William of Orange landed in Carrickfergus on 14 June 1690 with a large force consisting of Dutch, German, Danish and French Huguenot soldiers who were reinforced by English raw recruits and Ulster skirmishers. The Ulster Protestants who joined William's army were so ill-equipped that one general remarked that they were "half-naked" with pistols hanging from their belts. Within hours of landing, William arrived in Belfast to a stunned crowd of unexpecting onlookers. Accounts tell how so many people stared in awed silence at William and his glamorous European nobility that many of William's entourage were unnerved. It wasn't until someone in the gathering had the mind to cheer that applause quickly reverberated through the crowd, to the relief of William's party. William was met by a representative of the Belfast Corporation who implored him to "pull the stiff neck of every papist down." William responded in broken English that he "came to see the people of Ireland settled in a lasting peace."