"Letters have latelie come from his Matie. for the speedy performance of the plantation, a coppie whereof I have sent to your worships herein closed, desiring to be speedily advised from you how to proceed in the Letting of your landes; if you confer [compare] this letter with the articles of the plantation to which it hath reference, you the better decree [direct me]. Here are some Englishe and Scottishe which are willing to deale with me for some of your townelands, but none will take under 31 yeares, and hardlie any of the Englishe come to the rentes they are nowe att [in occupation of the natives], if they build at their owne charge. The Scotts are willing to give better rents than the English, but I doubte if they will performe so good building; here is much catching after tenants that I think it not fitt to put anie away that will condiscend to indifferent [impartial] conditions and covenants. I am sure the Mercers' lands are some sett at a lower rent than they were at the last yeare, and no estate under 31 yeares. I think there is some XX townes sett since I went into England, and they are desirous to sett more after the same [lower] rates. If the natives doe departe off from the Cittie lands, the prices will doubtlesse fall. I desire to be fullie instructed uppon what conditions and covenants I may safelie sett parte of your lands to the natives; some of them have promised me privatlie that they will conforme themselves, but they are verie fearful of their owne countrymen yet, till theire troubles are fullie past over.

"I am enformed by some here that the /, parte of the land appointed for glibe lands at our Ladie church in the ballabett [ballybetagh] of Athgeve [Agivey] was mistaken by Mr. Alderman Smythees, for it being Abbey lands there ought to be no glibe taken of it; I do not heare of the same Abbey lands that doth allow anie in other proportions; I pray you understande the truth of it from him, in tyme it may be better helped than hereafter. I desire also to knowe how manie Balleboes you are pleased to appoint for the Demeasnes of your Castell, and which they are, that I may the better proceed to the Letting of the residue as occasion shalle afford. think the whole Ballebow [ballybetagh] of Athgeave [Agivey] contayneth 6 town lands (glibe and all), to be the fittest to belong to the Castell; or if you please to lay any more lands to it, that if hereafter you please to have a market towne uppon your proportion it may happelie [haply] be thought to be neare the place, for it will be more convenient (having to ferry there) (90), for the lands on the other side of the Ban, and not much unfitt for the rest of your owne lands.

"The dangers of these troubles have hindered the setting of land much, and must be more on some other proportions than ours. There are yet divers out in rebellion in the woodes, and some tymes light uppon passengers and robb them and sometymes light into the houses and doe manie villanyes; the last weeke they toke an Irishman as he was keeping cattell in the woodes. uppon the Mercers' proportion, and hanged him with a withe in a tree, and 'tis thought for no other cause but that Mr. [ ] being an Irishman, had conformed himself and gone to our church. Manie outrages are dayly put in practise, which makes those that have businesse abroad in the country to be verie circumspecte for the Robers, which are yet out, have given out speeches that

(90). Ferry there.-This ferry has been long since superseded by a wooden bridge.

if they would take anie Englishe of accompt they would have their [own] pardons or hang them; this causes every man to provide soe for his own safetie that it draws a greater charge to them than otherwise were needed, and I feare that my expences will exceed your good liking; wherefore, I desire you all in your worship's favour that you would be pleased to appoint me weekly or monthely allowance to your own contente, for I proteste I hadd rather beare parte of my charges myself than to deliver up an accompt of expenses which should be in anie way displeasing to you.

"As soon as I have gott our materialls in some good forwardness, which I hope will be shortlie, then I will write to your worships for a supplie of more money by Mr. Leate's appointment, as he did offer, for here will be want of money as soon as the work goes forwarde. All the money here will hardlie satisfy Mr. Heywarde; and beseech you not to let me want wherewith to satisfy the workmen; I will not charge you with more than shall be needful. So, being loath to be tedious for this tyme, I humbly take my leave and rest at your worship's service." See Nicholl's Account of the Company of Ironmongers, Appendix. "GEORGE CANNINGE."

The foregoing extracts may be taken as truly descriptive of the other Companies' affairs also at the period referred to, and as affording glimpses at least of the difficulties to which they were all equally exposed. These difficulties continued in a greater or less degree until after the revolutionary struggle of 1690, when the last hope of the native Irish to regain their lands appears to have been all but extinguished. But the neglects and misdeeds of the Londoners themselves during the first twenty years of their career as planters in Northern Ulster, will not be fully understood until the publication of a collection known as Phillips's Manuscript, which was left by that indefatigable knight, and into which he had gathered everything worthy of record in connection with the Londoners' plantation, down nearly to the date of his own death, or about the year 1630. He prefaced his collection by a letter to Charles I., which letter was printed by Harris in his Hibernica, 1747, and contains an abstract of the contents of his book, as he is pleased to designate the manuscript. No one, certainly, was so competent as Sir Thomas Phillips to conduct the controversy on behalf of the King, and as against the Irish Society, for he knew everything connected with the original compact, and was personally acquainted with the condition of their several settlements from the Bann to the Foyle..

CHAPTER IX.-PYNNAR'S SURVEY.

HUS, then, was the plantation made; and the six counties comprising about 3,798,000 statute acres, were distributed among English and Scottish undertakers, servitors, citizens of London, protestant bishops and incumbents, corporate towns, forts, free schools, and the college at Dublin (1). Of the vast quantity of land thus disposed of, about 55,000 acres were handed over to Irish inhabitants of various ranks, the reversion, however, in nearly all the larger grants to the latter being retained by the Crown, which had thus soon the re-disposal of such estates at the deaths of their Irish owners. On Chichester's return to Dublin, after his removal of the natives to make way for British settlers during the autumn of 1610, he appears to have had some time for reflection. As he thought over the scenes he had then recently witnessed, and called to mind the specimens of that class of British undertakers whom he had there an opportunity of meeting, and for whose introduction so many awful sacrifices had been made, his musings evidently became somewhat melancholy. When writing-at least some of his reflections--to Salisbury, on the 27th September, he declined, as he said, to give him "a true and ample discourse of their [the commissioners'] travels, actions, and observations," but forwarded "some particular notes and advertisements of his own, not so well known perhaps to the rest, nor so fit to be imparted in general letters." Among these 'notes,' the first and most prominent he conveys in the following terms:-"He [Chichester] thinks he shall not live to see the plantation performed according to the project laid down, of which opinion he was when he first beheld it [the project] and began to be informed of the quality and condition of the undertakers; and would gladly have stayed his journey thither [into Ulster] this summer, had he not doubted the same would have displeased his Majesty; for how well soever he wished to the business, he never thought it a work so easy and

feasable as it seems it was conceaved. For to plant almost five whole counties [exclusive of Londonderry] in so barren and remote a place, with new comers, is not a work for such undertakers as those that, for the most part, are come unto them." The deputy thus appears to have made up his mind for disappointment, believing that the work would have required other and better hands. Writing, on the 31st of October, to the Earl of Northampton, a member of the council, Chichester does not appear to have been relieved from his gloomy forebodings. "Considering," says he, "the greatness and difficulty of the work, and the condition and qualities of the parties that have undertaken, that is, such as have yet come in person, he conceives these are not the men who must perform the business; for to displant the natives, who are a warlike people, out of the greatest part of six whole counties, is not a work for private men who seek a present profit."

If

In a second letter to Salisbury about a month later, the deputy speaks more plainly his impressions as to the general incompetency or unfitness of the undertakers, in the following terms :"Those from England are, for the most part, plain country gentlemen, who may promise much, but give small assurance or hope of performing what appertains to a work of such moment. they have money, they keep it close, for hitherto they have disbursed but little; and if he may judge by the outward appearance, the least trouble or alteration of the times here will scare most of them away. It is said by themselves that since the Lords [the council in London] denominated the parties at first that were to be undertakers, some have exchanged their proportions, and others sold them out-right; in one precinct of those that have appeared [arrived], two are churchmen [parsons], and one a youth of some 18 or 19 years' old, whose names he has noted in the schedule sent by Sir Oliver Lambert. The Scottishmen come with greater port [show], and better accompanied and attended, but it may be with less money in their purses; for some of the principal of them, upon their first entrance into their precincts, were forthwith in hand with the natives to supply their wants; and in recompense thereof promise to get license from his Majesty that they [the natives] may remain upon their lands as tenants unto them [the Scottish undertakers]; which is so pleasing to that people [the Irish of Ulster] that they will strain themselves to the uttermost to gratify them [the Scotch], for they are content to become tenants to any man rather than be removed from the place of their birth and education, hoping, as he conceives, at one time or other, to find an opportunity to cut their landlord's throats; for sure he is, they hate the Scottish deadly, and out of their malice towards them they begin to affect [like] the English better than they were accustomed. They [the natives] sell away both corn and cattle, and when they are demanded why they do so, their answer is that they know not what else to do with them, nor to what place to carry them, the portion of land assigned to each of them being too little to receive and feed them [the cattle]. They seek by all means to arm themselves, and have undoubtedly some pieces [muskets] in store; and more pikes, and thereof can make more daily; but powder and lead are scarce with them. Will do his best to prevent their revolt, but greatly doubts it, for they are infinitely discontented.”

But the gloomy aspect of affairs, thus depicted by the deputy, was not to any extent relieved or enlivened when the several companies of undertenants and settlers generally made their appearance in Ulster. If the stuff of which the undertaker-class was composed had thus

appeared in some important respects objectionable, the arrival of their humbler followers was not calculated to bring much alleviation to Chichester's disquietude. It would appear that the characters and habits which these colonists brought with them, whether across the North Channel or the Irish Sea, were not generally calculated to recommend them as desirable settlers. The fact, however, that they were free from all troublesome scruples in entering into other men's lands and labours, and of stoutly defending themselves therein, was likely, under the circumstances, to atone for many delinquencies. There exists, curiously enough, a description of these Ulster settlers, written by the Rev. Andrew Stewart, a presbyterian minister at Donaghadee from 1645 to 1671, himself indeed the son of a settler, and not likely, therefore, to depict them in darker colours than truth positively required. "From Scotland came many," says he, "and from England not a few; yet all of them generally the scum of both nations, who for debt, or breaking and fleeing # from justice, or seeking shelter, came hither; hoping to be without fear of man's justice in a land where there was nothing, or but little, as yet, of the fear of God. And, in a few years, there flocked such a multitude of people from Scotland, that these northern counties of Down, Antrim, Londonderry, &c., were in a good measure planted; yet most of the people, as I said before, made up of a body (and it is strange) of different names, nations, dialects, temper, breeding; and in a word, all void of godliness, who seemed rather to flee from God in this enterprise than to follow their own mercy; yet, God followed them when they fled from him-albeit at first it must be remembered that they cared little for any church."

Under these circumstances it could not be expected that the work of plantation would prosper, at least for a time. Chichester did not condescend to criticise the conduct of the common people, but his complaints to the authorities in London about the apathy and greed of undertakers so alarmed the King that he forthwith appointed Sir George Carew and others as commissioners to visit Ulster, and report what progress, if any, had been made in the plantation. This visitation took place in the autumn of 1611, or a year after the undertakers had received possession of their several proportions. It was found that whilst a few had gone earnestly to work, many simply deigned a glance at their lands, and several had not taken the trouble, either personally or by agents, to do even so much as this! Of those who made some progress, it was found that English undertakers had occupied themselves principally in building, whilst their Scottish neighbours devoted their energies to the work of raising crops from their newly acquired lands. The workers were encouraged by the commissioners; the idlers or absentees were threatened with forfeiture; and several of the latter class then sold out their interests in the lands, thus giving place to more energetic planters than they were likely ever to become. The movement thus gained a little life, but mainly from the presence and assistance of the natives, who were willing to become hewers of wood and drawers of waters rather than be removed from their native districts (2).

(2). Native districts.-With reference to this removal question, it may be stated once for all that the Government could not carry it out, simply because the settlers could not dispense with their services. The Ulster landlords generally were found, at the commencement of the following reign, to have systematically violated the law requiring the removal of natives from all estates owned by English or

Scottish undertakers. This violation of the original 'Orders and Conditions' when taken in connection with some others, enabled Charles I. to confiscate their plantations, which would have been done in the year 1626, had they not promptly agreed to surrender their first patents, and accept others on such conditions as the King was pleased to impose. These conditions required from