Six others who had reached the mouth of
the Shannon sent their boats ashore for water; but although there
were no English there the Irish feared to supply them, even though
the Spaniards offered any sum of money for a few casks. One of the
ships was abandoned and the others put to sea, only to be dashed
ashore in the same gale that wrecked Our Lady of the Rosary, and
of all their crews only one hundred and fifty men were cast ashore
alive. Along the coast of Connemara, Mayo, and Sligo many other
ships were wrecked. In almost every case the crews who reached the
shore were at once murdered by the native savages for the sake of
their clothes and jewellery.
Geoffrey had suffered as much as the rest of the crew on board
the galleon in which he sailed. All were so absorbed by their own
suffering and misery that none paid any attention to the idiot boy
in their midst. He worked at such work as there was to do: assisted
to haul on the ropes, to throw the dead overboard, and to do what
could be done for the sick and wounded. Like all on board he was
reduced almost to a skeleton, and was scarce able to stand.
As the surviving ships passed Galway Bay, one of them, which was
leaking so badly that she could only have been kept afloat a few
hours in any case, entered it, and brought up opposite the town. Don
Lewis of Cordova, who commanded, sent a party on shore, believing
that in Galway, between which town and Spain there had always been
close connections, they would be well received.
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