Page:A Mainsail Haul - Masefield - 1913.djvu/161

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CAPTAIN COXON
149

find sympathizers in the gaol. Coxon discovered the practical virtues of this statement. He got away from the prison before the jury was called; and he was next heard of in Campeachy, cutting logwood, and raiding the coasts. A ship was sent after him; but this ship, though she captured some of his men, failed to take him. In 1687 he was still cruising, and making a good deal of money "by snapping up Indians to sell." In 1688, for some reason, he again surrendered at Jamaica to the Duke of Albemarle, who "sent him to Lynch" in despair.

We do not know how he escaped hanging; but the stars in their courses fought for him, and he got off somehow. He had still ten years of life before him; and these he passed quietly, as a trader to the Moskito shore. At times the old Adam rose up strongly in him; and then he would gather the Indians together, and take them to the Spanish settlements, "surprizing them in the night," as he had once surprised Santa Martha. "This Coxon encouraged the Indians to such practices." He died among them, surrounded by "wild Indian slaves and harlots," in the year