Page:A Mainsail Haul - Masefield - 1913.djvu/159

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CAPTAIN COXON
147

sailed to Jamaica, apparently to show Sir Thomas Lynch what a beautiful commission he had gotten from Bahama. Sir Thomas reproved the too trusting official, and diverted honest Coxon's fervour into another channel, by bidding him go to Honduras to escort home some logwood merchants. Coxon gave up his intention of making war on the Spaniard, and sailed to Honduras to do this, but, unfortunately, his men had little heart for convoy duty. Being Government men, at £1 a month and their victuals, was less pleasant, and infinitely less glorious, than being "on the account" for "whatever they could rob." They plotted to heave John Coxon into the gulf, and to run away with the ship, "and go privateering." So they came aft in a body to put their bloody resolutions into effect. "But he valiantly resisted, killed one or two with his own hand, forced eleven overboard, and brought three to Port Royal," where they were condemned and hanged. This action so delighted Lynch that he made Coxon his trusted henchman. Early in 1683, Lynch sent him out again, this time to his old ally, Captain Yanky-Dutch, with an offer of