Moryson, Fynes (1566–1630)

English adventurer and writer. Moryson travelled extensively in Europe and the Middle East before visiting Ireland in 1600 as secretary to Lord Mountjoy, lord deputy of Ireland. His observations and experiences of wartime Ireland during the rebellion of 1593–1603, led by Hugh O'Neill, 2nd Earl of Tyrone, form part of his massive work An Itinerary, published in 1617. Although colourful and informative, and a much-mined source by historians and other commentators, his account is deeply biased, not only by Moryson's own unquestioned sense of cultural superiority, but also by his implicit attack on those who still regarded the native Irish as being capable of peaceful assimilation into English culture.