of the country, to which, when
the civil feuds of worse times prevailed, they had been driven at the
point of the bayonet; the Protestants and Presbyterians, on the other
hand, who came in upon their possessions, occupy the richer and more
fertile tracts of the land; being more wealthy, they live with less
labor, and on better food. The characteristic features produced by these
causes are such as might be expected--the Catholic being, like his soil,
hardy, thin, and capable of bearing all weathers; and the Protestants,
larger, softer, and more inactive.

"Their advance to the first onset was far different from a faction
fight. There existed a silence here, that powerfully evinced the
inextinguishable animosity with which they encountered. For some time
they fought in two compact bodies, that remained unbroken so long as the
chances of victory were doubtful. Men went down, and were up, and went
down in all directions, with uncommon rapidity; and as the weighty
phalanx of Orangemen stood out against the nimble line of their mountain
adversaries, the intrepid spirit of the latter, and their surprising
skill and activity soon gave symptoms of a gradual superiority in the
conflict. In the course of about half an hour, the Orange party began to
give way in the northern end of the town; and as their opponents pressed
them warmly and with unsparing hand, the heavy mass formed by their
numbers began to break, and this decomposition ran up their line until
in a short time they were thrown into utter confusion. They now fought
in detached parties; but these subordinate conflicts, though shorter in
duration than the shock of the general battle, were much more inhuman
and destructive; for whenever any particular gang succeeded in putting
their adversaries to flight, they usually ran to the assistance of their
friends in the nearest fight--by which means they often fought three to
one. In these instances the persons inferior in numbers suffered such
barbarities, as it would be painful to detail.

"There lived a short distance out of the town a man nicknamed Jemsy
Boccagh, on account of his lameness--he was also sometimes called
'Hop-an'-go-constant,' who fell the first victim to party spirit. He
had got arms on seeing his friends likely to be defeated, and had the
hardihood to follow, with charged bayonet, a few Ribbonmen, whom he
attempted to intercept, as they fled from a large number of their
enemies, who had got them separated