reilly translates _manta_ as _cloak_ throughout; while Mr.
Sedgwick also does so the first time he meets with it, but calls it
_blanket_ always afterwards. _Manta_ means a blanket, but _manto_ is a
mantle, veil, or cloak; and the error alluded to is due, no doubt, to
the similarity of the two words.
Again, both gentlemen translate _un trompeta_ as a _trumpet_: it should
be a _trumpeter_. The cause of the mistake here lies in overlooking the
nature of the article made use of. _Trompeta_ is both a masculine and
feminine noun. The former signifies the man who blows a trumpet, and the
latter is the instrument itself. In the present instance, the article
(_un_) being masculine, shows that the word is used in its masculine
sense, and therefore means a _trumpeter_.
I will now briefly refer to a few cases of the two translators
separately, taking Professor O'Reilly first.
_Galleon_ and _galley_ do not translate each other, but refer to very
different classes of ships.
Cuellar did not remain on board _his own ship_ after he had been
sentenced to death and reprieved, but was detained on the ship of the
Judge Advocate, in which he was subsequently wrecked. The number of dead
bodies lying on the shore where he was cast away is given by Cuellar as
more than 600, not as more than 800.
"_Casiñas de paja_" means, I think, that the huts were not merely
thatched with straw, but composed of it altogether. This appears to be
clear from the fact that Cuellar uses another expression--"_Casas
pajizas_"--when he wished to describe the thatched houses in Ocan's
village.
Referring to the ship that Cuellar's companions--who outstripped
him--embarked upon, and in the wreck of which they were subsequently
lost, Professor O'Reilly says she "_drifted there by good luck_" (_con
gran fortuna_). I think this is not the true meaning of the passage, but
that the ship was driven in "_by a great tempest_" or storm; for he goes
on to say that her main-mast and rigging were much injured. It should be
borne in mind that _fortuna_ means a storm or tempest, as well as
fortune or luck.
Turning now to Mr. Sedgwick's translation, he gives _Ancients_ as the
English equivalent for _Alférez_, which is probably some curious
misprint; for the ordinary meaning of the word is _ensign_.
Again, _Sierra_ does not mean a "peak," but a mountain ridge or range.
_Pelotes_ is given as _goat-skin_: it should be goat's _hair_.
"_Y pues el salvaje sentia tanto desmamparar su castillo_" is
translated: "And since the savage had _resolved_ to abandon his castle."
This should be: "Besides [or since] the savage _regretted so much_ to
abandon his castle."
Here it may be remarked that Cuellar always calls the natives of Ireland
savages, which seems very ungrateful on his part, as many of them showed
him great kindness. It would have been pleasanter for a translator at
the present day to have softened the harsher expression by substituting
_native_ for it, as Professor O'Reilly has done; but it appears to me
that this does not convey the correct meaning of what Cuellar had in
view when he used the word _salvaje_.
Referring to MacClancy's Castle, Cuellar says: "_Por lo qual no se puede
ganar este castillo por agua, ni por la banda de tierra que esta mas
cerca de el._" Mr. Sedgwick translates it thus: "For this reason the
castle is safe from attack, and is inaccessible both by water and by the
strip of _land that runs up to it_." This would look as if the castle
stood upon a promontory of the mainland, instead of being built in the
lake, as Cuellar, at the beginning of the same paragraph, tells us it
was.
I think the true meaning of the passage is this: "For which reason the
castle could not be taken by water nor by the shore of the land that is
nearest to it."
To conclude: there appears to be an important error in Mr. Sedgwick's
translation, beginning with the title, and repeated in the first and
last sentences of this book, besides occurring several times throughout
its pages. I refer to the statement that Cuellar's letter was written to
King Philip II., and to the constant use of the expression "Your
Majesty" to the person he was addressing.
I cannot find the slightest evidence in support of this assumption: on
the contrary, everything in the letter would seem to contradict it. It
is written in a familiar, chatty style, as to a person with whom the
writer was on fairly familiar terms, and was certainly not such as a
captain in the Spanish navy would address to his Sovereign.
The error must, I think, have arisen from some misconception as to the
meaning of the abbreviations made use of in Spanish epistolary
correspondence.
In twelve instances I find that Mr. Sedgwick has apparently mistaken the
initials V.m. (a capital V followed by a small m), which stand for
_Vuestra merced_--the usual form in which untitled persons addressed each
other--for V.M. (where both letters are capitals), meaning _Vuestra
Majestad_ (Your Majesty). Once (on page 12) he gives a similar rendering
of the letters S.M., which stand for _Su Majestad_ (His Majesty),
although on page 104 he translates the same initials correctly. On page
98 he uses the same formula (Your Majesty) to represent the expression
_La Majestad_ (The Majesty), and on page 102 he makes it do duty for the
whole expression "_La Majestad del rey nuestro Señor_" (the majesty of
the King, our Lord).
ROBERT CRAWFORD.
STONEWOLD, BALLYSHANNON,
_March_ 29_th_, 1897.
_Translation of_
CAPTAIN CUELLAR'S
_Narrative of the Spanish Armada_.
_Letter of One who was with the Armada of [for] England,
and an Account of the Expedition._
I believe that you[12](1) will be astonished at seeing this letter on
account of the slight certainty that could have existed as as to my
being alive. That you(12)(2) may be quite sure of this I write it [the
letter], and at some length, for which there is sufficient reason in the
great hardships and misfortunes I have passed through since the Armada
sailed from Lisbon for England, from which our Lord, in His infinite
good pleasure, delivered me.
As I have not had an opportunity to write to you(12)(3) for more than a
year, I have not done so until now that God has brought me to these
States of Flanders, where I arrived twelve days ago with the Spaniards
who escaped from the ships that were lost in Ireland, Scotland, and
Shetland, which were more than twenty of the largest in the Armada.
In them came a great force of picked infantry, many captains,
ensigns,[13] camp-masters,[14] and other war officials, besides several
gentlemen and scions[15] of nobility, out of all of whom, being more
than two hundred, not five survived; because some of them were drowned,
and those who reached the shore by swimming were cut in pieces by the
English, whom the Queen keeps quartered in the Kingdom of Ireland.
I escaped from the sea and from these enemies by having commended myself
very earnestly to our Lord, and to the Most Holy Virgin, His Mother; and
with me three hundred and odd soldiers, who also knew how to save
themselves and to swim to shore. With them I experienced great
misfortunes: naked and shoe-less all the winter: passing more than seven
months among mountains and woods with savages, which they all are in
those parts of Ireland where we were shipwrecked.
I think it is not right for me to omit to narrate to you, or to keep
back, the injuries and the great insults[16] that it was sought to
inflict upon me, so wrongfully, and without my having committed the
fault of neglecting to do my duty, from which our Lord delivered me.
Having been condemned to death, as you will have known, and so
ignominiously, and seeing the severity with which the order for
execution was given, I demanded, with much spirit and anger, why they
inflicted upon me so great an insult and dishonour, I having served the
King as a good soldier and loyal subject of his on all occasions and in
the encounters which we had with the fleet of the enemy, from which the
galleon I commanded always came out of action very badly injured, and
with many people killed and wounded.
In it (my demand) I requested that a copy of the order should be given
me, and that a judicial inquiry should be made of the three hundred and
fifty men who were on board the galleon, and if any one of them
considered me to blame they might quarter me.
They did not wish to listen to me, nor to many gentlemen who interceded
on my behalf, replying that the Duke was then in retirement, and very
morose, and unwilling that any one should speak with him; because, in
addition to the miserable success which he always had with the enemy, on
the day of my trouble he was informed that the two galleons--_San Mateo_
and _San Felipe_--of those from Portugal, in which were the two
camp-masters,[17] Don Francisco de Toledo, brother of the Count of
Orgaz, and Don Diego Pimentel, brother of the Marquis de Távara, were
lost in the sea, and most of those they carried were cut to pieces and
dead.
On this account the Duke kept to his cabin, and the councillors, to make
up for his perversity,[18] did wrongs, right and left, on the lives and
reputations of blameless persons; and this is so public that every one
knows it.
The galleon _San Pedro_, in which I sailed, received much injury from
many heavy cannon balls, which the enemy lodged in her in various parts;
and although they were repaired as well as was possible at the time,
there were still some hidden shot-holes through which much water
entered.
After the fierce engagement we had off Calais on the 8th of August,
continuing from the morning till seven o'clock in the evening--which was
the last of all--our Armada being in the act of retiring--oh! I don't know
how I can say it--the fleet of our enemy followed behind to drive us from
their country; and when it was accomplished, and everything was safe,
which was on the 10th of the same [month], seeing that the enemy had
stopped [ceased to follow], some of the ships of our Armada trimmed up
and repaired their damages.
On this day, for my great sins, I was resting for a little, as for ten
days I had not slept nor ceased to assist at whatever was necessary for
me,--a pilot [mate], a bad man whom I had, without saying anything to me,
made sail and passed out in advance of the admiral's ship for about two
miles, as other ships had done, in order to effect repairs.
When about to lower sails, to see where the galleon was leaking, a
tender came alongside and summoned me, on the part of the Duke, to go on
board the admiral's ship. I proceeded thither; but before I reached her,
orders were given in another ship that I and another gentleman, who was
named Don Cristobal de Avila, who went as captain of a store-ship--which
was far ahead of my galleon--should be put to death in a most ignominious
manner.
When I heard of this severity, I thought I should have burst with
passion, saying that all should bear me witness of the great wrong done
to me, I having served so well, as could be seen by written document.
The Duke heard nothing of all this, because, as I say, he was in
retirement. Señor Don Francisco Bovadilla alone was he who ordered and
countermanded in the Armada; and by him, and others, whose evil deeds
are well known, all was managed.
He ordered me to be taken to the ship of the Judge[19] Advocate General,
that his advice should be carried out on me. I went there; and although
he was severe, the Judge Advocate--Martin de Aranda, for so they called
him--heard me, and obtained confidential information concerning me. He
discovered that I had served His Majesty as a good soldier, for which
reason he did not venture to carry out on me the order that had been
given him. He wrote to the Duke about it, that if he did not order him
in writing, and signed by his own hand, he would not execute that order,
because he saw that I was not in fault, nor was there cause for it.
Accompanying it, I wrote a letter to the Duke of such a nature that it
made him consider the affair carefully, and he replied to the Judge
Advocate that he should not execute the order upon me, but on Don
Cristobal, whom they hanged with great cruelty and ignominy, being a
gentleman and well known.
God was pleased to deliver me because I was not in fault, which you will
be able to know well, or will have known from many persons who saw it
[eye-witnesses].
The said Judge Advocate was always very courteous to me, because of the
great respect he had for those who were in the right.
I remained in his ship, in which we were in imminent danger of death,
because she opened so much with a storm which sprang up that she
continually filled with water, and we could not dry her out with the
pumps. We had neither remedy nor succour, except it was from God; for
the Duke still did not appear, and all the Armada proceeded, scattered
in such manner by the storm that some ships went to Germany, others
drove on the islands of Holland and Zealand into the enemies' hands,
others went to Shetland, others to Scotland, where they were lost and
burned. More than twenty were lost in the Kingdom of Ireland, with all
the chivalry and flower of the Armada.
As I have said, the ship I sailed in was from the Levant, to which were
attached two others, very large, to afford us aid if they could.
In these came Don Diego Enriquez, "the hunchback," as camp-master; and
not being able to weather [round or double] Cape Clear (?), in Ireland,
on account of the severe storm which arose upon the bow, he was forced
to make for the land with these three ships, which, as I say, were of
the largest size, and to anchor more than half a league from the shore,
where we remained for four days without being able to make any
provision, nor could it even be made.
On the fifth [day] there sprang up so great a storm on our beam, with a
sea up to the heavens, so that the cables could not hold nor the sails
serve us, and we were driven ashore with all three ships upon a beach,
covered with very fine sand, shut in on one side and the other by great
rocks.
Such a thing was never seen: for within the space of an hour all three
ships were broken in pieces, so that there did not escape three hundred
men, and more than one thousand were drowned, among them many persons of
importance--captains, gentlemen, and other officials.
Don Diego Enriquez died there one of the saddest deaths that has ever
been seen in the world.
In consequence of fearing the very heavy sea that was washing over the
highest part of the wrecks, he took his ship's boat that was decked, and
he and the son of the Count of Villa Franca and two other Portuguese
gentlemen, with more than sixteen thousand ducats, in jewels and
crown-pieces, placed themselves under the deck of the said boat, and
gave the order to close and caulk the hatchway by which they had
entered.
Thereupon more than seventy men, who had remained alive, jumped from the
ship to the boat, and while she was making for the land so great a wave
washed over her that she sank, and all on deck were swept away.
Then she drifted along, rolling over in different directions with the
waves, until she went ashore, where she settled wrong side up, and by
these mischances the gentlemen who had placed themselves under the deck
died within.