North Atlantic Current. By the 1460s Galway was regarded as a beautiful and well-built town, but it endured difficult relations with its Irish neighbours. A notice over the west gate of the city, completed in 1562 by Mayor Thomas Óge Martyn, proclaimed: "From the Ferocious O'Flahertys may God protect us". A bylaw of 1460 ordained as follows: "That no dweller should set or sell land or tenement, within the same town Galway, to no Irishman, without licence from the council for the time being, on payn of forfaiting saidlands and tenements, and one hundred shillings to be divided as above written". Despite this, Galway showed signs of linguistic and cultural assimilation to the Gaelic society around it. An Act of Henry VIII, dated 1536, ordained as follows: [ "moustaches" ]; [a favourite colour of the native Irish]... The political turbulence of the region left its mark on Galway in the following decades. Sir Henry Sidney wrote in 1576: "First, I find the town of Galwaye moche decaied, both in nomber of expert sage men of yeares and yonge men of warre, in respect of that I have seen; which great decay hath growen thorough the horribl spoyle done upon them by the sonnes of the earle of Clanrickrd, in so moche as it evidentlye proved before me that fiftie howsholders of that towne doe nowe enhabite under Mac William Croghter [a local Irish lord]…" Nevertheless, Galway retained its distinctive physical character. The following account was given of lord justice Sir William Pelham's visit in 1579: "His lordship removed into the towne of Galwaie, twelve mills, verie rocky way, and full of great loughes. The townw is well bulte, and walled, with an excellent good haven, and is replenished with many welthie merchants. The townes-men and wemmen present a more civil shew of life than other townes in Ireland do, and maie be compared, in my judgement, next Dublin and Watterford, the only towne". The commercial and political situation of Galway bred wariness in its merchants, as shown in a provision of its new charter: That when anie strange merchants come to their port and haven, that the same be serched and viewed for weapons and munitions, and that none above the number of ten persons of the said ship shall come into the said towne. Galway, because of its loyalty to the Crown, was used as an occasional administrative centre