AN ABSTRACT OF THE Unnatural REBELLION AND Barbarous Massacre OF THE PROTESTANTS, In the KINGDOM of IRELAND, In the Year 1641.  
Collected from the most Authentic Copies.  
LONDON, Printed, and are to be Sold by Richard Janemay in Queens-head-alley in Pater-noster-Rowe, 1689.   

AN ABSTRACT OF THE Unnatural REBELLION, and Barbarous MASSACRE of the PROTESTANTS in the Kingdom of IRELAND, in 1641.  
THE implacable Rancour and restless Attempts of those in Communion with the Church of Rome, though they have in all Ages displayed themselves in the most bloody Characters, and have had the barbarous Effects of depopulating Regions, Countries and Kingdoms, by Massacres, Sword and Fire, in order to the setting up and establishing their Religion, by destroying the Lives and Properties of those of different persuasions: Yet perhaps amongst all their Efforts of that Kind, none have deserved greater abhorrence, nor given a blacker Testimony of their Inhumanity, than the barbarous and bloody Irish Rebellion, which broke out in the Year 1641. and was carried on with that Rage and Violence, that it laid almost all the parts of that deplorable Country in Blood and Confusion, depriving by a most horrid Massacre, above two hundred thousand Persons, of all Ages, Sexes, and Qualities, of their dearest Lives: Leaving Children without Parents, Wives deprived of their Husbands, and Husbands robbed of their Wives; sometimes without distinction burying whole Families in the same Fate. And though there be many Histories of large Volumes, that have Chronicled this Affair, to be still kept alive in the Memories of Posterity, yet it must not be accounted a Work improper at this time, to remark some of the most important and best attested Passages relating thereunto. This little Collection presents you with nothing but what comes under the Hands of the Great Ministers of State, and those which at that time had a share in the management of the public Affairs, and Administration of that unhappy Kingdom.  
The Priests and others of that Communion, of the Irish Nation, have not been wanting to decry, and as much as in them lies, to blast all Evidences of that Kind, and have taken all occasions to Remonstrate the Pressures which they pretend to have suffered under the then Government in that Kingdom, and spare not to term it Tyrannical: They intimate as if their Case were like that of the Israelites in the Land of Egypt, and equal to those Persecutions for Religion in the Primitive Times.  
In a Remonstrance of Grievances presented to his then Majesty, in behalf of the Catholics of Ireland, and given in to his Majesty's Commissioners at Trim, the 17 of March, 1642. they Express themselves to this purpose.  
THat only some Catholics, considering the deplorable and desperate Condition they were in, and apprehending the Plots laid to Extinguish their Religion and Nation, did take Arms in the North, in Maintenance of their Religion, and for the Preservation of Life, Liberty and Estate, together with his Majesty's Rights, and that the Lords and Gentlemen dwelling within the English Pale, were likewise by the great Rigour and severity used by the State towards them, enforced to take up Arms in their own defence.  
This is the language of that Remonstrance, whereby they endeavour to cast the Odium of their infamous Treasons and Butcheries upon his then Majesty, and the Principal Officers of State within that Kingdom; of which there needs no other Confutation, than a true and Impartial Relation of the beginning and Progress of that Rebellion.  
The Kingdom of Ireland was brought in subjection to the Crown of England, by the victorious Arms of Henry the second, the beginning of whose Conquests bear Date from the year of our Lord, 1172. The Towns and Villages were contemptible, their Buildings so poor, that when the King arrived at their chief City of Dublin, he set up a Long House made of smoothed Wattles, after the manner of their Country, and therein kept his Christmas; finding there no place fit for his Reception and Entertainment. The Inhabitants were as uncultivated as their Lands, being generally void of all manner of Civility, governed by no settled Laws, but living like beasts of Prey, biting and devouring one another; without any reasonable Constitutions for determining of their Properties, or to fence them against open Force and Violence: Murders, Rapes, and the most notorious Robberies, and other Acts of Inhumanity and Barbarism, raging amongst them without Control or means of Redress. For the first Century almost the English kept themselves in Bodies distinct and separate from the Irish, not suffering them to inhabit or mix amongst them, but in aftertimes by Degrees they admitted them into a fatal familiarity, which polluted them with their beastly Customs and Manners; for prevention of which, in the times of that most excellent Prince, Edward the third, many good and wholesome Laws were Enacted. Notwithstanding which, they have not sailed at all times to Rise up and imbrue their hands in the Blood of their English Neighbours; so that Ireland hath for a long time been a true Aceldama, or Field of Blood, and a devouring Sepulchre of the English Nation.  
For by the Histories of those times, we cannot find that there was any settled Peace or good Establishment, from the first coming over of the English, until the Reign of Queen Elizabeth; which contained above three hundred and eighty years; during the greatest part of which time, they were in Perpetual Troubles and Combustions, being extremely Harassed and overworn with Misery: whereupon that Blessed Queen, even in the beginning of her Reign, sent over Prudent and Religious Governors, to advance the Work of Reformation; and enacted many more wholesome Laws against the Barbarous Customs of the Irish. Notwithstanding which Care, and all the Circumspection of that wise Princess, still there was one Rebellion breaking out upon the Neck of another, even amidst their repeated Submissions and pretended Obedience to the English Crown; which occasioned her to send over a Royal Army under the Conduct of her most Renowned and Choice English Commanders. Nevertheless it was not without great difficulty and Effusion of much English Blood and Treasure, that that Glorious work of reducing the Traitor Tyrone, was accomplished. The calamities of that War, and the raging of a Famine, had reduced that Kingdom to a deplorable Condition, in the days of King James the first; who seized the six Counties within the Province of Ulster, which had belonged to the Rebels; some part of which were reserved to gratify the well-affected Natives, and the rest distributed, in certain Proportions amongst the English Undertakers; who settled themselves, and many of their Families, in those parts, laying the Foundations of some good Towns, encompassed with Stone Walls; raising several Castles and Houses of strength in the parts of the Country, to the great Comfort, and security of the British Inhabitants; who with great cost and much Industry cultivated the Land, and introduced Civility amongst the Natives; the whole Kingdom began exceedingly to flourish, the People to multiply and increase, and the very Irish themselves seemed satisfied with the Tranquillity they enjoyed.  
Upon the Accession of Charles the first to the Crown, the Affairs of Ireland look with a more calm and benign Face than in Times past; many Applications from the Popish Nobility and Gentry, for the Redress of their Grievances, were with great Clemency received, and with great Moderation recommended to the Care of the then two Houses of Parliament sitting at Dublin. The Catholics were permitted to the private Exercise of their Religion, with great Freedom; they had their Orders of Bishops, Vicars, Priests and Nuns permitted amongst them; and by the Inter-Marriages of the English, with some of the better refined Natives, all things presented as if inclined to Amity: the advantages they received by the English Improvements and Commerce, caused many of the Native Gentry and others, to displace their Irish Tenants, and set their Lands to the English; of which they found the Benefit by a great advance of their Rents and Securities: so serene and full of Lenity was the conduct of the Government, that the late Irish Army raised for the Invasion of the Kingdom of Scotland, were Peaceably disbanded, and their Arms and Munition laid up in his Majesty's Stores in the Castle of Dublin; there seemed to be no more remains of former Disorders, nor was there any more noise of War heard. In this great calm the English were in a profound Security, under the Hopes of a Blessed Peace. All sat pleasantly enjoying the Fruits of their Labours, without any Apprehensions of the approaching Storm, when on the twenty third of October, One thousand six hundred forty one, broke out that dreadful Rebellion, and universal Defection and Revolt, wherein not only the Native Irish, but almost all the old English that adhered to the Church of Rome, were generally concerned. It would be a large Task to trace out the Progress of the Rebellion, so execrable in its self, so odious to God, and the whole World, as no Age, no Kingdom, nor People can match the horrid Cruelties, the abominable Murders, that have been almost numberless, as well as without Mercy, committed upon the English and Protestant Inhabitants throughout the Land. And this carried on with such a deep reservedness and Secrecy, as is enough to beget Admiration: for it could not be understood that any English man (besides the uncertain Presumption which Sir William Cole had of a Commotion to be raised in the Province of Ulster, about a fortnight before this dreadful Rebellion broke forth;) I say, that any English, man had Notice, or the least Apprehensions of it. It's true, the said Sir William Cole upon his first conceiving that something was hatching amongst the Irish, did write a Letter to the Lords Justices and Council, Dated the eleventh of October, One thousand six hundred forty one. Wherein he gave them Notice of the great resort made to Sir Phelim Oneal, in the County of Tyrone, and likewise to the House of the Lord Mac-Guire in the County of Fermanagh, and that by Persons much suspected to be fit Instruments for Mischief; as also that the said Lord Mac Guire, had lately made several Journeys into the Pale, and other places: And had spent much time in writing Letters, and sending Dispatches abroad. The Lords upon receipt of those Letters from Sir William Cole, required him to be very Vigilant, and use his utmost Diligence to find out the occasion of those meetings, and to give them the most speedy Advertisement thereof, or of any other matter that might tend to the service of the State. The twenty third of October, was the day appointed for seizing the City and Castle of Dublin, and for murdering the Lords Justices, and Council of Ireland, and the rest of the Protestants, and to seize upon all the Castles, Forts, Seaports and Strengths, that were in the hands of the English: Notice hereof was brought to the Lord Justice Parsons, the Evening before, by Owen O Connally, a Person of mere Irish Extraction: His Lordship gave little credit to it at first, as proceeding from an obscure Person, and one who at that time seemed disguised with Liquor; but however the Lord Parsons gave him order again to go to Mac Mahon, and to get out of him, as much certainty of the Plot, and as many circumstances, as he could; charging him to return unto him that Evening, with an Account of what farther particulars he could get.  
Immediately strict Orders were given to the Constable of the Castle to have the Gates thereof well guarded, as also to the Mayor and Sheriffs of the City, to have strong Watches set upon all the parts of the same, and to stop all Strangers. About ten that night they found the said Connally seized by the Watch, and carried to Prison, and from thence they brought him to the Lord Borlaces House; where upon Examination, upon Oath, he declared, that finding Col. Hugh Oge Mac-Mahon, at the Lord Mac Guire's Lodging, the said Hugh told him, that there would that Night be great numbers of Noblemen, and Gentlemen of the Irish Papists, from all the parts of the Kingdom, in that Town, who with himself had determined to take the Castle of Dublin, and possess themselves of all his Majesty's Ammunition there, to morrow morning, being Saturday; and that they intended first to batter the Chimneys, and if the City would not yield, then to batter down the Houses, and so cut off all the Protestants that would not join with them. And that the said Hugh then told him, that the Irish had prepared men in all parts of the Kingdom, to destroy all the English inhabiting there, to morrow Morning by ten a Clock; and that the Protestants in all the Seaports, and other Towns in the Kingdom should be killed this Night; and that all the Posts that could be, could not prevent it; that he moved the said Hugh to forbear executing of that Business, and to discover it for the saving of his own Estate, who said he could not help it. But said, they did owe their Allegiance to the King, and would Pay him all his Rights, but that they did this for the Tyrannical Government, that was over them, and to imitate Scotland, who got a Privilege by that course. This is the main Scope of the first Examination that was taken before the Lords Justices, which occasioned the following Proclamation.  
By the Lords Justices and Council.  
W. Parsons. John Borlase.  
THese are to make known and publish to all His Majesty's good Subjects in this Kingdom of Ireland, that there is a Discovery made by Us the Lords Justices and Council, of a most disloyal and detestable Conspiracy intended by some evil-affected Irish Papists, against the lives of Us the Lords Justices and Council, and many other of His Majesty's faithful Subjects, universally throughout this Kingdom, and for the seizing not only of His Majesty's Castle of Dublin, His Majesty's principal Fort here, but also of the other Fortifications in the Kingdom: And seeing by the great goodness and abundant Mercy of Almighty God to His Majesty, and this State and Kingdom, those wicked Conspiracies are brought to Light, and some of the Conspirators committed to the Castle of Dublin, by Us, by His Majesty's Authority, so as those wicked and damnable Plots are now disappointed in the chief parts thereof: We therefore have thought fit hereby, not only to make it publicly known, for the comfort of His Majesty's good and loyal Subjects in all parts of the Kingdom, but also hereby to require them, that they do with all confidence and cheerfulness betake themselves to their own Defence, and stand upon their Guard, so to render the more safety to themselves, and all the Kingdom besides; and that they advertise Us with all possible speed of all Occurrents, which may concern the Peace and Safety of the Kingdom, and now to show fully that Faith and Loyalty, which they have always shown for the public services of the Crown and Kingdom, which We will value to His Majesty accordingly, and a special memory thereof will be retained for their advantage in due time. And We require that great care be taken that no Levies of men be made for Foreign Service, nor any men suffered to March upon any such pretence. Given at His Majesty's Castle of Dublin, Octob. 23. 1641.  
R. Dillon. Ro. Digby. Ad. Loftus. J. Temple. Tho. Rotheram. Fr. Willoughby. Ja. Ware. Ro. Meridith. God save the King.  
Before we come to the Particulars of this bloody Execution, it will not be amiss to recite a passage from the Excellent Pen, of that great Peer and Statesman, the Earl of Orrery, in his Answer to P. Welsh. The Wifest of men thought the Irish Papists fastened to his Majesty in the Year, 1641. by the best of Governments, and to the English Protestants, by the strictest ties of Interest and Friendship, Marriage, and which is more in their Esteem, Gossipping and Feasting; to the public Peace, by their, as flourishing, so free Condition; and to all, by those Royal Graces, which his Sacred Majesty at that time Indulged their Commissioners; such as themselves desired, 'twas but to Ask and have: Yet all this Honey was turned into Gall; for at that very time, wherein the King was Exercising such High Acts of Grace to them, the Irish Papists Plotted, and soon after perpetrated the worst of Rebellions; the worst Extensive, Exulcerating generally; and Intensive, breaking forth, with more Perfidy, Barbarism and Cruelty, than can be paralleled in any History. So far that extraordinary Person.  
But whilst by the great Care and Conduct of the Lords Justices, and Council, the intended surprise of the Castle of Dublin, was defeated, divers of the Chief Ringleaders seized and in Custody, their other Confederates broke forth in the North of Ireland, with an uninterrupted and Tragic Execution of their Hellish Purposes; and dividing their Forces into several Parties, according, as they had determined amongst themselves, at one time surprised by Treachery, the Town and Castle of the Newry, the Fort of Don-Gannon, the Fort Mont-Joy, Charl …, Ton-Rages, Carick, Mac-Rosse, Clough-Cutter, Castle … ley, Castle of Monagham; being all of them considerable … es of strength, and in divers of them Companies of Ho●se and Foot, belonging to the standing Army. They likewise m●de themselves Masters of a multitude of other Castles, Houses of strength, Towns and Villages well Peopled with English Inhabitants, who had much enriched the Country as well as themselves, by their painful Labours. The English thought themselves secare in the friendship of their Irish Tenants, Servants or Landlords, and the surrounding Neighbourhood, whom they had endeavoured to oblige by all the kindnesses of Friendship: So that when the Fire first began to break out, and the whole Country began to rise about them, some had their recourse to those they esteemed their Friends, for Protection, relying on their Tenants, Neighbours, or Landlords for Preservation, or at least present safety, and with great confidence, put their Lives, their Wives, their Children, and all they had into their Power. But Oh Inhuman and Perfidious! these confiding Innocents', were by these their Irish Friends, either betrayed into the hands of other Rebels, or most inhumanely Butchered by their own hands; such Maxims had their bloody Priests instilled into them, that they held it mortal sin to give any manner of relief or Protection to the English: No ties of Faith or Friendship, could restrain their Rage: Irish Landlords devoured their English Tenants; Irish Tenants and Servants made a Sacrifice of their English Landlords and Masters; one Neighbour cruelly Butchered and destroyed another: the Venom descended in the Veins of their Children; those of the Irish Nation, in the very beginning fell to Strip and Kill the Children of the English: 'Twas thought meritorious in them that could by any means bring the English to Destruction; Servants were killed as they were Ploughing in the Fields; Husbands cut to pieces in the presence of their Wives; the children's Brains dashed out in the Presence of their Parents, and in a moment their Goods and  were seized, their Houses burnt, the Places of their Habitation laid desolate; and those that had their Lives, exposed to the greatest miseries of Nakedness and Famine.  
Where the English stood upon their Defence, and in small Parties endeavoured to oppose the violence of the Rebels, there they entrapped them with promises of safety of Passports, of Protections for themselves and Goods. This they confirmed to them sometimes by Oaths and deepest Protestations, sometimes under Hand and Seal; but no sooner were they in their Power, but they took themselves to be discharged from the Sacred Obligations of Faith and Justice, and with more than Pagan Barbarism, cut in pieces those whom they had taken into their Protection; Permitting their Soldiers after all the forementioned securities, to destroy and Butcher them at their Pleasures.  
Nor were the sacred Walls of the Cathedral Church at Armagh any defence against the Sacrilegious Violences of Sir Phelim Oneal, and his Brother Turner: Besides, many others by the same Artifices inveigled and betrayed out of Churches, Castles, and Places, to which they had fled for security. The Rebels were embodied and dispersed in Parties through all the Neighbourhoods, so that the English durst not draw out of their own Houses, to form a Body to oppose them: whereas if they had left their Houses upon the first rising of the Irish, and in several Counties put themselves into a Posture of Defence, they might have undoubtedly prevented the effusion of much of that Blood which for want of some such Conduct, was so barborously spilt. Other Policies they made use of, to heighten and Protract the Calamities of the Innocent. Of some they took Plate, Money, or whatever other moveables could be produced; promising them under such consideration to convey them safe to Dublin; notwithstanding which, by an unpresidented perfidy, they either exposed them into such unsufferable Calamities upon the way, under which they could not subsist, or else dispatched them by an immediate Butchery, after they had undertaken their Conduct.  
At the first breaking out, they did not in many places murder many of them; but the course they took, was to seize upon their Goods and , and all they could strip them of, leaving themselves, their Wives, and Children naked, and in that miserable plight exposed to the severities of most bitter Cold and Hunger; forcing many of them to the Mountains, to seek their way through Woods and Bogs; and if by any means they procured other covering, so but of Rags, they were immediately stripped of that too, and none suffered to give them any shelter or relief, without falling under the heavy displeasure of their Priests and Officers.  
Mr. Creighton, who by his Charity relieved great numbers of them, and for that time preserved them from Perishing; testifies upon his Examination, that in one company there passed by his House fourteen hundred Persons, besides divers other lesser numbers, all without any Weapons, or any thing but their , which they suffered them not to carry away with them, but most cruelly stripped many of them to their Skins, and betrayed them into the hands of other Rebels, by whom they were barbarously killed or mangled: Thirty Persons of one Company being slain outright, and a hundred and fifty others miserably wounded; so that Tracts of Blood issuing from their Wounds, lay upon the Highway for twelve miles together. Many very young Children, to the number of sixty or thereabout, were left, and perished by the way, because the bloody pursuit of the Rebels were such, that their Parents and Friends could carry them no further. Some of the Cannibals vowed, that if any dug Graves to bury their dead Children, themselves should be buried therein: So these miserable People were compelled to leave most of them unburied, exposed to ravenous Beasts and Fowls; some few of the distressed Parents were forced to carry a great way, to cover them with Earth. A Woman great with Child, was left upon the Road stripped to her Smock, who was set upon by three Irish Women and some Children, who rent and miserably tore the said poor English Woman, leaving her Naked in a bitter Frost and Snow; Insomuch that she fell in Labour under their hands, and both she and her Child died together. Many of those Men, and Women, and Children, that escaped into places of Safety, not long outlived the bitterness of their passage, but either with Grief, or weary with Travel, Hunger, Cold and Nakedness, contracted those Diseases, which put a Period to their Pilgrimage.  
Whilst these Outrages, and Desolations ravaged in divers parts of the Country, especially the Northern parts, (for they had not yet discovered their united Treasons in other places,) the Lords Justices, and Council, issued a Commission of Fire and Sword, for the destruction of the Rebels and their Associates, and withal to receive as many of them as would submit to Mercy into his Majesty's Favour: They likewise gave out what quantities of Arms and other Ammunition the present Exigences would afford, to preserve the Peace, and obstruct the Irruption of the yet undiscovered Flames, which were ready to breakforth in the nearest adjoining Counties to the City of Dublin: These Commissions and Arms were put into the hands of the Popish Nobility and Gentry, who pretended great Loyalty and affection to the Public, as well as into the hands of the English: By which it is apparent, the great Confidence the Lords-Justices and Council were pleased to Repose in them, seeking by this means to have made them Instrumental for the Preservation of much of that Blood, and many of those Lives, which notwithstanding all their endeavours were overwhelmed by the  torrent of that Bloody Rebellion; which now no longer confines itself within the Limits of the Northern Counties, but broke out in the Neighbourhood of the Chief City, about the middle of November. The Barbarous Irish in the County of Wiclow, most furiously fell upon the English, Robbing, Pillaging, Murdering all within that Territory; their fair Houses were soon consumed to Ashes, their  and live Goods drove away, and a siege laid to Fort Carew, wherein was a Company of Foot belonging to the old Army.  
In few days after, this Conspiracy shown itself in the Counties of Wexford and Caterlagh, who equalled if not exceeded the bloody Cavelties of their Neighbours. Likewise the County of Kildare, into whose hands the State had entrusted Arms and Munition for the Preservation of the Public, even those Arms so designed, were employed against them; nor was the Carriage of the Lords and Chief Gentlemen of the English Pale, such as exempted them from suspicion. This indeed was that which heightened the fears and apprehensions of the City of Dublin, which was now the only Sanctuary of the English Nation; they saw themselves surrounded with the approaching Troops of Inhuman Rebels on every quarter. But that which added the greatest Terror to their Consternation, was the constant Resort of multitudes who came in every moment stripped, wounded and miserably destroyed from the Northern parts: Persons who had lived in good Quality, having no covering but Rags; others wrapped round with twisted Straw, to hid their Nakedness; here you should see some Reverend Ministers, and others of a grave Aspect, bruised, hacked and wounded, and hardly escaping with their Lives; nothing was heard but the sad Lamentations of Wives for their murdered Husbands, Mothers for their Children barbarously Butchered before their Faces; Poor Infants, battered and benumbed with Cold and Travel, gasping out their Souls in the Bosoms of their Fainting Mothers.  
So great were the numbers of those that perished in the Churches, Streets, and Corners of the City, that the ordinary Burying-places could not contain them: Two large Pieces of Ground were set apart for that purpose, these were never to be forgotten Objects of Testimonies of Popish Commiseration. It is not easy to form an Idea of the dismal Confusion and Consternation which shown itself in the Faces of the distracted Citizens; the English Inhabitants saw those Barbarities, Outrages, and Slaughters, which had fallen upon their Countrymen in Adjacent parts, now entering in at their own Gates; the Papists Inhabitants, furnished with Arms ready to execute their Concealed. Villainies, themselves fenceless, without Fortification or other means to secure them from their Barbarous Attempts; such a frightful Aspect shown itself in the City, as seemed an Omen of their approaching Ruin. Nor was it only the Common and Inferior sort that were the Actors in these dismal Tragedies, but some of the Chief Gentlemen of the Nation, under pretence of securing the Goods of the English, took them into their own Custody, without any design of ever making any Restitution, but having after this peaceable sort deprived them of their subsistence, they afterward exposed them to the want of all things, without restoring any part of their own to be a Refreshment to them in their great Extremities.  
Many of the English Protestants had entertained so good an Opinion of their being kindly dealt with, that they delivered their Goods into their hands by Retail, giving them Inventories of all they had; they took some of the choicest Goods out of places wherein they had concealed them, to put them into the Custody of the Irish; who having, as hath been said, either by force or fraud made themselves Masters of the Protestants Estates, next spared not to strip Man, Woman and Child, and expose them to the severity of the Wether, in many places not permitting them the shelter of a Bush, or to remain in the Woods; forbidding those of their own Nation and Communion, under great Penalties to give them any sort of Entertainment or Relief.  
And perhaps amongst all their Barbarities none look with a blacker Face, or gives a truer Demonstration of the implacableness of their Temper, and their natural thirst for Blood, than this carriage of theirs, that those who perished not under the violence of their hands, should notwithstanding be exposed to such rigours and insuperable necessities, as they were not able to outlive: they were not content to have stripped them once or twice, but as often as they got any covering, though never so tattered and miserable, the next Irish Woman, nay even their very Children, would not fail to strip them of them; of which divers Depositions were given in before the Commissioners, in that behalf appointed, especially one John Courley, Deposeth upon his Examination, That when the Town of Armagh was set on Fire by the Rebels; and his Wife joined in the same Deposition, That their House being consumed in that Conflagration, she was stripped no less than seven several times, and at last left with not so much as her Smock or Hair-lace; and that she concealed herself in her Hutch for three or four days, and then went to seek her Children, two of which had the Smallpox at that time appearing upon them: This was an infallible way to accomplish their Inhuman and Bloody purposes, as was too visible by the Issue; the Highways and Towns through which the English had passed, being covered with heaps of those which had perished of that great Mortality, which was the Consequence of the Inhuman Cruelty of the Bloody Rebels: For a further Confirmation of which, take the following Depositions.  
That of James Refern, of the County of London-Derry; which gives an Account, that in the Town of Colerain, the Mortality was so great, that the Living were hardly capable of stowing the Bodies of the Dead, which they packed in great Ranks, in large Graves or Holes, as if they had been packing Herrings.  
That of Magdalen Redman, is no less to the purpose, which saith, That a great Company of her Protastant Neighbours, amongst which were twenty two Widows, having been robbed and stripped stark naked, they covered themselves in a House with Straw, which some of the Rebels set a Fire, on purpose to burn or smother them; but some of them being touched with more Compassion, commanded them to forbear, by which they escaped that fiery Trial: Notwithstanding which they were driven naked into the Woods, where they were forced to continue in Frost and Snow, from Tuesday to Saturday, their Bodies being so Cold, that the Snow lay upon them unmelted, divers of their Children dying in their Arms: When they endeavoured to escape to the Burr, the wicked Rebels would turn them towards Dublin, and when they were making for Dublin, they hindered them again, telling them they should to the Burr. Thus were they tossed from place to place where there was no shelter, nor any relief; so that many of them died under their hands; and of those that after escaped to the Burr, though they there met with some Relief, by the Charity of William Parsons Esquire, yet above forty of their number died there, of the Cruelty they had undergone.  
In the Castle of Lisgoole, a hundred fifty two Men, Women, and Children, were burnt or smothered, as appears by Deposition, of Tho. Wenslaw, and John Simpson. At the Castle of Moneah, ninety Protestants were slain and murdered: the same Rebels having promised fair Quarter to the Protestants in the Castle of Tallah, after they had the Castle and their Arms delivered into their hands, first stripped them of all they had, and then most barbarously murdered them. This was attested by Tho. Wenslaw aforesaid.  
One hundred Persons, most of the Scotch Nation, were hanged or otherwise destroyed at Lissenskeah; where Rowry Mac Guire with his Company, having in a pretended friendly manner desired to speak with one Mr. Middleton, who had the keeping of the Castle, being Clerk of the Peace, and upon that, the securing the Records of the Country; these the said Mac Guire having enforced Middleton to deliver to him, immediately burnt: Taking likewise a Thousand pound in Money, which he had of Sir William Balfoures: after which he compelled Mr. Middleton to hear Mass, and to swear never to alter from it, and then with a Compassion equally extending to Soul and Body, caused both Him, his Wife and Children to be hung up, and immediately strangled.  
At Portnedown Bridge, so famous for the never to be forgotten Cruelties of the savage Rebels, a thousand Men, Women and Children were in several Parties unmercifully thrown into the River; for they having broken the Bridge down in the midst, forced the miserable Innocents' to expire in those Waters: Some Relations speak of four thousand persons that were drowned in that County. The Barbarous Wretches drove the Poor pillaged Christians before them like Herds of Swine, wounding, pricking and forcing them forwards with their Swords, and other Instruments of Cruelty; and if they slackened their Pace, they were either knocked on the Head, or thrown over into the River.  
To divers, and very considerable Companies, they pretended to give Passes of safe Conduct under the Hand of that Arch-Rebel Sir Phelim O Neal, and when they had brought them near some great River, or place fit for their Purpose, they failed not to cast them into the Water; and if any endeavoured to make their escape, they were knocked on the Head with Poles, or shot with Pistols, or other fire-arms, to prevent the saving of their wretched Lives.  
It's very Observable, what in this dismal History is mentioned, of one Mrs. Cambel, who being by them forced to the River, and perceiving no means to escape their Fury, suddenly clasped her Arms about one of their Chiefs, who was most forward to thrust her into the Water, and carried him down with her to the Bottom, where they both perished together.  
So great was the inveterate Rage of that Sir Phelim O Neal, that he caused another considerable Rebel to summon together the Protestants remaining about Armagh, pretending to Conduct them to Colerain, and when they were got hardly one day's Journey from him, they were all Butchered and destroyed, as many others were by Direction from his Brother: By their Order likewise, the Aged People were taken out of Armagh, and murdered at Charlemont; soon after which they set fire to the Cathedral and Town of Armagh, where they destroyed above five hundred Persons, Young and Old. Forty eight Families at the Parish of Keblaman, were Barbarously murdered by Direction from the said Sir Phelim, after they had been protected by him three quarters of a Year.  
Within two Miles of Kilmore, there were two and twenty English Protestant's burnt in one house; and the Rebels stripped, killed, or murdered all, or the most of the English in that Parish, which consisted of two hundred Families: they likewise set many in the Stocks, that would not Confess their Money, and when they had all they could get, than they Murdered them.  
Many other Horrid Inhuman Cruelties were used in the murdering of Multitudes of poor Innocent Souls. To many these bloody Villains shown so much favour as suddenly to dispatch them out of their Pain, by no means allowing them leave or time to make their Prayers! for others they held a sudden Death too easy a Punishment: Therefore they Imprisoned some in most beastly Dungeons, full of Dirt and Mire, and there Clapping bolts on their Heels, suffered them to perish at leisure. Others they barbrously mangled and left Languishing upon the Highways, crying out for so much Mercy as to be delivered out of their Pain. Others they buried alive, a manner of Death they used to several of the English in several places. An Englishman, his Wife, four or five Children, and a Maid, were hanged, and afterwards put all into one Hole; the Youngest Child being not fully dead, put out the Hand, and crying, Mammy, Mammy, when without Mercy they buried him alive.  
At Clowms, within the County of Fermanagh, there were seventeen, having been hanged till they were half dead, cast together into a Pit, and being covered over with a little Earth, lay Pitifully sending out most lamentable Groans for a good time after. Some were deadly wounded, and so hanged upon tenterhooks. Some had Ropes put about their Necks, and so drawn through the Water: some had Withs, and so drawn up and down thorough Woods and Bogs; others were hanged up and taken down, and hanged up several times, and all to make them confess their Money, which as soon as they told, they then dispatched them out of the way. Others were hanged up by the Arms, and with many slashes and cuts they made the Experiment with their Swords, how many blows an Englishman would endure before he died. Some had their Bellies Ripped up, and so left with their Guts running about their Heels. But this kind of Cruelty was principally reserved by these Inhuman Monsters for the Women, whose Sex they neither pitied nor spared, hanging up several Women, many of them great with Child, whose Bellies they ripped up as they hung, and so let the little Infants fall out▪ A course they often took with them they found in that sad Condition. And sometimes they gave their Children to Swine; some the Dogs eat; and some taken alive out of their Mother's Bellies, they cast into Ditches. And for sucking Children, and others of a Riper Age, some had their Brains knocked out, others were trampled under foot to Death.  
Some of the Rebels meeting one Mrs. Howard, and Mrs. Frankland, both great with Child, and six of their Children with them, with their Pikes killed and murdered them all, and after ripped open the Gentlewoman's Bellies, took out their Children, and threw them into a Ditch. Some they cut in Goblets and Pieces, others they Ripped up alive. Some were found in the Fields sucking the Breasts of their murdered Mothers. Others lay stifled in Vaults and Cellars, others starved in Caves, crying out to their Mothers rather to send them out to be killed by the Rebels, than to suffer them to starve there.  
One Mary Barlow deposeth up Oath, That Her Husband being hanged by the Rebels before her Face, she and six Children were stripped stark Naked, and turned out a begging in Frost and Snow, by means whereof they were almost starved, having nothing to Eat in three Weeks, while they lay in a Cave, but two old Calf-skins, which they beat with Stones, and so eat them, hair and all: Multitudes of Men, Women and Children were found drowned, cast into Ditches, Bogs, and Turf-Pits, the ordinary Sepulchers of the British Nation. Thousands died of cold and want in all parts of the Country, being neither permitted to departed, nor relieved where they were enforced to stay. Multitudes enclosed in Houses, which being set on fire, they were there most miserably consumed; some dragged out of their Sick-beds to the place of Execution: Such was the barbarous and inhuman Cruelty of the Rebels, that sometimes they enforced the Wife to kill the Husband, the Son to kill the Father, and the Daughter to kill the Mother, and then they world hang or put to Death the last Bloodshedder.  
In the Town of Slego, they forced one Lears the younger, to kill his Father, and then hanged the Son: and in Mogne they forced one Simon Lepers Wife to kill her Husband, and then caused her Son to kill her, and then they hanged the Son. Children were enforced to carry their Aged Parents to the places designed for their Slaughter, Mothers to cast their own Children into the Water, and yet after these enforced Acts, which no doubt were performed, out of Hopes and Assurance to have their own Lives saved, always Murdered. And such was the Malice, and most detestable hatred born to the English by the Irish, as they taught their Children to kill English Children, and the Irish Women did naturally express as much Cruelty, as the chiefest Rebels among them. If these be not sufficient, let us look over the particular Ends of some particular Persons, and we shall in them behold more Horrid Cruelties than these before mentioned. What shall we say to a Child boiled to Death in a Cauldron, being the Child of one Tho. Straton of Newtown.  
A Woman hanged on a Tree, and in the Hair of her Head her own Daughter hanged up with her. A Woman miserably Rend and Torn to pieces. Some taken by the Rebels, their Eyes plucked out, their Hands cut off, and so turned out to wander up and down; others stoned to Death. A Man wounded, and set upright in a hole digged in the Earth, and so covered up to the very Chin, there left in that miserable manner to Pine and perish. A Man's Feet held in the Fire till he was burnt to Death, his Wife hanged at his Door. A Minister stripped stark naked, and so driven like a Beast through the Town of Cashel, the Rebels following him, and pricking him forward with Darts and Rapiers.  
A Company of Men, Women and Children, put into a House, and as they were burning, some Children that made an escape out of the Flames, were taken by some of the Rebels who stood by, cut them in pieces with Scythes, and so cast them into the Fire again.  
Neither did these Horrible Tortures, which they put these Innocent Christians unto, a-slake their Fury, their Malice towards them did not Determine with their Breath.  
But after so many several Bloody Ways and cruel Inventions, wherewith they rend their Souls from their wretched Bodies, extended even to their dead Carcases: In some places they denied all manner of Burial; some they cast into Ditches, others they left to be devoured by Dogs and Swine, others by Fowls and Ravenous Birds. Nay several which had been formerly buried, they digged up, and left them to putrify above ground.  
And these truly are but some of those ways among many others, which with most exquisite pains, and cruel Tortures were used by these merciless Rebels, to let in Death among an Innocent, unresisting People, that had always lived Peaceably with them; Administering all manner of Helps and Comforts to those who were in Distress, that made no difference betwixt them and those of their own Nation, but ever Cherished them as Friends, and Loving Neighbours, without giving any cause of unkindness or distaste unto them.  
It is not possible to recollect or express the wickedness of their mischievous Inventions, or horror of their bloody Executions, actuated with all kind of circumstances that might aggravate the height of their Cruelty towards them. Alas! who can comprehend the fears, terrors, anguish, bitterness and perplexity of their Souls? the despairing Passions and Consternations of their Minds? What strange amazed Thoughts must it needs raise in their sad Hearts, to find themselves so suddenly surprised without remedy, and inextricably wrapped up in all kind of outward miseries which could possibly by man be inflicted upon any humane Creatures! What sighs, groans, trembling, astonishment! what scrieches, cries, and bitter lamentation of Wife, Children, Friends and Servants, howling and weeping about them, all finding themselves without any manner of hope of deliverance from their present Misery and Pain! how inexorable were their barbarous Tormentors, that compassed them on every side, without all bowels of compassion, any sense of their Sufferings, or the least commiseration or pity, the common Comforters of men in Misery. It was no small addition to their sorrows, to hear the base reviling speeches used against their Country and Countrymen, some loudly threatening all should be cut off and utterly destroyed, that had one drop of English-blood in them: The Irish Women crying out, to spare neither Man, Woman, nor Child, that was English; that the English was meat for Dogs, and their Children Bastards.  
How grievous and insupportable must it needs be to a true Christian soul, to hear a base villain boast, that his hands were so weary with killing and knocking down Protestants into a Bogg, that he could not lift his Arms up to his Head? or others to say, that they had killed so many Englishmen, that the grease or fat which remained on their Swords or Skeins, might have made an Irish Candle! Or to consider, that two young Cow-boys should have it in their Power to murder thirty six Protestants! whosoever shall seriously weigh these Particulars, will not much wonder that so great numbers of British and Protestants should be destroyed in so short a time after the first breaking out of the Rebellion: As Mr. Cunningham Deposeth in his Examination, he there saith, that the Account of the Persons killed by the Rebels, from the time of the beginning of the Rebellion, October 23. 1641. unto the Month of April following, was, as the Priests weekly gave it in, in their several Parishes, one hundred and five thousand, April 22. 1642.  
When the Castle of Lisgoole was set on fire by the Rebels, and so many British as are before mentioned, consumed in the flames, those mischievous Villains that had done that wicked Fact, cried out with much Joy, How sweetly do they fry! How did the Inhabitants of Kilkenny, a City planted with old English, where Civility and good Manners seemed to flourish, solace and please themselves in abusing most unchristianly the Heads of a Minister and six other Protestants, brought in a kind of Triumph into the Town! Certainly it is not to be imagined, much less expressed, with what scorn and derision they acted these great Crueities upon all British which they had gotten into their Power! with what Joy and Exultation their Eyes did behold the sad spectacle of their Miseries! what greedy delight and pleasure they took in their bloody Executions! what Malice and Hatred they expressed towards them! many with the last stroke of Death giving them, in their last Agony, that fearful Valediction in Irish, Anim a Duel, Thy Soul to the Devil.  
But it is no wonder that they carried themselves after this barbarous manner to these poor Christians, when they spared not most fearfully to belch out their Rage against their Maker. What open Hellish Blasphemies were uttered by these wicked Miscreants! With what Indignation and Reproach did they tear and trample under feet the sacred Word of God? How despitefully did they upbraid the Profession of the Truth, to those blessed Souls, whom neither by Threats nor Terrors, pains nor Torments, they could draw to forsake their Religion.  
But I shall not here touch any further upon those who died thus Gloriously, this will be a work fit for some more able Pen.  
If we shall take a survey of the Primitive Times, and look into the sufferings of the First Christians, that suffered under the Tyranny and Cruel Persecutions of those Heathenish Emperors, we shall not certainly find any one Kingdom, though of a far larger Continent, where more Christians suffered, or more unparallelled Cruelties were acted in many years upon them, than were in Ireland, within the space of the first two Months after the breaking out of this Rebellion. And howsoever some by outward Inflictions and Tortures, were drawn to profess the change of their Religion, and had presently their Reward; (for many of those they suddenly dispatched with great scorn, saying, It was fit to send them out of the World in that good Mood;) yet I dare say, we shall find many thus Cruelly put to Death, equal to some of those Ancient Worthies for their Patience, Constancy, Courage, Magnanimity in their sufferings, but triumphing and insulting with their last breath, over the Insolency, Rage and M●lice of their most Inhuman and Cruel Persecutors.  
We shall find in the Roman History, during the several Cruel Contestations betwixt Marius and Scylla, when their Factious Followers filled the whole City of Rome with streams of blood, strange and most incomparable Passages of Friendships: One exposing himself to all manner of Dangers, for the Preservation of his Friend of a contrary Faction; Servants willing to Sacrifice themselves to save the Lives of their Beloved Masters. But here on the contrary, what open violations of all bonds of Humanity and Friendship! no Contracts, no Promises observed; Quarter given in the most solemn manner, with the greatest Oaths and severest Execrations, under Hand and Seal, suddenly broken. The Irish Landlords making a Prey of their English Tenants, the Irish Servants betraying their English Masters; And every one esteeming any Act, wherein they could declare their hatred and malice most against any of the British Nation, as Gallant and cruly Meritorious.  
It is not to be denied, but that the first and most bloody Executions were made in the Province of Ulster, and there they continued longest to execute their Rage and Cruelty; yet must it also be acknowledged, that all the other three Provinces did concur with them, as it were with one common Consent, to destroy and pluck up by the Roots all the English planted throughout the Kingdom; and for this purpose they went on, not only Murdering, Stripping and driving out all of them, Men, Women and Children, but they laid waste their Habitations, Burnt their Evidences, defaced in many places all the Monuments of Civility and Devotion; the Courts and Places of the English Government; Nay, as some of themselves express it, they resolved not to leave them either Name or Posterity in Ireland.  
Notwithstanding what hath been here Related, be nothing but what is matter of Fact, and that for brevity's sake, many particular Instances of their Inhuman Barbarity be omitted; yet have those of that Communion had the Forehead to deny, or Extenuate those monstrous Executions, and to lay the Gild of all that Blood upon the Protestants themselves; as if they had been the Contrivers of their own Executions, and of the Extirpation of their own Families; which is an Assurance so peculiar to the Papists, that cannot be matched amongst any other sort of Men, I was about to say Monsters. These are proofs of that Veracity, and Charity, that Humanity and Sincerity, which is to be expected from those, the Principles of whose Religion, teach them to stick at no Villainy, no Butchery, no Perjury, nor Cruelty, for the promoting their Bloody Religion.   
FINIS.