DUnkirke is a Towne of Flanders of great strength and circuit; some five leagues or houres going from Calice in France, being indeed the only considerable Port of Flaunders, Graveling, Newport, Ostend and Sluce, though all bearing the name of Havens, being indeed rather meer Fisher-Townes, then worthy of that title, ships of above sixty Tun, being debarr'd entertain­ment into them. When over the sandy bar of Dunkirke, at a high tyde safely may passe Vessels of foure and five hun­dred Tun into the very Towne wals, nay within their out­works, or safely ride if not in very great tempests, under the protection of the Forts of Mardike, and the woodden Fort, which being a miraculous Fabricke of timber, extended far into the maine Sea, secures all there with its comman­ding Ordnance, at least a large league and a halfe before you come to Dunkirke. This then is the rendevouz for all the King of Spaines ships; this is that Towne which makes a benefit of that which is destruction to others; they are [Page 4] g [...]owne abundantly wealthy by their spoyles, taken both from the Hollander and French; this is that Towne which in our lusts and former contentions with Spaine, has infe­sted so obnoxiously our Seas with the excursions of their nimble Frigats. To conclude▪ this is a Towne which for plenty of mariners of all Nations, multitudes of souldiers, and light, nimble, and serviceable Ships and Frigots, gives place to never a Towne of Christendome of its dimensi­ons; Here constantly have those disturbers of our publike peace and seducers of our people from the true Religion, those fugitive English Iesuites. Constantly in the Dutch Colledge of the same Society there, their Agents resident, who lye as it were intelligencers there, to receive newes from their pernicious brethren in England of their succee­ding there: For though the care of this present sacred Par­liament have taken what possible order can be thought on for extirpation of that brood of Vipers; yet in all this Ses­sion has there not one o [...] the Iesuites bin apprehended or brought to condigne punishment, the sword of justice lighting only on the lesse hurtfull branches of that poyso­nous Romish Tree, that would shadow all the corners of the earth; the Fryars and secular Priests, the Popes Assasine Champions, the Iesuites, though certainly many of them are obscured in this Kingdome, nay in this very City, under strange names and habits, being as full of craft as their ge­nerality in the Devill; keeping themselves not only from detection but surprision: But to our purpose, these base ba­stards to their Countrey, and m [...]screants to Heaven and truth; having these Agents in Dunkirke, doe constantly give notice to their superiours at their fore-neighbouring Colledges, Watton and Saint Omers; the former being the Noviship or Domus probationis of their order, three leagues and a half from Dunkirke, the other their Seminary, where they teach children onely the rudiments of Gramaticke learning, a league and a halfe further off▪ All accidents that have hapned in this Kingdome, in these lamentable and [Page 5] distracted times, they againe transferring that notice by their Emissaries to their Agent at the Court at Bruxels, who is now their Vice-Provinciall (their Provinciall being here in England) Father Sibesden, right [...]y Bedinfield, a man of much precious sanctity, but inward and reall craft, who makes what use he can of those advertisements to the ad­vancement of the Catholique cause, as they call it, hearing therefore as quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris, of the still emergent distractions between His Majesty and the Parliament, which certainly tooke their Originall from some Iesuiticall counsellors. This Sibisdin or Bedinfield, call him whether you please, has lately been very urgent with Don Francisco De Mela, the Spanish Prefect now in Flaun­ders, and with his Councell, in which the Iesuites have no small party to command of the Dunkirke Frigats, to be made ready and fraught with such souldiers as are there of our Nation, under the Regiment of Colonell Guy, with such Ammunition as the Iesuites his fellowes could pro­vide at their owne charge to be sent into the North of En­gland, to be landed there for the assistance of the malig­nants against the Parliament, intimating to him how ac­ceptable that service would be to his Holinesse, and the Conclave at Rome, how advantagious to the advance­ment of the Catholicke cause, and re-establishment of their Religion here in England; nay, that he was even in part of his honour engaged to returne these souldiers back: His Majesty the King of England now he had need of them, himself when he had bin so courteously permitted to condiscend to the Spaniards assistance, and lastly, that this action would not only be unpre judiciall to the league now in force with England, but rather an additament to cement it faster. It being made with the King of England, to whom the Parliament was refractory, and with open armes sought to diminish His Royalty, and bring in instead of the Protestant Religion (which was lesse opposite to theirs) Puritanisme, Brownisme, or Anabaptisme. So mali­cious [Page 6] are these miscreants, and apt to traduce the Parli­aments honourable, just and religious proceedings. Don Francisco de Mela, a Portuguise by Nation, a person of a sound and solid judgement, not easily to be misled by such Ignes faetui, or false fires, mildly answered his reverence, that though he wished as well to the Catholique cause as any, and ought His Majesty of England as much service as any forraine Prince whatsoever; yet that he durst not without expresse command of the King his Master, send any of his Frigats to their places, or imploy them to other uses, then to the guard of the Flemish Coast against their inveterate adversary the Hollanders who, for the alliance they have to the State of Engl. to which they were enga­ged, would be sure to interrupt them in their passage, that for the English Regiments, though they were King Charles his Subjects, they were King Philips souldiers there, ere hee came to the government, and that he was resolv'd to leave all things in those Provinces as hee found them; that hee could not with the safety of his wisdome or allegiance to his Masters service, dimisse so many able and experienc'd souldiers, dangers both from neighbouring France, and not farre distant Holland, threatning on every side those Coun­tries, that for the quarrell or contention betweene his Ma­jesty of great Britaine and his Parliament, as he was uncon­cern'd in it, so he was resolv'd not to intermeddle in other mens businesse, but to preserve the league nnviolate, and for their reverences, the Fathers of the society, purchasing amunition to transferre hither, Don Francisco told Father Silisden, that they might Con muy buena gana, with all his heart use their own discretion, doe with their money what they please; he would neither give them commission for transportation, or laying any such provision, nor yet impeach their purpose, and so desir'd to be excused from any further trouble in the motion of that businesse which he could nei­ther in honour nor salva obedientia to his Master, put in pra­ctice; Father Silisden intimating this unexpected resolution [Page 6] of Don Francisco, to Father Iarret and Father Worsley the Rector of Watton and Saint Omers, and by the counsell of Father Freeman the Rector of Gaunt, and Father Spencer, the Rector of Leige (these being all the Rectors and Col­ledges of those demy-Divels in those Countries, out of their cōmon treasury levied the summe of ten thousand pounds, and from their great friends and intimates, the wealthy Be­nedictine Nuns at Buxels, Gaunt and Cambray, all English Voteries, they borrow'd six thousand pounds more, which summes deliver'd into the hands of one Coldwell an English man of ability in Dunkirk, and a Brewer; after he had purchast therewith much match▪ Pistols, Carabines, Pow­der, and other amunition, and waited for an opportu­nity to transport it into the North of England in the Cole­ships, which bring that much esteemed Jewell from New­castle hither, but failing of those intentions by directions from his great Patrons the aforesaid Jesuits, hee made purchase of three good tall barks, (which are very good cheap at Dunkirk) French bottoms, that they might passe without examination from the Hollander, and in them landed this Ammunition: committing the care thereof, and the Barks to some English Marriners, of which there are plenty alwayes at that towne, and so with a good Gale of winde, they set forth for the Coast of England, and af­ter two dayes being at Sea, off from the Coast of Hol­land, some of the States-men of Warre, continually ho­vering about those Coasts, had espyed them, and taking them for French, both by their building and Colours, friendlily had permitted them to passe, had not they had an expresse command to stay all Vessels, passing along those coasts; and examine them whither they were bound, and how laden, lest they might either be Danes, or bound thither with amunition, so being hal'd abord, they know­ing it was in vaine to resist, strucke their tops, and came in, affirming themselves French, bound from Saint Maloes, to Boston in Lincolnshire, but they having examined their [Page 8] lading, and found most of its Ammunition, began to aske for their Cockets, which produced, testifies what they had declared, but one of the States Soldiers, an Englishman, running betweene Decks, found there in their admirall, some twenty yong and middle-aged men▪ which by their complexion appeared rather French, then making bolts therefore to search some of their pockets by divers let­ters he found, both what they were, whence they came, and whether they, and their ladings wert bound, giving notice of it with certaine, that the men were Priests, for so indeed they wete, most of them new-made-ones, that this Micha [...]lmachado startet out of their Colledges at Rome Civil, and Valladolid in Spaine, out of a desperate brave­ry intending hither to defie our just Lawes, and seduce the people with their false Doctrine, and die as they be­leeve instead of Malefactors, which indeed they are Mar­tyrs: the Captaine instantly conjecturing, and they upon examination, confessing whither they were bound, and from whom sent with those Provisions, made lawfull prise of them, sending them after to Rotterdam, where both the Marriners and Priests are in prison Thus we may see what plots the wicked have against us, aud how the Lord in his mercy bring the practises of the heathen to nought, so that we may hope he will give us peace and safety in our dwel­lings, which God grant, Amen.