The Pirates' Who's Who Part 12

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 t.i.tles.

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 pa.s.sage 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 G.o.d," on October 12th, 1686.

c.o.x, 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. c.o.x 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.

c.o.x 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."

c.o.xON, 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 c.o.xon, 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, tortoisesh.e.l.l, money, and plate.

c.o.xon was soon out again upon a much bolder design, for in December, 1679, he met Sharp, Ess.e.x, 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 c.o.xon 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 c.o.xon, who was, no doubt, a hot-tempered man, and Harris, which led to blows. c.o.xon 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.

c.o.xon 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 c.o.xon 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 c.o.xon 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." c.o.xon 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 c.o.xon 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 c.o.c.ked 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.