Stonewold, Ballyshannon,
March 29th, 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[[1]] (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(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(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,[[4]] camp-masters,[[5]] and other war officials, besides several gentlemen and scions[[6]] 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.