_AS from the time of Giraldus Cambren|sis (the best deserued and exact writer of the conquest and state of Ireland in his time, few or none haue followed and continued any per|fect course of that historie vntill the death of king Henrie the eight, and the begin|ning of king Edward the sixt 1546; and therefore no certeine knowledge nor assurance can be yelded, nor set downe either of the quiet gouernement in time of peace, or of the troublesome state in time of warres and rebellions; but that which is collected either out of the records, which were verie slenderlie & disorderlie kept, or out of some priuat mens collections and pamphlets, remaining in some od and obscure places: euen so the like from that time vnto these presents hath happened and is fallen out, euerie gouernour neglecting, and verie few others for want of due ob|seruations willing, to commit vnto writing what was doone, and woorthie the memoriall; sauing the things so latelie doone are not altogither out of remembrance, and some yet liuing that can remember some things doone in their times. And yet that is so vncerteine, and euerie man so varieth one from the others reports, that no man can well therevpon set downe a perfect and so exact a course as the nature of an historie requireth, and as it ought to be doone. He therefore that vpon such vncerteinties shall intermedle [page 108] and vndertake the penning, much more the printing of such an vncerteine, confused, and intricate discourse, must looke and be assured to be subiect to manie cauils and reproches: which thing discouraged me the writer here|of to intermedle at all in this historie. Neuerthelesse, this worke re|quiring a supplie, and my selfe being earnestlie required to doo something herein, haue aduentured the matter, and by all the meanes I could, haue searched and collected to set downe in this short discourse and rhapsodie, what by writings or reports I could learne and find to be true, and worthie the memoriall: which albeit, it be not so full as the worke requireth, nor so sufficient as to the satisfaction of the reader, nor yet so answerable to the nature of an historie as is necessarie and requisit: yet let the good will of the writer be his discharge from reproch, and be an occasion to the learned to amend the thing thus in a good affection begun, and to reduce it to a more full measure in matter and truth: that this historie may haue his perfection, the reader satis|fied, and this writer acquited.
Iohn Hooker, aliâs Vowell.