The Pirates' Who's Who Part 31

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 st.i.tched 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 St.i.tches, and then bid him sew up his Chops himself and be d.a.m.ned, 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 s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+p.

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 s.h.i.+p 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 b.l.o.o.d.y pirate has never been known.

LOWTHER, CAPTAIN GEORGE.

Sailed as second mate from the Thames in the _Gambia Castle_, a s.h.i.+p belonging to the African Company, sixteen guns and a crew of thirty men.

On board as pa.s.sengers were Captain Ma.s.sey and a number of soldiers.

Arriving at their destination, Ma.s.sey quarrelled with the merchants on sh.o.r.e, and, a few days later, with Lowther, seized the s.h.i.+p, which he renamed the _Delivery_. They now went a-pirating, their first prize being a Boston s.h.i.+p, and cruising about off the Island of Hispaniola, several more were taken, but nothing very rich. Lowther quarrelled with Captain Ma.s.sey, who, being a soldier, wished to land on some island to plunder the French settlements, but this was not agreed to, and Ma.s.sey 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 flags.h.i.+p being the _Happy Delivery_. While careening their s.h.i.+ps 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 s.h.i.+p, but was so roughly handled that he was glad to run his s.h.i.+p ash.o.r.e and escape.

In 1723 he steered for Newfoundland, taking many small vessels there, and returning to the West Indies. While cleaning his s.h.i.+p at the Isle of Blanco, he was suddenly attacked by a South Sea Company's s.h.i.+p, 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 s.h.i.+ps. 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 s.h.i.+p, 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.

LUs.h.i.+NGHAM, 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 s.h.i.+ps arrived in the bay in search of pirates.

By Lord O'Sullivan's help the pirates escaped, but Lus.h.i.+ngham was killed "by a piece of ordnance" as he was in the act of waving his cap towards the Queen's s.h.i.+ps.

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 fas.h.i.+onable 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 Ma.s.s 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 b.l.o.o.d.y battle, had, as usual, attended Ma.s.s 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 fas.h.i.+onably 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 fas.h.i.+on.

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 c.o.xon, 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 Somersets.h.i.+re 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 s.h.i.+p 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 Sorciere_, 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.