y,
1652, Don Ricardo White shipped 7,000 men for the King of Spain; in
September, Colonel Mayo collected 3,000 more; Lord Muskerry took 5,000
to Poland; and, in 1654, Colonel Dwyer went to serve the Prince de Conde
with 3,500 men. Other officers looked up the men who had served under
them, and expatriated themselves in smaller parties; so that, between
1651 and 1654, 34,000 Irishmen had left their native land; and few,
indeed, ever returned to its desolate shores.

But their lot was merciful compared with the fate of those who still
remained. In 1653 Ireland was considered sufficiently depopulated by war
and emigration to admit of a commencement of the grand planting. The
country was again portioned out; again the ruling powers selected the
best portion of the land for themselves and their favourites; again the
religion of the country was reformed, and Protestant prelates were
condemned as loudly, though they were not hunted as unmercifully, as
Popish priests; again the wild and lawless adventurer was sent to eject
the old proprietor, who might starve or beg while the intruder held his
lands, and sheltered himself in his mansion, while a new cruelty was
enacted, a new terror devised, a new iniquity framed, and this by rulers
who talked so loudly of political and religious liberty. It was not
convenient, more probably, it was not possible, to massacre all the
native population who still survived; so they were to be
banished--banished to a corner of their own land, imprisoned there
safely by their ruthless conquerors, and there, without hope or help, it
was supposed they must soon die out quietly.

This is the official proclamation which was issued on the subject: "The
Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, having, by an Act lately
passed (entitled an Act for the Settling of Ireland), declared that it
is not their intention to extirpate this whole nation ... it is ordered
that the Governor and Commissioners of Revenue ... do cause the said Act
of Parliament, with this present declaration, to be published and
proclaimed in their respective precincts, by beat of drum and sound of
trumpet, on some market-day within ten days after the same shall come
unto them within their respective precincts."

We may imagine the dismay and anguish which this announcement caused.
The old Irish chieftain and the Anglo-Irish lord still had some kind of
home and shelter on their own estate--it might be but an outhouse or a
barn; it was