" On the day before Captain Caffin's letter
was written, Mr. Bishop says: "At Skull, in both east and west division,
I found the distress, or rather the mortality had pretty well
increased." And this, notwithstanding the floating depot. Yet in the
midst of the famine-slaughter described by Captain Caffin, Mr. Bishop is
still hopeful, for he says: "The Relief Committees at Skull and
Crookhaven exert themselves greatly to benefit the poor. There is an
ample supply of provisions at each place."[241] How did they manage to
die of starvation at Skull?--one is tempted to ask. Yet they did, and at
Ballydehob too, the other town of the parish; for, three weeks after the
announcement of the "ample supply of provisions," the following news
reaches us from the latter place, on the most reliable authority. A
naval officer, Mr. Scarlet, who was with the "Mercury" and "Gipsey"
delivering provisions in the neighbourhood of Skull, on his return to
Cork, writes, on the 8th of March, to his admiral, Sir Hugh Pigot, in
these terms: "After discharging our cargoes in the boats to Ballydehob,
we went on shore, and on passing through the town we went into the ruins
of a house, and there were two women lying dead, and two, all but dead,
lying along with them.
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