CHAPTER VII
The island of Mona From hence,we crossed over a small arm of the sea to the island of Mona,{161}distant from thence about two miles,where Roderic,the younger son of Owen,attended by nearly all the inhabitants of the island,and many others from the adjacent countries,came in a devout manner to meet us.Confession having been made in a place near the shore,where the surrounding rocks seemed to form a natural theatre,{162}many persons were induced to take the cross,by the persuasive discourses of the archbishop,and Alexander,our interpreter,archdeacon of that place,and of Sisillus,abbot of Stratflur.Many chosen youths of the family of Roderic were seated on an opposite rock,and not one of them could be prevailed upon to take the cross,although the archbishop and others most earnestly exhorted them,but in vain,by an address particularly directed to them.It came to pass within three days,as if by divine vengeance,that these young men,with many others,pursued some robbers of that country.Being discomfited and put to flight,some were slain,others mortally wounded,and the survivors voluntarily assumed that cross they had before despised.Roderic,also,who a short time before had incestuously married the daughter of Rhys,related to him by blood in the third degree,in order,by the assistance of that prince,to be better able to defend himself against the sons of his brothers,whom he had disinherited,not paying attention to the wholesome admonitions of the archbishop on this subject,was a little while afterwards dispossessed of all his lands by their means;thus deservedly meeting with disappointment from the very source from which he expected support.The island of Mona contains three hundred and forty-three vills,considered equal to three cantreds.Cantred,a compound word from the British and Irish languages,is a portion of land equal to one hundred vills.There are three islands contiguous to Britain,on its different sides,which are said to be nearly of an equal size -the Isle of Wight on the south,Mona on the west,and Mania (Man)on the north-west side.
The two first are separated from Britain by narrow channels;the third is much further removed,lying almost midway between the countries of Ulster in Ireland and Galloway in Scotland.The island of Mona is an arid and stony land,rough and unpleasant in its appearance,similar in its exterior qualities to the land of Pebidion,{163}near St.David's,but very different as to its interior value.For this island is incomparably more fertile in corn than any other part of Wales,from whence arose the British proverb,"Mon mam Cymbry,Mona mother of Wales;"and when the crops have been defective in all other parts of the country,this island,from the richness of its soil and abundant produce,has been able to supply all Wales.
As many things within this island are worthy of remark,I shall not think it superfluous to make mention of some of them.There is a stone here resembling a human thigh,{164}which possesses this innate virtue,that whatever distance it may be carried,it returns,of its own accord,the following night,as has often been experienced by the inhabitants.Hugh,earl of Chester,{165}in the reign of king Henry I.having by force occupied this island and the adjacent country,heard of the miraculous power of this stone,and,for the purpose of trial,ordered it to be fastened,with strong iron chains,to one of a larger size,and to be thrown into the sea.
On the following morning,however,according to custom,it was found in its original position,on which account the earl issued a public edict,that no one,from that time,should presume to move the stone from its place.A countryman,also,to try the powers of this stone,fastened it to his thigh,which immediately became putrid,and the stone returned to its original situation.
There is in the same island a stony hill,not very large or high,from one side of which,if you cry aloud,you will not be heard on the other;and it is called (by anti-phrasis)the rock of hearers.
In the northern part of Great Britain (Northumberland)so named by the English,from its situation beyond the river Humber,there is a hill of a similar nature,where if a loud horn or trumpet is sounded on one side,it cannot be heard on the opposite one.There is also in this island the church of St.Tefredaucus,{166}into which Hugh,earl of Shrewsbury,(who,together with the earl of Chester,had forcibly entered Anglesey),on a certain night put some dogs,which on the following morning were found mad,and he himself died within a month;for some pirates,from the Orcades,having entered the port of the island in their long vessels,the earl,apprised of their approach,boldly met them,rushing into the sea upon a spirited horse.The commander of the expedition,Magnus,standing on the prow of the foremost ship,aimed an arrow at him;and,although the earl was completely equipped in a coat of mail,and guarded in every part of his body except his eyes,the unlucky weapon struck his right eye,and,entering his brain,he fell a lifeless corpse into the sea.The victor,seeing him in this state,proudly and exultingly exclaimed,in the Danish tongue,"Leit loup,"let him leap;and from this time the power of the English ceased in Anglesey.In our times,also,when Henry II.was leading an army into North Wales,where he had experienced the ill fortune of war in a narrow,woody pass near Coleshulle,he sent a fleet into Anglesey,and began to plunder the aforesaid church,and other sacred places.