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52 LEINSTER
captivity captive. He touched at a port in south-
eastern Ireland— probably Wicklow — but stood on
with his vessel, coasting past Dublin Bay till he landed
again for water and provisions at the little island of
Skerries, which since then is called Inishpatrick. Still
north he sailed, up to Strangford Lough, where, landing,
he made his first convert, the chief Dichu, and founded
his first church — Down Patrick — where many years
later he returned to die. Here for a time he sojourned.
Before he turned south there was an errand he had
to do, to bring his message to the valley of the Braid,
in Antrim, where he had been a captive, herding swine
on the slopes of Slemish. But at last, in the spring
of 433, he set his face to the very core and centre of
his purpose — the evangelization of Ireland at the
fountain head of pagan civilization and pagan power.
For the success of Patrick's mission lay in this. He
addressed himself to the chiefs, he bearded the pagan
in his strong places: he won those who carried others
with them. That was the method he had learnt in
more than a generation of labour, spent seeking
knowledge throughout Europe u in the college of the
Lateran at Rome, at Cecina on the Tuscan Sea, at
Auxerre in Gaul", jealously profiting by his right as
a citizen of the Empire, before the Empire should
crumble, and knowledge and religion perish with it,
under the redoubled assaults of barbarism. No man