Chapter III: Part 3

It may seem strange to accuse the mayor of so important a seaport as Dover of being a pirate, but it is difficult to see how William Burder is to escape the accusation when we learn that in the year 1563 he captured 600 French vessels and a large number of neutral craft, which he plundered, and also no fewer than sixty-one Spanish ships, to the very natural annoyance of the King of Spain, whose country was at this time at peace with England.

BURGESS, CAPTAIN SAMUEL SOUTH.

Born and bred in New York, he was a man of good education, and began his career on a privateer in the West Indies. Later on he was sent by a Mr. Philips, owner and shipbuilder, to trade with the pirates in Madagascar. This business Burgess augmented with a little piracy on his own account, and after taking several prizes he returned to the West Indies, where he disposed of his loot. He then proceeded to New York, and, purposely wrecking his vessel at Sandy Hook, landed in the guise of an honest shipwrecked mariner.

Burgess settled down for a time to a well-earned rest, and married a relative of his employer, Mr. Philips.

Philips sent him on two further voyages, both of which were run on perfectly honest lines, and were most successful both to owner and captain. But a later voyage had an unhappy ending. After successfully trading with the pirates in Madagascar, Burgess was returning home, carrying several pirates as passengers, who were returning to settle in America, having made their fortunes. The ship was captured off the Cape of Good Hope by an East Indiaman, and taken to Madras. Here the captain and passengers were put in irons and sent to England to be tried. The case against Burgess fell through, and he was liberated. Instead of at once getting away, he loitered about London until one unlucky day he ran across an old pirate associate called Culliford, on whose evidence Burgess was again arrested, tried, and condemned to death, but pardoned at the last moment by the Queen, through the intercession of the Bishop of London. After a while he procured the post of mate in the _Neptune_, a Scotch vessel, which was to go to Madagascar to trade liquors with the pirates who had their headquarters in that delectable island. On arrival at Madagascar a sudden hurricane swept down, dismasted the _Neptune_, and sank two pirate ships. The chief pirate, Halsey, as usual, proved himself a man of resource. Seeing that without a ship his activities were severely restricted, he promptly, with the help of his faithful and willing crew, seized the _Neptune_, this satisfactory state of affairs being largely facilitated by the knowledge that the mate, Burgess, was all ripe to go on the main chance once more. The first venture of this newly formed crew was most successful, as they seized a ship, the _Greyhound_, which lay in the bay, the owners of which had but the previous day bought--and paid for--a valuable loading of merchandise from the pirates. This was now taken back by the pirates, who, having refitted the _Neptune_, set forth seeking fresh adventures and prizes. The further history of Burgess is one of constant change and disappointment.

While serving under a Captain North, he was accused of betraying some of his associates, and was robbed of all his hard-earned savings. For several years after this he lived ashore at a place in Madagascar called Methalage, until captured by some Dutch rovers, who soon after were themselves taken by French pirates. Burgess, with his former Dutch captain, was put ashore at Johanna, where, under the former's expert knowledge, a ship was built and sailed successfully to Youngoul, where Burgess got a post as third mate on a ship bound to the West Indies. Before sailing, Burgess was sent, on account of his knowledge of the language, as ambassador to the local King. Burgess, unfortunately for himself, had in the past said some rather unkind things about this particular ruler, and the offended monarch, in revenge, gave Burgess some poisoned liquor to drink, which quickly brought to an end an active if chequered career.

BURGESS, CAPTAIN THOMAS.

One of the pirates of the Bahama Islands who surrendered to King George in 1718 and received the royal pardon. He was afterwards drowned at sea.

BURK, CAPTAIN.

An Irishman, who committed many piracies on the coast of Newfoundland. Drowned in the Atlantic during a hurricane in 1699.

CACHEMARÉE, CAPTAIN. French filibuster.

Commanded the _St. Joseph_, of six guns and a crew of seventy men. In 1684 had his headquarters at San Domingo.

CÆSAR.

A negro. One of Teach's crew hanged at Virginia in 1718. Cæsar, who was much liked and trusted by Blackbeard, had orders from him to blow up the _Queen Ann's Revenge_ by dropping a lighted match into the powder magazine in case the ship was taken by Lieutenant Maynard. Cæsar attempted to carry out his instructions, but was prevented from doing so by two of the surrendered pirates.

CÆSAR, CAPTAIN.

One of Gasparilla's gang of pirates who hunted in the Gulf of Mexico. His headquarters were on Sanibel Island.

CALLES, CAPTAIN JOHN, or CALLIS.

A notorious Elizabethan pirate, whose activities were concentrated on the coast of Wales.

We quote Captain John Smith, the founder of Virginia, who writes: "This Ancient pirate Callis, who most refreshed himselfe upon the Coast of Wales, who grew famous, till Queene Elizabeth of Blessed Memory, hanged him at Wapping."

Calles did not die on the gallows without an attempt at getting let off. He wrote a long and ingenious letter to Lord Walsyngham, bewailing his former wicked life and promising, if spared, to assist in ridding the coast of pirates by giving particulars of "their roads, haunts, creeks, and maintainers." One of the chief of these "maintainers," or receivers of stolen property, was Lord O'Sullivan, or the Sulivan Bere of Berehaven. In spite of a long and very plausible plea for pity, this "ancient and wicked pyrate" met his fate on the gibbet at Wapping.

CAMMOCK, WILLIAM.

A seaman under Captain Bartholomew Sharp. He died at sea on December 14th, 1679, off the coast of Chile. "His disease was occasioned by a sunfit, gained by too much drinking on shore at La Serena; which produced in him a _celenture_, or malignant fever and a hiccough." He was buried at sea with the usual honours of "three French vollies."

CANDOR, RALPH.

Tried for piracy with the rest of Captain Lowther's crew at St. Kitts in March, 1723, and acquitted.

CANNIS, _alias_ CANNIS MARCY.

A Dutch pirate who acted as interpreter to Captain Bartholomew Sharp's South Sea Expedition. Captain Cox and Basil Ringmore took him with them after the sacking of Hilo in 1679, to come to terms with the Spanish cavalry over the ransoming of a sugar mill. On Friday, May 27th, 1680, while ashore with a watering party in the Gulf of Nicoya, the interpreter, having had, no doubt, his fill of buccaneering, ran away.

CARACCIOLI, SIGNOR, _alias_ D'AUBIGNY.

An Italian renegade priest, who became an atheist, Socialist, and revolutionist, and was living at Naples when Captain Fourbin arrived there in the French man-of-war _Victoire_.

Caraccioli met and made great friends with a young French apprentice in the ship, called Misson, and a place was found for him on board. The ex-priest proved himself to be a brave man in several engagements with the Moors and with an English warship, and was quickly promoted to be a petty officer.

Caraccioli, by his eloquence, soon converted most of the crew to believe in his theories, and when Captain Fourbin was killed in an action off Martinique with an English ship, Misson took command and appointed the Italian to be his Lieutenant, and continued to fight the English ship to a finish. The victorious crew then elected Misson to be their captain, and decided to "bid defiance to all nations" and to settle on some out-of-the-way island. Capturing another English ship off the Cape of Good Hope, Caraccioli was put in command of her, and the whole of the English crew voluntarily joined the pirates, and sailed to Madagascar. Here they settled, and the Italian married the daughter of a black Island King; an ideal republic was formed, and our hero was appointed Secretary of State.

Eventually Caraccioli died fighting during a sudden attack made on the settlement by a neighbouring tribe.

CARMAN, THOMAS.

Of Maidstone in Kent.

Hanged at Charleston in 1718 with the rest of Major Bonnet's crew.

CARNES, JOHN.

One of Blackbeard's crew. Hanged at Virginia in 1718.

CARR, JOHN.

A Massachusetts pirate, one of Hore's crew, who was hiding in Rhode Island in 1699.

CARTER, DENNIS.

Tried for piracy in June, 1704, at the Star Tavern in Boston. One of John Quelch's crew.

CARTER, JOHN.

Captured by Major Sewall in the _Larimore_ galley, and brought into Salem. One of Captain Quelch's crew. Tried at Boston in 1704.

CASTILLO.

A Columbian sailor in the schooner _Panda_. Hanged for piracy at Boston on June 11th, 1835.

LA CATA.

A most blood-thirsty pirate and one of the last of the West Indian gangs.

In 1824, when La Cata was cruising off the Isle of Pines, his ship was attacked by an English cutter only half his size. After a furious fight the cutter was victorious, and returned in triumph to Jamaica with the three survivors of the pirates as prisoners. One of these was found out at the trial to be La Cata himself. Hanged at Kingston, Jamaica.

CHANDLER, HENRY, _alias_ RAMMETHAM RISE.

Born in Devonshire, his father kept a chandler's shop in Southwark. An English _renegado_ at Algiers, who had turned Mohammedan and had become an overseer in the pirates' shipyards. He was a man of some authority amongst the Moors, and in 1621 he appointed a slave called Goodale to become master of one of the pirate ships, the _Exchange_, in which one Rawlins also sailed. Owing to the courage and ingenuity of the latter, the European slaves afterwards seized the ship and brought her into Plymouth; Chandler being thrown into gaol and afterwards hanged.

CHEESMAN, EDWARD.

Taken prisoner out of the _Dolphin_, on the Banks of Newfoundland, by the Pirate Phillips in 1724. With the help of a fisherman called Fillmore, he killed Phillips and ten other pirates and brought the ship into Boston Harbour.

CHEVALLE, DANIEL.

One of Captain John Quelch's crew. Tried for piracy at Boston in 1704.

CHILD, THOMAS.

In the year 1723, at the age of 15, he was tried for piracy at Newport, Rhode Island. This child must have seen scores of cold-blooded murders committed while he sailed with Low and Harris. Found to be not guilty.

CHRISTIAN, CAPTAIN.

In 1702 the town of Tolu was sacked by Captain Brown of the _Blessing_. Brown was killed, and Christian was elected to be captain in his stead. Davis tells us that "Christian was an old experienced soldier and privateer, very brave and just in all his actions." He had lived for a long while amongst the Darien Indians, with whom he was on very friendly terms.

CHULY, DANIEL.

Tried for piracy at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1706.

CHURCH, CHARLES.

Of St. Margaret's, Westminster.

One of Captain Charles Harris's crew. Hanged on July 19th, 1723, at Newport, Rhode Island. Age

CHURCH, EDWARD.

In 1830 he served in the brig _Vineyard_, from New Orleans to Philadelphia. Took part in the mutiny which was planned by the notorious pirate Charles Gibbs.

CHURCH, WILLIAM.

Of the _Gertrwycht_ of Holland.

At the trial at West Africa in 1722 of the crew of Bartholomew Roberts's, four of the prisoners--W. Church, Phil. Haak, James White, and Nicholas Brattle--were proved to have "served as Musick on board the _Royal Fortune_, being taken out of several merchant ships, having had an uneasy life of it, having sometimes their Fiddles, and often their Heads broke, only for excusing themselves, as saying they were tired, when any Fellow took it in his Head to demand a Tune." Acquitted.

CHURCHILL, JOHN.

One of Captain George Lowther's crew. Captured by the _Eagle_ sloop at the Island of Blanco, not far from Tortuga.

Hanged on March 11th, 1722, at St. Kitts.

CLARKE, JONATHAN.

Of Charleston, South Carolina.

One of Major Stede Bonnet's crew. Tried for piracy at Charleston in 1718, and found to be not guilty.

CLARKE, RICHARD, _alias_ JAFAR.

A renegade English sailor, who turned "Turk"--that is, became a Mohammedan--and was appointed chief gunner on one of the Barbary pirate ships. Captured in the _Exchange_, and brought into Plymouth in 1622. He was hanged.

CLARKE, ROBERT.

Governor of New Providence, Bahama Islands. Instead of trying to stamp out the pirates, he did all he could to encourage them, by granting letters of marque to such men as Coxon, to go privateering, these letters being quite illegal. The proprietors of the Bahama Islands turned Clarke out and appointed in his place Robert Lilburne in 1682.

CLIFFORD, JOHN.

One of Captain John Quelch's crew; tried at the Star Tavern at Boston in 1704 for piracy. All the accused pleaded "Not guilty" except Clifford and two others who turned Queen's evidence.

CLINTON, CAPTAIN.

One of the notorious sixteenth century pirates "who grew famous until Queene Elizabeth of blessed memory, hanged them at Wapping."

COBHAM, CAPTAIN.

Of Poole in Dorsetshire.

At the age of 18 he took to smuggling. His biographer tells us that even at this comparatively early age Cobham "was cautious and prudent, and though he intrigued with the ladies, he managed to keep it secret." Cobham was very successful as a smuggler, on one occasion landing a cargo of ten thousand gallons of brandy at Poole. But a little later on his vessel was captured by a King's cutter. This annoyed the young captain, and he bought a cutter at Bridport, mounted fourteen guns in her, and turned pirate. Out of his very first prize, an Indiaman, which he boarded off the Mersey, he took a sum of £40,000, and then scuttled the ship and drowned the crew.

Cobham, calling in at Plymouth, met a damsel called Maria, whom he took on board with him, which at first caused some murmuring amongst his crew, who were jealous because they themselves were not able to take lady companions with them on their voyages, for, as the same biographer sagely remarks, "where a man is married the case is altered, no man envies him his happiness; but where he only keeps a girl, every man says, 'I have as much right to one as he has.'" Nevertheless, Maria proved herself a great success, for when any member of the crew was to be punished Maria would use her influence with the captain to get him excused or his punishment lessened, thus winning the affection of all on board. The English Channel becoming too dangerous for Cobham, he sailed across the Atlantic and lay in wait for vessels between Cape Breton and Prince Edward Isle, and took several prizes. In one of these he placed all the crew in sacks and threw them into the sea. Maria, too, took her part in these affairs, and once stabbed to the heart, with her own little dirk, the captain of a Liverpool brig, the _Lion_, and on another occasion, to indulge her whim, a captain and his two mates were tied up to the windlass while Maria shot them with her pistol. Maria always wore naval uniform, both at sea and when in port; in fact, she entered thoroughly into the spirit of the enterprise.

Cobham now wished to retire from the sea, but Maria urged him to further efforts, as she had set her heart on his buying her a beautiful place in England called Mapleton Hall, near Poole.

Maria's last act at sea was to poison the whole crew of an Indiaman, who were prisoners in irons aboard the pirate ship.

Cobham having made a vast fortune, at last decided to settle down, and he bought a large estate near Havre from the Duc de Chartres. It was on the coast, and had a snug little harbour of its own, where the retired pirate kept a small pleasure yacht in which he and Maria used to go for fishing expeditions. One day, when they were out on one of these picnics, a West India brig lay becalmed near by, and Cobham and his crew went on board to visit the captain of the merchant ship. But the temptation proved too strong, and Cobham suddenly shooting the captain, Maria and the yacht's crew quickly despatched the rest. Carrying the prize to Bordeaux, he sold her for a good price. This was Cobham's last act of piracy, and soon afterwards he was made a magistrate, and presided at the county courts. Maria, it was thought, possibly owing to remorse, poisoned herself with laudanum and died. Cobham lived to a good old age, and eventually passed away, leaving many descendants, who, a hundred years ago, "were moving in the first grade at Havre."

COBHAM, MRS. MARIA.

A bloodthirsty and ambitious woman pirate, the wife of Captain Cobham, late of Poole in Dorset.

COCKLYN, CAPTAIN THOMAS.

In 1717 was in the Bahama Islands when Woodes Rogers arrived at New Providence Island with King George's offer of pardon to those pirates who came in and surrendered themselves. Cocklyn, like many others, after surrendering, fell again into their wicked ways, and ended by being hanged. Only a year after receiving the royal pardon we hear of him being in company with Davis and La Bouse and several other notorious pirates at Sierra Leone, when he was in command of a tall ship of twenty-four guns.

Cocklyn ended his life on the gallows.

COFRECINA, CAPTAIN.

A notorious Spanish-American pirate who was very troublesome in the South Atlantic in the early part of the last century. Eventually captured by Midshipman Hull Foot of the U.S. Navy in March, 1825, at St. Thomas Isle. Executed in Porto Rico by the terrible Spanish method of the garotte.

COLE, CAPTAIN JOHN.

Commander of the _Eagle_, _alias_ the _New York Revenge's Revenge_. Tried, condemned, and hanged in 1718 at Charleston. His was a brilliant career while it lasted, but was cut short after a brief and meteoric spell.

COLE, SAMUEL.

One of Captain Fly's crew. Tried and condemned for piracy at Boston in 1726. On the way to the gallows the culprits were taken to church, where they had to listen to a long sermon from Dr. Colman, bringing home to the wretched creatures their dreadful sins and their awful future.

COLLIER, CAPTAIN EDWARD.

Commanded the _Oxford_, a King's ship, which was sent from England to Jamaica at the earnest request of Governor Modyford, for a "nimble frigate," to help keep control over the increasingly turbulent buccaneers. Collier's first act was to seize a French man-of-war, a privateer called the _Cour Volent_, of La Rochelle, commanded by M. la Vivon, his excuse being that the Frenchmen had robbed an English vessel of provisions. Collier was appointed to be Morgan's Vice-Admiral, and a few days later the _Oxford_ was blown up accidentally while a conference of buccaneer captains was taking place.

In 1670, with six ships and 400 men, the buccaneers sailed for the Spanish Main and sacked the city of Rio de la Hacha. Collier led the left wing in the famous and successful attack on Panama City with the rank of colonel.

Richard Brown reports that Collier could on occasions be very cruel, and that he even executed a Spanish friar on the battlefield after quarter had been given to the vanquished. On their return to the coast after the sacking of Panama, Collier was accused, with Morgan and the other commanders, of having cheated the seamen of their fair share of the plunder, and of deserting them, and then sailing off in the ships with the supplies of food as well as the plunder.

COLLINS, THOMAS.

This Madagascar pirate was a carpenter by trade, who had by 1716 retired from the sea and lived in splendour in that island. Collins was made Governor of the pirate colony, and built a small fort for its defence, which the pirates armed with the guns taken out of their ship, which had by long use grown old and crazy, and was of no further use to them.

COMRY, ADAM.

Surgeon to the ship _Elizabeth_, taken by Captain Bartholomew Roberts's squadron. Gave evidence at the trial of George Wilson and another sea-surgeon, Scudamore, that the former had borrowed from Comry a "clean shirt and drawers, for his better appearance and reception." When visiting Captain Bartholomew Roberts's ship, Comry was forced to serve as surgeon on board one of Roberts's vessels.

CONDENT, CAPTAIN, _also_ CONGDON or CONDEN.

Born at Plymouth in Devonshire.

Condent was quartermaster in a New York sloop, at the Island of New Providence, when Governor Woodes Rogers arrived there in 1718. The captain of the sloop seems to have thought best to leave rather than wait to welcome the new Governor. When only a few days out, one of the crew, an Indian, who had been cruelly treated, attempted, in revenge, to blow up the ship. This was prevented by Condent, who with great courage leapt into the hold and shot the Indian, but not before the latter had fired at him and broken his arm. The crew, to show the relief they felt at being saved from a sudden death, hacked to pieces the body of the Indian, while the gunner, ripping open the dead man's belly, tore out his heart, which he boiled and ate.

Turning their attention from cannibalism to piracy, the pirates took a prize, the _Duke of York_, but disputes arising, the captain and part of the crew sailed in the prize, while Condent was elected captain of the sloop, and headed across the Atlantic for the Cape Verde Islands, where he found the salt fleet, of twenty small vessels, lying at anchor off the Island of Mayo, all of which he took. Sailing next to the Island of St. Jago, he took a Dutch ship. This proving a better ship than the sloop, Condent transferred himself and crew into her, and named her the _Flying Dragon_, presenting the sloop to the mate of an English prize, who he had forced to go with him. From thence Condent sailed away for the coast of Brazil, taking several Portuguese ships which, after plundering, he let go. After cleaning the _Flying Dragon_ on Ferdinando Island, the pirates took several more prizes, and then one day met with a Portuguese man-of-war of seventy guns. Coming up with her, the Portuguese hailed the pirates, and they answered "from London bound for Buenos Ayres." The man-of-war, to pay a compliment to the ship of her English ally, manned the shrouds and cheered him, and while this amicable demonstration of marine brotherly feeling was taking place, Captain Condent came up alongside and suddenly fired a broadside and a volley of small arms into the man-of-war, and a smart engagement followed, in which the pirates were worsted, and were lucky to escape.

Sailing away round the Cape of Good Hope, Condent arrived at the pirate stronghold at the Island of Johanna, where he took on board some of Captain Halsey's crew, and, reinforced by these skilled masters in the craft of piracy, took several rich East Indiamen off the Malabar coast.

Calling in at the Isle of St. Mary, one of the Mascerenas group, he met with another Portuguese ship of seventy guns, which he was fortunate enough to make a prize of. In this ship they found amongst the passengers the Viceroy of Goa. Carrying this rich prize to Zanzibar, they plundered her of a large amount of money.

Having now gathered a vast fortune, they thought it time to give up piracy, so they returned to the Island of St. Mary, where they made a share of their plunder, and the company broke up, many of them settling down amongst the natives. Captain Condent and some others sent from here a petition to the Governor of Mauritius asking for a pardon, and received answer that he would take them into his protection if they would destroy their ships. Having done this, they sailed to Mauritius, where they settled down, and Captain Condent married the Governor's sister-in-law.

A few years later the captain and his wife left the island and sailed to France, settling at St. Malo, where Condent drove a considerable trade as a merchant.

COOK, CAPTAIN EDWARD, or EDMUND.

Was on the Pacific coast with Captains Sharp and Sawkins, 1680. Being unable to keep order amongst his unruly crew, he resigned his ship and command to Captain John Cox, a New Englander. He commanded a barque in the successful sacking of Porto Bello in the same year in company with Sharp, Coxon, and others.

On land engagements his flag was a red one striped with yellow, on which was a device of a hand and sword.

COOK, GEORGE, _alias_ RAMEDAM.

An English renegade amongst the Barbary pirates of Algiers. Was gunner's mate when captured in the _Exchange_ in 1622. Brought to Plymouth and hanged.

COOK, WILLIAM.

Servant to Captain Edmund Cook, and was found, on being searched, to have on him a paper with the names of all his fellow pirates written on it, and was suspected of having prepared it to give to some of the Spanish prisoners. For this, Captain Walters put him in irons on January 7th, 1681.

He died on board ship on Monday, February 14th, 1681, off the coast of Chile.

COOKE, CAPTAIN JOHN.

This buccaneer was born in the Island of St. Christopher. "A brisk, bold man," he was promoted to the rank of quartermaster by Captain Yankey. On taking a Spanish ship, Cooke claimed the command of her, which he was entitled to, and would have gone in her with an English crew had not the French members of the crew, through jealousy, sacked the ship and marooned the Englishmen on the Island of Avache. Cooke and his men were rescued by another French buccaneer, Captain Tristram, and taken to the Island of Dominica. Here the English managed to get away with the ship, leaving Tristram and his Frenchmen behind on land. Cooke, now with a ship of his own, took two French ships loaded with wine. With this valuable cargo he steered northward, and reached Virginia in April, 1683. He had no difficulty in selling his wine for a good price to the New Englanders, and with the profits prepared for a long voyage in his ship, the _Revenge_. He took on board with him several famous buccaneers, including Dampier and Cowley, the latter as sailing master. They first sailed to Sierra Leone, then round the Horn to the Island of Juan Fernandez. Here Cooke was taken ill. His next stop was at the Galapagos Islands. Eventually Cooke died a mile or two off the coast of Cape Blanco in Mexico. His body was rowed ashore to be buried, accompanied by an armed guard of twelve seamen. While his grave was being dug three Spanish Indians came up, and asked so many questions as to rouse the suspicions of the pirates, who seized them as spies, but one escaping, he raised the whole countryside.

COOPER, CAPTAIN.

Commanded a pirate sloop, the _Night Rambler_. On November 14th, 1725, he took the _Perry_ galley (Captain King, commander), three days out from Barbadoes, and the following day a French sloop, and carried both prizes to a small island called Aruba, near Curaçao, where they plundered them and divided the spoil amongst the crew. The crews of the two prizes were kept on the island by Cooper for seventeen days, and would have starved if the pirate's doctor had not taken compassion on them and procured them food.

Upton, boatswain in the _Perry_, joined the pirates, and was afterwards tried and hanged in England.

COOPER, CAPTAIN.

On October 19th, 1663, he brought into Port Royal, Jamaica, two Spanish prizes, one the _Maria of Seville_, a royal azogue carrying 1,000 quintals of quicksilver for the King of Spain's mines in Mexico, besides oil, wine, and olives. Also a number of prisoners were taken, including several friars on their way to Campeachy and Vera Cruz. The buccaneers always rejoiced at capturing a priest or a friar, and these holy men generally experienced very rough treatment at the hands of the pirates.

Cooper's ship was a frigate of ten guns, and a crew of eighty men.

CORBET, CAPTAIN.

Sailed with Captain Heidon from Bantry Bay in the _John of Sandwich_ in 1564 to search for a good prize in which he might go a-pirating on his own account. The ship was wrecked on the Island of Alderney, and all the crew arrested. Corbett and several others escaped in a small boat.

CORNELIUS, CAPTAIN.

A contemporary of Howard Burgess North and other Madagascar pirates.

DE COSSEY, STEPHEN JAMES.

With three other pirates was tried and convicted in June, 1717, before the Vice-Admiralty Court at Charleston. The President of the Court was Judge Trot, a terror to all pirates, as he never failed to hang a guilty one. De Cossey and the other prisoners were found guilty of piratically taking the vessels _Turtle Dove_, _Penelope_, and the _Virgin Queen_.

COWARD, WILLIAM.

In November, 1689, with three men and a boy he rowed out to the ketch _Elinor_ (William Shortrigs, master), lying at anchor in Boston Harbour, and seized the vessel and took her to Cape Cod. The crew of the ketch could make no resistance as they were all down with the smallpox. The pirates were caught and locked up in the new stone gaol in Boston. Hanged on January 27th, 1690.

COWLEY, CAPTAIN C.

M.A. Cantab.

A man of high intelligence and an able navigator. In the year 1683 he sailed from Achamach or Cape Charles in Virginia for Dominica as sailing master of a privateer, the _Revenge_ (eight guns and fifty-two men), in company with Dampier and Captain John Cooke. As soon as they were away from the land, they turned buccaneers or pirates, and sailed to Sierra Leone in West Africa. Thence to the coast of Brazil, round the Horn, where Cowley mentions that owing to the intense cold weather the crew were able, each man, to drink three quarts of burnt brandy a day without becoming drunk.

On February 14th the buccaneers were abreast of Cape Horn, and in his diary Cowley writes: "We were choosing valentines and discoursing on the Intrigues of Woman, when there arose a prodigious storm," which lasted till the end of the month, driving them farther south than any ship had ever been before; "so that we concluded the discoursing of Women at sea was very unlucky and occasioned the storm." Cowley, who was addicted to giving new names to islands, not only named one Pepys Island, but when he arrived at the Galapagos Islands, he rechristened them most thoroughly, naming one King Charles Island, while others he named after the Dukes of York, Norfolk, and Albemarle, and Sir John Narborough. Feeling, no doubt, that he had done enough to honour the great, and perhaps to have insured himself against any future trouble with the authorities when he returned home, he named one small island "Cowley's Enchanted Isle."

The Earl of Alington, Lord Culpepper, Lord Wenman, all had islands in this group christened with their names and titles.

In September, 1684, Cowley, now in the _Nicholas_, separated from Davis, and sailed from Ampalla for San Francisco, and then started west to cross the Pacific Ocean. On March 14th, 1685, at seven o'clock in the morning, after a voyage of 7,646 miles, land was at last seen, which proved to be the Island of Guan.

The Spanish Governor was most friendly to the visitors, and when complaint was made to him that the buccaneers had killed some of his Indian subjects he "gave us a Toleration to kill them all if we would." Presents were exchanged, Cowley giving the Governor a valuable diamond ring, one, no doubt, taken off the hand of some other loyal subject of the King of Spain. Here the pirates committed several atrocious cruelties on the Indians, who wished to be friends with the foreigners.

In April they arrived at Canton to refit, and while there, thirteen Tartar ships arrived laden with Chinese merchandise, chiefly valuable silks. Cowley wanted to attack and plunder them, but his crew refused to do so, saying "they came for gold and silver, and not to be made pedlars, to carry packs on their backs," to Cowley's disgust, for he complains, "had Reason but ruled them, we might all have made our Fortunes and have done no Christian Prince nor their subjects any harm at all." Thence they sailed to Borneo, the animals and birds of which island Cowley describes. Sailing next to Timor, the crew mutinied, and Cowley and eighteen others bought a boat and sailed in her to Java, some 300 leagues. Here they heard of the death of King Charles II., which caused Cowley to get out his map of the Galapagos Islands, and to change the name of Duke of York Island to King James Island. At Batavia Cowley procured a passage in a Dutch ship to Cape Town. In June, 1686, he sailed for Holland after much health drinking and salutes of 300 guns, arriving in that country in September, and reaching London, "through the infinite Mercy of God," on October 12th, 1686.

COX, CAPTAIN JOHN. Buccaneer.

Born in New England, and considered by some of his fellow buccaneers "to have forced kindred upon Captain Sharp"--the leader of the fleet--"out of old acquaintance, only to advance himself." Thus he was made Vice-Admiral to Captain Sharp, in place of Captain Cook, whose crew had mutinied and refused to sail any longer under his command. Cox began his captaincy by getting lost, but after a fortnight rejoined the fleet off the Island of Plate, on the coast of Peru, "to the great joy of us all." This island received its name from the fact that Sir Francis Drake had here made a division of his spoils, distributing to each man of his company sixteen bowlfuls of doubloons and pieces of eight. The buccaneers rechristened it Drake's Island.

Cox took part in the attack on the town of Hilo in October, 1679, sacked the town and burnt down the large sugar factory outside. He led a mutiny against his relative and benefactor, Captain Sharp, on New Year's Day, 1681, being the "main promoter of their design" to turn him out. Sharp afterwards described his old friend as a "true-hearted dissembling New-England Man," who he had promoted captain "merely for old acquaintance-sake."

COXON, CAPTAIN JOHN. Buccaneer.

One of the most famous of the "Brethren of the Coast."

In the spring of 1677, in company of other English buccaneers, he surprised and plundered the town of Santa Marta on the Spanish Main, carrying away the Governor and the Bishop to Jamaica.

In 1679 Coxon, with Sharp and others, was fitting out an expedition in Jamaica to make a raid in the Gulf of Honduras, which proved very successful, as they brought back 500 chests of indigo, besides cocoa, cochineal, tortoiseshell, money, and plate.

Coxon was soon out again upon a much bolder design, for in December, 1679, he met Sharp, Essex, Allinson, Row, and other buccaneer chiefs at Point Morant, and in January set sail for Porto Bello. Landing some twenty leagues from the town, they marched for four days, arriving in sight of the town on February 17th, "many of them being weak, being three days without any food, and their feet cut with the rocks for want of shoes." They quickly took and plundered the town, hurrying off with their spoils before the arrival of strong Spanish reinforcements. The share of each man in this enterprise came to one hundred pieces of eight. A warrant was issued by Lord Carlisle, the Governor of Jamaica, for the apprehension of Coxon for plundering Porto Bello, and another was issued soon after by Morgan, when acting as Governor, but nothing seems to have resulted from these. Sailing north to Boca del Toro, they careened their ships, and were joined by Sawkins and Harris. From this place the buccaneers began, in April, 1680, to land and cross the Isthmus of Darien, taking the town of Santa Maria on the way. Quarrels took place between Coxon, who was, no doubt, a hot-tempered man, and Harris, which led to blows. Coxon was also jealous of the popular young Captain Sawkins, and refused to go further unless he was allowed to lead one of the companies. After sacking the town of Santa Maria, the adventurers proceeded in canoes down the river to the Pacific. Seizing two small vessels they found there, and accompanied by a flotilla of canoes, they steered for Panama, and, with the utmost daring, attacked, and eventually took, the Spanish fleet of men-of-war--one of the most remarkable achievements in the history of the buccaneers.

Coxon now quarrelled again with his brother leaders, and began a march back across the isthmus; his party of seventy malcontents including Dampier and Wafer, who each published accounts of their journey. By 1682 Coxon seems to have so ingratiated himself with the Jamaican authorities as to be sent in quest of a troublesome French pirate, Jean Hamlin, who was playing havoc with the English shipping in his vessel, _La Trompeuse_.

Later in the same year Coxon procured letters of marque from Robert Clarke, the Governor of New Providence Island, himself nothing better than a pirate, to go cruising as a "privateer." Coxon was continually being arrested and tried for piracy, but each time he managed to escape the gallows. We do not know the name of the ship Coxon commanded at this date, but it was a vessel of eighty tons, armed with eight guns, and carrying a crew of ninety-seven men.

COYLE, CAPTAIN RICHARD.

Born at Exeter in Devonshire.

An honest seafaring man until, when sailing as mate with Captain Benjamin Hartley, they arrived at Ancona with a cargo of pilchards. Here the captain took on board a new carpenter, called Richardson, who soon became a close friend of the mate's. These two brought about a mutiny, attacked the captain, and threw him, still alive, over the side to drown. Coyle was elected captain, and they sailed as pirates, in which capacity they were a disgrace to an ancient calling. After a visit to Minorca, which ended with ignominy, they sailed to Tunis, where Coyle told such a plausible yarn as to deceive the Governor into believing that he had been the master of a vessel lost in a storm off the coast of Sardinia. The pirates were supplied with money by the British Consul in Tunis; but Coyle, while in his cups, talked too freely, so that the true story of his doings got to the Consul's ears, who had him arrested and sent to London to be lodged in the Marshalsea Prison. Tried at the Old Bailey, he was sentenced to death, and was hanged at Execution Dock on January 25th, 1738.

CRACKERS, CAPTAIN.

A retired pirate who settled at Sierra Leone, and was living there in 1721. He had been famous in his day, having robbed and plundered many a ship. He owned the best house in the settlement, and was distinguished by having three cannons placed before his door, which he was accustomed to fire salutes from whenever a pirate ship arrived or left the port. He was the soul of hospitality and good fellowship, and kept open-house for all pirates, buccaneers, and privateersmen.

CRISS, CAPTAIN JOHN, _alias_ "JACK THE BACHELOR."

A native of Lorne in the North of Ireland.

His father was a fisherman, and little Jack used to go out with him, and then help him sell his fish at Londonderry. The lad grew up into a bold and handsome young fellow, "and many a girl cocked cap at him and he had great success amongst the ladies, and intrigued with every woman that gave him any encouragement."

Tiring of the monotony and low profits of a fisherman's calling, Jack turned smuggler, carrying cargoes of contraband goods from Guernsey to Ireland. Making a tidy sum at this, he bought himself a French galliot, and sailing from Cork, he began to take vessels off the coast of France, selling them at Cherbourg. The young pirate took no risks of information leaking out, for he drowned all his prisoners. Cruising in the Mediterranean, Criss met with his usual success, and, not content with taking ships, he plundered the seaport of Amalfi on the coast of Calabria. Calling at Naples, Criss put up at the Ferdinand Hotel, where one morning he was found dead in his bed. It was discovered afterwards that, in spite of his nickname, he was married to three wives.

CULLEN, ANDREW.

Of Cork in Ireland.

Brother of Pierce Cullen. One of the crew of Captain Roche's ship. After the crew had mutinied and turned pirate he posed as the supercargo.

CULLEN, PIERCE.

Of Cork in Ireland.

One of Captain Philip Roche's gang.

CULLIFORD, CAPTAIN, of the _Mocha_.

A Madagascar pirate.

Little is known of him except that one day in the streets of London he recognized and denounced another pirate called Burgess.

CUMBERLAND, GEORGE, THIRD EARL OF, 1558-1605.

M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge.

After taking his degree at Cambridge he migrated to Oxford for the purpose of studying geography.

So many books have been written about this picturesque and daring adventurer that it is not necessary to do more than mention his name here, as being perhaps the finest example of a buccaneer that ever sacked a Spanish town.

He led twelve voyages to the Spanish Main, fitting them out at his own expense, and encountering the same dangers and hardships as his meanest seaman.

He married in 1577 at the age of nineteen, and sailed on his first voyage in 1586. Cumberland was greatly esteemed by Queen Elizabeth, and always wore in his hat a glove which she had given him.

There is sufficient evidence to show that the Earl was not prompted to spend his life and fortune on buccaneering voyages merely by greed of plunder, but was chiefly inspired by intense love of his country, loyalty to his Queen, and bitter hatred of the Spaniards.

CUNNINGHAM, CAPTAIN WILLIAM.

Had his headquarters at New Providence Island, in the Bahamas. Refused the royal offer of pardon to the pirates in 1717, and was later caught and hanged.

CUNNINGHAM, PATRICK.

Found guilty at Newport in 1723, but reprieved.

CURTICE, JOSEPH.

One of Captain Teach's crew in the _Queen Ann's Revenge_. Killed on November 22nd, 1718, off the coast of North Carolina.

DAMPIER, CAPTAIN WILLIAM. Buccaneer, explorer, and naturalist.

Born at East Coker in the year 1652.

Brought up at first to be a shopkeeper, a life he detested, he was in 1669 apprenticed to a ship belonging to Weymouth, and his first voyage was to France. In the same year he sailed to Newfoundland, but finding the bitter cold unbearable, he returned to England. His next voyage, which he called "a warm one," was to the East Indies, in the _John and Martha_, and suited him better.

Many books have been written recounting the voyages of Dampier, but none of these are better reading than his own narrative, published by James and John Knapton in London. This popular book ran into many editions, the best being the fourth, published in 1729, in four volumes. These volumes are profusely illustrated by maps and rough charts, and also with crude cuts, which are intended to portray the more interesting and strange animals, birds, fishes, and insects met with in his voyages round the globe.

In 1673 Dampier enlisted as a seaman in the _Royal Prince_, commanded by the famous Sir Edward Spragge, and fought in the Dutch war.

A year later he sailed to Jamaica in the _Content_, to take up a post as manager of a plantation belonging to a Colonel Hellier. His restless spirit soon revolted against this humdrum life on a plantation, and Dampier again went to sea, sailing in a small trading vessel amongst the islands.

Dampier's first step towards buccaneering was taken when he shipped himself on a small ketch which was sailing from Port Royal to load logwood at the Bay of Campeachy. This was an illegal business, as the Spanish Government claimed the ownership of all that coast, and did their best to prevent the trade. Dampier found some 250 Englishmen engaged in cutting the wood, which they exchanged for rum. Most of these men were buccaneers or privateers, who made a living in this way when out of a job afloat. When a ship came into the coast, these men would think nothing of coming aboard and spending thirty and forty pounds on rum and punch at a single drinking bout.

Dampier returned afterwards to take up logwood cutting himself, but met with little success, and went off to Beef Island. He had by this time begun to take down notes of all that appeared to him of interest, particularly objects of natural history. For example, he described, in his own quaint style, an animal he found in this island.

"The Squash is a four-footed Beast, bigger than a Cat. Its Head is much like a Foxes, with short Ears and a long Nose. It has pretty short Legs and sharp Claws, by which it will run up trees like a Cat. The flesh is good, sweet, wholesome Meat. We commonly skin and roast it; and then we call it pig; and I think it eats as well. It feeds on nothing but good Fruit; therefore we find them most among the Sapadillo-Trees. This Creature never rambles very far, and being taken young, will become as tame as a Dog, and be as roguish as a Monkey."

Dampier's first act of actual piracy was when he joined in an attack on the Spanish fort of Alvarado, but although the fort was taken, the townspeople had time to escape with all their valuables before the pirates could reach them. Returning to England in 1678, he did not remain long at home, for in the beginning of 1679 he sailed for Jamaica in a vessel named the _Loyal Merchant_. Shortly after reaching the West Indies, he chanced to meet with several well-known buccaneers, including Captains Coxon, Sawkins, and Sharp. Joining with these, he sailed on March 25th, 1679, for the Province of Darien, "to pillage and plunder these parts." Dampier says strangely little about his adventures for the next two years, but a full description of them is given by Ringrose in his "Dangerous Voyage and Bold Adventures of Captain Sharp and Others in the South Sea," published as an addition to the "History of the Buccaneers of America" in 1684.

This narrative tells how the buccaneers crossed the isthmus and attacked and defeated the Spanish Fleet off Panama City. After the death of their leader, Sawkins, the party split up, and Dampier followed Captain Sharp on his "dangerous and bold voyage" in May, 1680.

In April, 1681, after various adventures up and down the coast of Peru and Chile, further quarrels arose amongst the buccaneers, and a party of malcontents, of which number Dampier was one, went off on their own account in a launch and two canoes from the Island of Plate, made famous by Drake, and landed on the mainland near Cape San Lorenzo. The march across the Isthmus of Darien has been amusingly recounted by the surgeon of the party, Lionel Wafer, in his book entitled "A New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of America," published in London in 1699.

To face p. 98.]

On reaching the Atlantic, Dampier found some buccaneer ships and joined them, arriving at Virginia in July, 1682. In this country he resided for a year, but tells little about it beyond hinting that great troubles befell him. In April, 1683, he joined a privateer vessel, the _Revenge_, but directly she was out of sight of land the crew turned pirates, which had been their intention all along. Two good narratives have been written of this voyage, one by Dampier, and the other by Cowley, the sailing-master. This venture ended in the famous circumnavigation of the world, and Dampier described every object of interest he met with, including the country and natives of the north coast of Australia, which had never been visited before by Europeans. Dampier must have found it very difficult to keep his journal so carefully and regularly, particularly in his early voyages, when he was merely a seaman before the mast or a petty officer. He tells us that he carried about with him a long piece of hollow bamboo, in which he placed his manuscript for safe keeping, waxing the ends to keep out the sea water.

After almost endless adventures and hardships, he arrived back in England in September, 1691, after a voyage of eight years, and an absence from England of twelve, without a penny piece in his pocket, nor any other property except his unfortunate friend Prince Jeoly, whom he sold on his arrival in the Thames, to supply his own immediate wants. Dampier's next voyage was in the year 1699, when he was appointed to command H.M.S. _Roebuck_, of twelve guns and a crew of fifty men and boys, and victualled for twenty months' cruise. The object of this voyage was to explore and map the new continent to the south of the East Indies which Dampier had discovered on his previous voyage. Had he in this next voyage taken the westward course, as he originally intended, and sailed to Australia round the Horn, it is possible that Dampier would have made many of the discoveries for which James Cook afterwards became so famous, and by striking the east coast of Australia would very likely have antedated the civilisation of that continent by fifty years. But he was persuaded, partly by his timid crew, and perhaps in some measure by his own dislike of cold temperatures, to sail by the eastward route and to double the Cape of Good Hope. The story of this voyage is given by Dampier in his book, published in 1709, "A Voyage to New Holland, etc., in the Year 1699."

After spending some unprofitable weeks on the north coast of Australia, failing to find water or to make friends with the aboriginals, scurvy broke out amongst his somewhat mutinous crew, and he sailed to New Guinea, the coast of which he saw on New Year's Day, 1700.

By this time the _Roebuck_ was falling to pieces, her wood rotten, her hull covered with barnacles. Eventually, using the pumps day and night, they arrived, on February 21st, 1701, at Ascension Island, where the old ship sank at her anchors. Getting ashore with their belongings, they waited on this desolate island until April 3rd, when four ships arrived, three of them English men-of-war.

I was told, only the other day, by a friend who lives in the Island of St. Helena, and whose duties take him at least once each year to Ascension Island, that a story still survives amongst the inhabitants of these islands that there is hidden somewhere in the sandhills a treasure, which Dampier is believed to have put there for safe keeping, but for some reason never removed. But poor Dampier never came by a treasure in this or any other of his voyages, and though the legend is a pleasant one, it is a legend and nothing more. Dampier went on board one of the men-of-war, the _Anglesea_, with thirty-five of his crew. Taken to Barbadoes, he there procured a berth in another vessel, the _Canterbury_, in which he sailed to England.

Dampier had now made so great a name for himself by his two voyages round the globe that he was granted a commission by Prince George of Denmark to sail as a privateer in the _St. George_, to prey on French and Spanish ships, the terms being: "No purchase, no pay." Sailing as his consort was the _Cinque Ports_, whose master was Alexander Selkirk, the original of Robinson Crusoe. This voyage, fully recounted in Dampier's book, is a long tale of adventure, hardship, and disaster, and the explorer eventually returned to England a beggar. However, his travels made a great stir, and he was allowed to kiss the Queen's hand and to have the honour of relating his adventures to her.

Dampier's last voyage was in the capacity of pilot or navigating officer to Captain Woodes Rogers in the _Duke_, which sailed with another Bristol privateer, the _Duchess_, in 1708. The interesting narrative of this successful voyage is told by Rogers in his book, "A Cruising Voyage Round the World," etc., published in 1712. Another account was written by the captain of the _Duchess_, Edward Cooke, and published in the same year. This last voyage round the world ended at Erith on October 14th, 1711, and was the only one in which Dampier returned with any profit other than to his reputation as an explorer and navigator.