One of Captain George Lowther's crew. Hanged at St. Kitts on March 11th,
1722.
LEWIS, WILLIAM.
The greatest triumph and most important exploit of this pirate was the
attacking, and eventually taking, of a powerful French ship of twenty-four
guns.
Lewis enjoyed a longer career than most of the brethren, and by 1717 he
was already one of the leading piratical lights of Nassau, and his end did
not come till ten years later. In 1726, he spent several months on the
coast of South Carolina and Virginia, trading with the inhabitants the
spoils he had taken from vessels in the Atlantic. He learnt his trade
under the daring pirate Bannister, who was brought into Port Royal,
hanging dead from his own yard-arm. On this occasion, Lewis and another
boy were triced up to the corvette's mizzen-peak like "two living flags."
Lewis, amongst other accomplishments, was a born linguist, and could speak
with fluency in several languages, even the dialect of the Mosquito
Indians. He was once captured by the Spaniards, and taken to Havana, but
escaped with a few other prisoners in a canoe, seized a piragua, and with
this captured a sloop employed in the turtle trade, and by gradually
taking larger and larger prizes, Lewis soon found himself master of a fine
ship and a crew of more than fifty men. He renamed her the _Morning Star_,
and made her his flagship.
On one occasion when chasing a vessel off the Carolina coast, his fore and
main topmasts were carried away. Lewis, in a frenzy of excitement,
clambered up the main top, tore out a handful of his hair, which he tossed
into the wind, crying: "Good devil, take this till I come." The ship, in
spite of her damaged rigging, gained on the other ship, which they took.
Lewis's sailors, superstitious at the best of times, considered this
intimacy of their captain with Satan a little too much, and soon
afterwards one of the Frenchmen aboard murdered Lewis in his sleep.
LEYTON, FRANCIS.
One of Captain Charles Harris's crew. Hanged for piracy at Newport, Rhode
Island, on July 19th, 1723. Age 39.
LIMA, MANUEL.
Taken by H.M. sloop _Tyne_, and hanged at Kingston, Jamaica, in February,
1823.
LINCH, CAPTAIN. Buccaneer.
Of Port Royal, Jamaica.
In 1680 Lionel Wafer, tiring of the life of a civil surgeon at Port Royal,
left Jamaica to go on a voyage with Captains Linch and Cook to the Spanish
Main.
LING, CAPTAIN WILLIAM.
A notorious pirate of New Providence. Captured and hanged shortly after
accepting King George's pardon of 1718.
LINISLER, THOMAS.
Of Lancashire.
One of Captain Charles Harris's crew. Hanged at Rhode Island in 1723 at
the age of 21.
LITHGOW, CAPTAIN.
Famous in his day for his activities in the West Indies, this pirate had
his headquarters at New Providence in the Bahamas.
LIVER, WILLIAM, _alias_ EVIS.
One of Major Stede Bonnet's crew. Hanged for piracy at Charleston, South
Carolina, in 1718.
LO, MRS. HON-CHO.
This Chinese woman pirate was the widow of another noted pirate who was
killed in 1921. She took command after the death of her husband, and soon
became a terror to the countryside about Pakhoi, carrying on the work in
the best traditions of the craft, being the Admiral of some sixty
ocean-going junks. Although both young and pretty, she won a reputation
for being a thorough-going murderess and pirate.
During the late revolution, Mrs. Lo joined General Wong Min-Tong's forces,
and received the rank of full Colonel. After the war, she resumed her
piracies, occasionally for the sake of variety, surprising and sacking a
village or two, and from these she usually carried away some fifty or
sixty girls to sell as slaves.
Her career ended quite suddenly in October, 1922.
LODGE, THOMAS. Poet, buccaneer, and physician.
Born about 1557, he was the son of Sir Thomas Lodge, grocer, and Lord
Mayor of London in 1563. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and
Trinity College, Oxford. The poet engaged in more than one freebooting
expedition to Spanish waters between 1584 and 1590, and he tells us that
he accompanied Captain Clarke in an attack on the Azores and the Canaries.
"Having," he tells his friend Lord Hunsdon, "with Captain Clarke made a
voyage to the Islands of Terceras and the Canaries, to beguile the time
with labour, I writ this book, rough, as hatched in the storms of the
ocean, and feathered in the surges of many perilous seas." On August 26th,
1591, Lodge sailed from Plymouth with Sir Thomas Cavendish in the
_Desire_, a galleon of 140 tons. The freebooters sailed to Brazil and
attacked the town of Santa, while the people were at Mass. They remained
there from December 15th until January 22nd, 1592. Some of the Englishmen,
of whom Lodge was one, took up their quarters in the College of the
Jesuits, and this literary buccaneer spent his time amongst the books in
the library of the Fathers.
Leaving Brazil, the small fleet sailed south to the Straits of Magellan.
While storm-bound amongst the icy cliffs of Patagonia, Lodge wrote his
Arcadian romance "Margarite of America."
From the point of view of plunder, this expedition was a dismal failure,
and the _Desire_ returned and reached the coast of Ireland on June 11th,
1593. The crew had been reduced to sixteen, and of these only five were
even in tolerable health.
At the age of 40, Lodge deserted literature and studied medicine, taking
his degree of Doctor of Physics at Avignon in 1600. His last original work
was a "Treatise on the Plague," published in 1603. After practising
medicine with great success for many years, Thomas Lodge died, it is said,
of the plague, in the year 1625, at the age of 68.
LONG, ZACHARIAH.
Of the Province of Holland.
One of Major Stede Bonnet's crew. Hanged at White Point, Charleston, in
1718, and buried in the marsh below low-water mark.
LOPEZ, JOHN.
Of Oporto.
This Portuguese pirate sailed in the _Royal James_, and was hanged with
the rest of the crew at Charleston, South Carolina, on November 8th,
1718.
LORD, JOHN.
A soldier. Deserted from Fort Loyal, Falmouth, Maine. Killed at Tarpaulin
Cove in 1689.
LOW, CAPTAIN EDWARD, or LOE.
Born in Westminster, he began in very early life to plunder the boys of
their farthings, and as he grew bigger used to gamble with the footmen who
waited in the lobby of the House of Commons. While still quite small one
of his elder brothers used to carry little Edward hidden in a basket on
his back, and when in a crowd the future pirate would, from above, snatch
the hats and even the wigs off the heads of passing citizens and secret
them in the basket and so get away with them. The Low family were the
originators of this ingenious and fascinating trick, and for a time it was
most successful, until the people of the city took to tying on their hats
and wigs with bands to prevent their sudden removal. When he grew up, Ned
went to Boston and earned an honest living as a rigger, but after a while
he tired of this and sailed in a sloop to Honduras to steal log-wood. Here
Low quarrelled with his captain, tried to shoot him, and then went off in
an open boat with twelve other men, and the very next day they took a
small vessel, in which they began their "war against all the world." Low
soon happened to meet with Captain Lowther, the pirate, and the two agreed
to sail in company. This partnership lasted until May 28th, 1722, when
they took a prize, a brigantine from Boston, which Low went into with a
crew of forty-four men. This vessel they armed with two guns, four
swivels, and six quarter-casks of powder, and saying good-bye to Lowther,
sailed off on their own account. A week later a prize fell into their
hands, which was the first of several. Things soon became too hot for Low
along the American coast and the West Indies, as several men-of-war were
searching for him; so he sailed to the Azores, taking on his way a big
French ship of thirty-four guns, and later, in the harbour of St. Michael,
he seized several vessels which he found at anchor there. Here they burnt
the French ship, but let the crew all go, except the cook, who, they said,
"being a greasy fellow would fry well in the fire, so the poor man was
bound to the main mast and burnt in the ship to the no small derision of
Low and his Mirmidons."
Low and his crew now began to treat their prisoners with great brutality.
However, on one occasion the biter was bitten. It happened that one of the
drunken crew, playfully cutting at a prisoner, missed his mark and
accidentally slashed Captain Low across his lower jaw, the sword opening
his cheek and laying bare his teeth. The surgeon was called, who at once
stitched up the wound, but Low found some fault with the operation, as
well he might, seeing that "the surgeon was tollerably drunk" at the time.
The surgeon's professional pride was outraged by this criticism of his
skill by a layman, and he showed his annoyance in a ready, if
unprofessional, manner, by striking "Low such a blow with his Fists, that
broke out all the Stitches, and then bid him sew up his Chops himself and
be damned, so that the captain made a very pitiful Figure for some time
after." Low took a large number of prizes, but he was not a sympathetic
figure, and the list of his prizes and brutalities soon becomes irksome
reading. Low, still in the _Fancy_, and accompanied by Captain Harris in
the _Ranger_, then sailed back to the West Indies, and later to South
Carolina, where he took several prizes, one the _Amsterdam Merchant_
(Captain Willard), belonging to New England, and as Low never missed an
opportunity of showing his dislike of all New Englanders, he sent the
captain away with both his ears cut off and with various other wounds
about his body.
Low and Harris now made a most unfortunate mistake in giving chase to a
ship which on close quarters proved to be not a merchant vessel, but
H.M.S. _Greyhound_. After a short fight, the coward Low slipped away, and
left his consort, Harris, to carry on an unequal contest until he was
compelled to surrender his ship.
Low's cruelties became more and more disgusting, and there can be little
doubt that he was really by this time a lunatic.
In July, 1723, Low took a new ship for himself, naming himself Admiral,
and sporting a new black flag with a red skeleton upon it. He again
cruised off the Azores, the Canaries, and the Guinea coast, but what the
end was of this repulsive, uninteresting, and bloody pirate has never been
known.
LOWTHER, CAPTAIN GEORGE.
Sailed as second mate from the Thames in the _Gambia Castle_, a ship
belonging to the African Company, sixteen guns and a crew of thirty men.
On board as passengers were Captain Massey and a number of soldiers.
Arriving at their destination, Massey quarrelled with the merchants on
shore, and, a few days later, with Lowther, seized the ship, which he
renamed the _Delivery_. They now went a-pirating, their first prize being
a Boston ship, and cruising about off the Island of Hispaniola, several
more were taken, but nothing very rich. Lowther quarrelled with Captain
Massey, who, being a soldier, wished to land on some island to plunder the
French settlements, but this was not agreed to, and Massey and his
followers were sent away in a sloop. Life for Lowther now became a series
of successes, prizes being taken, and visits to land being occasionally
made for the crew to enjoy a drunken revel.
Having met with Captain Low, for a while the two sailed together, and
took the _Greyhound_, a merchantman, and several more rich prizes. Lowther
now commanded a small pirate fleet, and styled himself Admiral, his
flagship being the _Happy Delivery_. While careening their ships in the
Gulf of Matigue, they were suddenly attacked by the natives, and the
pirates barely escaped in a sloop with their lives. Lowther soon improved
himself by seizing a brigantine, and in her shaped his course to the coast
of South Carolina, a favourite resort for the pirates. Here he attacked an
English ship, but was so roughly handled that he was glad to run his ship
ashore and escape.
In 1723 he steered for Newfoundland, taking many small vessels there, and
returning to the West Indies. While cleaning his ship at the Isle of
Blanco, he was suddenly attacked by a South Sea Company's ship, the
_Eagle_, and the pirates were compelled to surrender. Lowther and a dozen
of his crew escaped by climbing out of the cabin window, and, reaching the
island, hid themselves in the woods. All were caught except Lowther and
three men and a boy. He was shortly afterwards found lying dead with a
pistol by his side, and was supposed to have shot himself. Three of his
crew who were caught were carried to St. Christopher's, and there tried
for piracy and hanged.
LUDBURY, CAPTAIN. Buccaneer.
Sailed in company with Captains Prince and Harrison in October, 1670,
ascended the San Juan River in Nicaragua with a party of 170 men, and
surprised and plundered the city of Granada.
LUKE, CAPTAIN MATTHEW.
This Italian pirate had his headquarters at Porto Rico, and specialized in
attacking English ships. In 1718 he took four of these and murdered all
the crews. In May, 1722, Luke made a terrible mistake. Perceiving what he
thought to be a merchant ship, he attacked her, to find out all too late
that she was an English man-of-war, the _Lauceston_. Luke and his crew
were taken to Jamaica and hanged. One of his crew confessed to having
killed twenty English sailors with his own hands.
LUSHINGHAM, CAPTAIN.
In 1564 this pirate was at Berehaven in the South of Ireland, having just
sold a cargo of wine out of a Spanish prize to the Lord O'Sullivan, when
some of Queen Elizabeth's ships arrived in the bay in search of pirates.
By Lord O'Sullivan's help the pirates escaped, but Lushingham was killed
"by a piece of ordnance" as he was in the act of waving his cap towards
the Queen's ships.
LUSSAN, LE SIEUR RAVENEAU DE.
This French filibuster was a man of much better birth and education than
the usual buccaneer. Also, he was the author of a most entertaining book
recording his adventures and exploits as a buccaneer, called "Journal du
Voyage fait a la Mer de sud avec les Flibustiers de l'Amerique en 1684."
Pressure from his creditors drove de Lussan into buccaneering, as being a
rapid method of gaining enough money to satisfy them and to enable him to
return to the fashionable life he loved so well in Paris. De Lussan was,
according to his own account, a man of the highest principles, and very
religious. He never allowed his crew to molest priests, nuns, or churches.
After taking a Spanish town, the fighting being over, he would lead his
crew of pirates to attend Mass in the church, and when this was done--and
not until then--would he allow the plundering and looting to begin.
De Lussan was surprised and grieved to find that his Spanish prisoners had
a most exaggerated idea of the brutality of the buccaneers, and on one
occasion when he was conducting a fair young Spanish lady, a prisoner, to
a place of safety, he was overwhelmed when he discovered that the reason
of her terror was that she believed she was shortly to be eaten by him and
his crew. To remedy this erroneous impression, it was the custom of the
French commander to gather together all his prisoners into the church or
the plaza, and there to give them a lecture on the true life and character
of the buccaneers.
The student who wishes to learn more about the adventures of de Lussan can
do so in his book. There he will read, amongst other interesting events,
particulars about the filibuster's surprising and romantic affair with the
beautiful and wealthy Spanish widow who fell so violently in love with
him.
It happened on one occasion that Raveneau and his crew, having taken a
town on the West Coast of South America after a somewhat bloody battle,
had, as usual, attended Mass in the Cathedral, before setting out to
plunder the place.
Entering one of the chief houses in the town, de Lussan discovered the
widow of the late town treasurer dissolved in tears, upon which the tender
buccaneer hastened, with profound apologies, discreetly to withdraw, but
calling again next day to offer his sympathy he found the widow had
forgotten all about the late treasurer, for she had fallen violently in
love with her gallant, handsome, and fashionably dressed visitor.
After various adventures, de Lussan arrived safely back in Paris with
ample means in his possession not only to satisfy his creditors, but also
to enable him to live there as a gentleman of fortune and fashion.
MACHAULY, DANIEL, or MACCAWLY, or MCCAWLEY.
A Scotch pirate. One of Captain Gow's crew. Hanged at Execution Dock at
Wapping on June 11th, 1725.
MACKDONALD, EDWARD.
One of Captain George Lowther's crew in the _Happy Delivery_. Hanged at
St. Kitts on March 11th, 1722.
MACKET, CAPTAIN, or MAGGOTT.
On March 23rd, 1679, Macket, who commanded a small vessel of fourteen
tons, with a crew of twenty men, was at Boca del Toro with Coxon, Hawkins,
and other famous buccaneers, having just returned from the sacking of
Porto Bello.
Shortly afterwards the fleet sailed to Golden Island, off the coast of
Darien, and from thence set out to attack Santa Maria and Panama.
MACKINTOSH, WILLIAM.
Of Canterbury in Kent.
One of Captain Roberts's crew. Hanged at Cape Coast Castle in 1722 at the
age of 21.
MAGNES, WILLIAM, or MAGNUS.
Born at Minehead in Somersetshire in 1687. Quartermaster of the _Royal
Fortune_ (Captain Bartholomew Roberts). Tried for piracy at Cape Coast
Castle, and hanged in chains in 1718, for taking and plundering the _King
Solomon_.
MAIN, WILLIAM.
One of Captain Roberts's crew. Hanged in April, 1722, at the age of 28
years.
MAIN, WILLIAM.
Boatswain to Captain Bartholomew Roberts in the _Royal Fortune_. Was blown
up, the explosion being caused by one of the crew firing his pistol into
some gunpowder when the ship was taken by H.M.S. _Swallow_ in 1722.
MAINTENON, MARQUIS DE.
Arrived in the West Indies from France in 1676. In 1678 commanded _La
Sorcière_, a frigate, and, in company with other French filibusters from
Tortuga Island, cruised off the coast of Caracas. He ravaged the islands
of Margarita and Trinidad. He met with but little success, and soon
afterwards his fleet scattered.
MAINWARING, CAPTAIN HENRY.
A notorious Newfoundland pirate.
On June 4th, 1614, when off the coast of that island, in command of eight
vessels, he plundered the fishing fleet, stealing what provisions and
stores he was in need of, also taking away with him all the carpenters and
mariners he wanted for his own fleet.
It was his custom, when taking seamen, to pick one out of every six. In
all he took 400 men, some of whom joined him willingly, while others were
"perforstmen." Sailing across the Atlantic to the coast of Spain,
Mainwaring took a Portuguese ship and stole from out of her a good store
of wine, and out of a French prize 10,000 dried fish. A few years later
this pirate was pardoned and placed in command of a squadron and sent to
the Barbary coast in an unsuccessful attempt to drive out the pirates who
were settled there. Here he may well have met with his old friend Captain
Peter Easton, who had also been a Newfoundland pirate, but in 1613 had
joined the Barbary corsairs.
EL MAJORCAM, CAPTAIN ANTONIO.
At one time an officer in the Spanish Navy. Became a notorious West Indian
pirate, but about 1824 he retired from the sea to become a highwayman on
shore.
MANSFIELD, JO.
One of Captain Bartholomew Roberts's men. Must not be confused with Edward
Mansfield, the famous buccaneer.
A native of the Orkney Islands. At one time was a highwayman. Later on
deserted from the _Rose_, man-of-war. Volunteered to join the pirates at
the island of Dominica, and was always keen to do any mischief. He was a
bully and a drunkard.
When Roberts's ship was attacked by H.M.S. _Swallow_ and had surrendered
after a sharp fight, Mansfield, who had been below all the while, very
drunk, came staggering and swearing up on deck, with a drawn cutlass in
his hand, crying out to know who would go on board the prize with him, and
it was some time before his friends could persuade him of the true
condition of things.
At his trial at Cape Coast Castle he said little in his defence, but
pleaded that the cause of his backsliding was drunkenness. Hanged in the
year 1722 at the age of 30.
MANSFIELD, CAPTAIN EDWARD, or MANSVELT.
A Dutchman born in the Island of Curacao.
He was the chief of the buccaneers, and at his death was succeeded by
Henry Morgan. He was the first buccaneer to cross the Isthmus of Darien to
the Pacific Ocean. Noted for his charm of manner, he was very popular with
the buccaneers of all nationalities. In 1663 he commanded a brigantine
carrying four guns and a crew of sixty men. Was chosen admiral of the
fleet of buccaneers that gathered at Bleufields Bay in Jamaica in
November, 1665, at the invitation of Modyford, the Governor, when he
appointed young Henry Morgan to be his vice-admiral. This fleet was to
sail and attempt to seize the Island of Curacao, and consisted of fifteen
ships and a mixed crew of 500 buccaneers. On the way there they landed in
Cuba, although England was at peace with Spain, and marched forty miles
inland, to surprise and sack the town of Sancti Spiritus, from which they
took a rich booty.
Mansfield, "being resolved never to face the Governor of Jamaica until he
had done some service to the King," next made a very daring attack on the
Island of Old Providence, which the Spaniards had fortified and used as a
penal settlement. This was successful, and Mansfield, with great humanity,
landed all the prisoners on the mainland of America. For a long while it
had been Mansfield's dream to make this island a permanent home of the
buccaneers, as it was close to the Spanish Main, with the towns of Porto
Bello and Vera Cruz, and on the trade route of the Spanish galleons,
taking their rich cargoes to Spain.
Mansfield's next exploit was to ascend the San Juan River and to sack
Granada, the capital of Nicaragua. From there he coasted south along Costa
Rica, burning plantations, smashing the images in the churches,
ham-stringing cows and mules, and cutting down fruit-trees.
He returned in June, 1665, to Port Royal, with a rich booty. For this
inexcusable attack on a country at peace with England, Governor Modyford
mildly reproved him!
Mansfield, now an old man, died suddenly at the Island of Tortuga, off
Hispaniola, when on a visit to the French pirates there. Another account
says that he was captured by the Spaniards and taken by them to Porto
Bello, and there put to death.
MARTEEN, CAPTAIN DAVID. Buccaneer.
In 1665 he had his headquarters in Jamaica.
MARTEL, CAPTAIN JOHN.
An old Jamaican privateer. After the Peace of Utrecht, being out of
employment, he took to piracy. His career as a pirate was very successful
so long as it lasted. Cruising off Jamaica, Cuba, and other islands, he
continued taking ship after ship, with one particularly rich prize, a West
African ship containing gold-dust, elephants' teeth, and slaves. His
original command was a sloop of eight guns and a crew of eighty men, but
after a short while he commanded a small fleet consisting of two ships
(each armed with twenty guns), three sloops, and several armed prizes.
With these Martel entered a bay in a small island called Santa Cruz, near
Porto Rico, to careen and refit. This was in December, 1716, but news had
leaked out of the pirate's whereabouts, and soon there arrived on the
scene Captain Hume, of H.M.S. _Scarborough_. Martel tried to escape, but
his ship ran aground, and many of the pirates were killed, but a few, with
Martel, got ashore and hid on the island. None of them were heard of again
except Martel, and it was supposed that they had died of hunger. In the
space of three months Martel took and plundered thirteen vessels, all of
considerable size. Two years later he was back in New Providence Island,
when Governor Rogers arrived with King George's offer of pardon to the
pirates, and Martel was one of those who surrendered.
MARTIN, JOHN.
Hanged in Virginia in 1718 with the rest of Blackbeard's crew.
MASSEY, CAPTAIN JOHN.
As a lieutenant, he "served with great applause" in the army in Flanders,
under the command of the Duke of Marlborough.