CHAPTER XIII



Of the progress by Camros and Niwegal


From Haverford we proceeded on our journey to Menevia, distant from
thence about twelve miles, and passed through Camros, {118} where,
in the reign of king Stephen, the relations and friends of a
distinguished young man, Giraldus, son of William, revenged his
death by a too severe retaliation on the men of Ros. We then passed
over Niwegal sands, at which place (during the winter that king
Henry II. spent in Ireland), as well as in almost all the other
western ports, a very remarkable circumstance occurred. The sandy
shores of South Wales, being laid bare by the extraordinary violence
of a storm, the surface of the earth, which had been covered for
many ages, re-appeared, and discovered the trunks of trees cut off,
standing in the very sea itself, the strokes of the hatchet
appearing as if made only yesterday. {119} The soil was very black,
and the wood like ebony. By a wonderful revolution, the road for
ships became impassable, and looked, not like a shore, but like a
grove cut down, perhaps, at the time of the deluge, or not long
after, but certainly in very remote ages, being by degrees consumed
and swallowed up by the violence and encroachments of the sea.
During the same tempest many sea fish were driven, by the violence
of the wind and waves, upon dry land. We were well lodged at St.
David's by Peter, bishop of the see, a liberal man, who had hitherto