Who can wade through such a miserable mass of folly and fraud, without bitterly exclaiming,

"How God and good men hate so foul a liar?”465 Stratford's deposition* is exactly of the same character as Maxwell's; and is so distinctly and,

clock at night, a light was observed, in manner of a long pillar, to shine for a long way through the air, and refracted upon the north gabel of the house. It gave so great a light, about an hour together, that divers of the watch read both letters and books of a very small character thereby. The former the deponent knoweth to be most true, both by his own experience, and the general observation of as many as the deponent met with in the county Armagh. The latter was seen by all those of the deponent's family, and besides by many of his Irish guard.

"Deposed, August 22, 1642. "JOHN WATSON,

"WILLIAM ALDRICH.' 99466

"ROBERT MAXWELL.

*"Captain Anthony Stratford deposeth and saith, that "These Protestant ministers following, about the beginning of the present rebellion, were murdered in the counties of Tyrone and Armagh, viz. Mr. John Mathew, Mr. Blythe, Mr. Hastings, Mr. Smith, Mr. Darragh, Mr. Birge, and eight more, whose names this deponent hath forgotten, by the rebels, none of which would the rebels permit to be buried; the names of such as murdered, this examinant knoweth not; his cause of knowledge of the said murders is, that some of his, this deponent's servants, who were among the rebels, did give him the relation!!! and he verily believeth them; and besides, this deponent heard the same confessed and averred by many of the rebels themselves, and by some of those Protestants that had escaped: and that he this deponent was a prisoner among the rebels, at Castlecaufield, near the place of those murders, WHERE HE CONTINUED FOURTEEN MONTHS! And further

465 Shakspeare.

466 Borlace, App. 136, 137.

legibly stamped with the broad seal of perjury, that even the most superficial observer cannot mistake its character.

saith, that in Dungannon, in the county of Tyrone, or near thereunto, the rebels murdered three hundred and sixteen Protestants; and between Charlemont and Dungannon, above four hundred; that there were murdered and drowned at and in the river of Benburb, the Black water, between the counties of Armagh and Tyrone, two hundred and six Protestants; and Patrick Mac-Crew, of Dungannon, aforesaid, murdered thirty-one in one morning; and two young rebels, John Begbrian and Harry, murdered in the said county of Tyrone, one hundred and forty poor women and children that could make no resistance: and that the wife of Brien Kelly, of Loghall, in the county of Armagh, (one of the rebels' captains,) did with her own hands murder forty-five. And deponent further saith, that one Thomas King, sometimes sergeant to the late lord Caufield's company (which this deponent commanded) he being forced to serve under the rebels, and was one of the provost marshals, gave the deponent a list of every householder's name so murdered, and the number of the persons so murdered; which list this deponent durst not keep: At Portnedown there were drowned at several times about three hundred and eight, who were sent away by about forty, or such like numbers at once, with convoys, and there drowned: There was a lough near Loghall aforesaid, where were drowned above two hundred, of which this deponent was informed by several persons, and particularly by the wife of doctor Hodges, and two of her sons, who were present and designed for the like end: but by God's mercy, that gave them favour in the eyes of some of the rebels, they escaped; and the said Mrs. Hodges and her sons gave the deponent a list of the names of many of those that were so drowned, which the deponent durst not keep; and saith that the said doctor Hodges was employed by Sir Phelim O'Neil to make powder; but he failing of his undertaking, was first half hanged, then cut down, and kept prisoner three months, and then murdered with forty-four more, within a quarter of a mile of Charlemont aforesaid, they being

The insurrection began on the 23d of October, 1641. The deposition of this man was taken on

by Tirlogh O'Neil, brother to Sir Phelim, sent to Dungannon, prisoners, and in the way murdered. This deponent was showed the pit where they were all cast in.

"At a mill pond in the parish of Kilamen, in the county of Tyrone, there were drowned in one day three hundred, and in the same parish there were murdered of English and Scottish twelve hundred, as this deponent was informed by Mr. Birge, the late minister of the said parish,* who certified the same under his hand, which note the deponent durst not keep : the said Mr. Birge was murdered three months after: all which murders were in the first breaking out of the rebellion, but the particular times this deponent cannot remember, neither the persons by whom they were committed. This deponent was credibly informed by the said sergeant and others of this deponent's servants (who kept company with the rebels,) and saw the same, that many young children were cut into quarters and gobbets by the rebels, and that eighteen Scottish infants were hanged on a clothier's tenterhook, and that they murdered a young fat Scottish man, and made candles of his grease; they took another Scottish man and ripped up his belly, that they might come to his small guts, the one end whereof they tied to a tree, and made him go round until he had drawn them all out of his body; they then saying, that they would try whether a dog's or a Scotchman's guts were the longer. "ANTHONY STRATFORD.

"Deposed, March 9, 1643, before us,

"HENRY JONES,

"HENRY BRERETON."467

* The wonderful density of the population of this parish, where fifteen hundred persons were murdered, might excite doubts, but for the circumstance, that this important fact was "certified by Mr. Birge, under his own hand." It is much to be regretted that the deponent “durst not keep” this valuable document, which was worthy of being preserved in the archives of Ireland.

467 Temple, 110.

the 9th of March, 1643; that is, above sixteen months from the time when it commenced. By his own account, he was for fourteen months a prisoner!! He does not state when he was first confined; but we will suppose one month after the first date, and that he was released one month before the second. Yet he swears positively to various circumstances, which he pretends occurred, in different parts of the province, during his imprisonment, with as much confidence as if he had been an eye-witness of the whole; and so shameless was the villain, so profligate were the wretched magistrates who took his deposition, so abandoned was the spirit of the age, that he, without scruple, avowed his perjury, by stating the sources of his information, which were as various as the different items of his testimony. In one case, "some of his servants, who were among the rebels, did give him the information;" in another, "Thomas King did give him a list of the householders so murdered," in another, "the wife of Dr. Hodges and her two sons gave him a list," in another, the murder of fifteen hundred in one parish is " certified by Mr. Birge, under his own hand;" and in this manner, he proceeds throughout the whole deposition.

We now close the first class of the testimony, on which the wretched legend of the Irish massacre rests. We trust the reader will agree that it fully realizes Warner's description, and is. nothing more than a collection of " idle, silly tales,"

of "what this body heard another body say.” One man swears, that he "heard, and verily believeth;" another, that he "heard it credibly reported among the rebels themselves;" a third, that "an Irish gentleman told him and others ;” a fourth, that "he was informed;" and a fifth, that "a woman absolutely informed this deponent;" and similar ribald nonsense, to which nothing but the spirit of fraud, falsehood, perjury, and rapine, that predominated among the rulers of Ireland at that period, could have given currency; and which would not, at present, be admitted as evidence, by the most paltry, pettifogging justice of the peace, against the lowest wretch in the community.

Is there a man, not lost to every sense of honour and justice, who can read this account without horror, amazement, indignation, and regret? horror at the atrocious wickedness of the host of perjurers, who were thus made the instruments to plunder the property and sacrifice the lives of the ill-fated Irish; amazement at the Baotian and superlative stupidity of those who committed themselves by perjuries open to the detection of the most superficial observer; indignation at the base imposture, or gross neglect, which has led so many subsequent writers, particularly Hume, to poison the pure streams of history, by recourse to such a pestilential source as this vile, this ribald story; and profound regret, if he

468 Warner, 146.