Charles F. Henningsen, Michael B. Honan, or Edward B. Stephens, English writers and first-hand witnesses of the First Carlist War, spent time in the Basque districts during the Carlist engagement. They did not hide their sympathies for Carlos V's cause, one they regarded as representing the cause of the Basque home rule. Just the opposite, John Francis Bacon, an English diplomat based in the Liberal Bilbao during the Carlist investment of the city (1835), while also praising Basque governance, could not hide his hostility towards the Carlists, whom he regarded as "savages." He went on to contest his compatriots' approach, denying any connections of the Carlist cause to the defense of the Basque liberties, and considering that Carlos V the pretender would be quick to erode or suppress them as soon as he rose to the Spanish throne. He also deems a Liberal government like the one led by Isabella II of Spain as more inclined to respect the Basque liberties.