LITMIR.BIZ

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in the summer of 1607, ‘to descend to such little acts and strategems as of late has been done at Youghal.’ There were two Bristol vessels in that harbour together, one commanded by Captain Coward, who was supposed to be a pirate. Captain Hampton, instigated by the acting vice-admiral, hid eighty men under hatches, and seizing his opportunity, took possession of Coward’s and killed some of his crew. Coward’s guns fell into the hands of authority, and Chichester would have sent him over to England for trial, but Lord Thomond ‘found it more expedient to cherish him for his better part, being a good seaman and an excellent pilot upon this coast.’ It is no wonder that the Privy Council found it hard to understand such proceedings, and that they were at their wits’ ends ‘to satisfy the ambassadors of foreign princes.’ Coward naturally relapsed into his old courses in the following year, but at last he was captured with a scarcely less formidable comrade named Barrett, on the Connaught coast, by fishermen under the command of a Dutch engineer in the service of the Irish Government. These pirates appear to have been sent to England for trial, but Chichester was now in favour of pardoning them lest their allies should carry out their threat of burning the Newfoundland fishing fleet. Hitherto they had attacked foreigners chiefly, but if driven to desperation they would certainly not spare Englishmen. Whether Coward and Barrett were hanged or not, they appear no more in the Irish correspondence, but there were plenty of others to do the work.[93]

      Land thieves and water thieves.

      Settlement at Baltimore.

Baltimore, the scene of a terrible tragedy in the next reign, was at first thought of as a suitable haven for the pirates, but the vigilance of Mr. Thomas Crooke made it unsafe for them. Their many allies and abettors on land accused Crooke of complicity in their misdeeds, but of this there was no evidence at all. Were he never so guiltless, the Privy Council wrote, his accusers would never believe it, and he was therefore sent to London, where he was triumphantly acquitted. Like other energetic men who have helped to root English power in distant lands, Crooke had no want of detractors, but Lord Danvers, the President of Munster, was instructed to help him, and he was very willing to do so, being determined to prevent the coast of his province from being ‘like Barbary, common and free to all pirates.’ He had been specially charged by Salisbury and other ministers to look after a Spanish ship which had been seized by some rovers and was likely to reach Ireland. She was in fact brought or washed into Baltimore, and Danvers, ‘knowing she was no better than Drake’s monument at Deptford,’ was ready to believe that she had gold hidden among her rotten timbers, and undertook to save her from being broken up by the pirates or their sympathisers on land, ‘who would not leave the gates of hell unripped open in hope of gain.’ As to Crooke, the Lord President enclosed a letter from the Bishop of Cork and others which shows how precarious the position of the best English settlers was. The bishop was William Lyon, a man of the highest character and a shining light among Irish Reformation prelates, who knew the district thoroughly. In two years Crooke had ‘gathered out of England a whole town of English people, larger and more civilly and religiously ordered than any town in this province that began so lately, which has made him to be violently opposed and accused by divers persons who would weaken him in his good work.’ He had been constantly employed against the pirates and both Brouncker and Danvers had acknowledged the value of his services. When Baltimore was incorporated with a view to the Parliament of 1613, Crooke became a burgess, and was its first representative in the House of Commons.[94]

      For long after the battle of Lepanto, the Spanish galleys had been supreme in the western half of the Mediterranean. The Armada proved that in a rough sea oars could do but little against sails, and in the winter the rovers had it all their own way. In summer they sought the Irish coast, where there were plenty of quiet harbours and of people who were willing to receive stolen goods.

      The Lord President blockaded by pirates.

      A penitent corsair.

      At the beginning of 1609, Lord Danvers was afraid to leave Cork harbour without the protection of a man of war, and after that date pirates continued to multiply. Their principal resort was Long Island Sound, to the west of Schull in the county of Cork. It was a fine anchorage for the largest ships then afloat, and the estuary now called Croagh harbour was available for careening. A squadron of eleven ships with a thousand men appeared on the coast in command of Edward Bishop, whom the pirates had chosen admiral, and as many more were expected to join them. Bishop was an able man, who was perhaps sorry for having chosen such a dirty trade, and it was thought possible to reclaim and employ him. He did not like siding with Turks against Christians in the Mediterranean, and he hated the ruffian John Ward, who had seduced so many English sailors from their allegiance. The Venetians hung thirty-six men at Scio, which may have increased Bishop’s dislike to the work. When his fleet appeared off Ireland negotiations were soon opened, and after a while he submitted, and seemed really repentant, for he twice refused to accept the very lucrative command of all the corsairs in the Mediterranean at the Duke of Florence’s hands, saying ‘I will die a poor labourer in mine own country, rather than be the richest pirate in the world.’ He did some service, but was unable to prevail with most of his late comrades, and incurred the enmity of the more desperate. ‘Our intent,’ said Peter Easton, ‘when we went hence was not to rob any man, much less our countrymen, but only to find out and fight with the Hollander ships of war, who had of late carried themselves so insolently to his Majesty as to come into his harbour and seize on Bishop and his ship, being then under his Majesty’s protection.’ He had some quarrels with traders who did not understand this reasoning, and lives were lost. ‘I told the merchants,’ Easton added, ‘that I would surrender up their ship and goods if I might have any pardon; but now in respect of the Duke of Florence’s offer and the greatness of this wealth, I am otherwise resolved.’ A little later Easton and his consorts had nine ships with 500 men and 250 guns. Many of them had wives and children living in comfort at Leamcon, and the ‘land pirates’ thereabouts supplied the rovers with provisions. Spanish and Moorish money was current, and it was believed that treasure had been buried on land. Quarrels among these rascals were frequent, and Easton made away with a noted colleague named Salkeld or Sakewell, but he himself continued to give trouble, though there were hopes of reclaiming him at times. In the summer of 1613 he was surprised by the Dutch at Crookhaven, and carried to Holland, where he was most likely hanged.

Bishop retired from business himself, but he did not altogether break with the rovers, for one Fleming who had murdered a Dutch merchant was taken in his house in 1617. St. John described him as ‘an old pardoned pirate that lives suspiciously near Leamcon and Schull haven, ever plotting with and relieving of pirates.’[95]

      Some notable pirates.

Another noted pirate was John Jennings, who came boldly into the Shannon towards the end of 1609, his ship laden with spoil and with a richly freighted Dutch prize which he had taken after losing sixty men in action against a French man of war. Danvers tried to stamp out the pirates by preventing the land carriage of corn, but he harassed honest men without much hurting the thieves. He believed that the pirates could always land 300 men at any point they thought fit, for it was impossible to have a man of war everywhere, and the King’s ships could not keep the seas for more than three months without refitting, the sailors being but too ready to go home on the least excuse. There were several other piratical vessels at hand, the crews of which quarrelled with Jennings about the division of the Dutchmen’s goods. Under these circumstances, and perhaps remembering Coward’s case, Jennings applied to Lord Thomond for a pardon, and offered to give up the ship, but the latter had learned by experience, and preferred to surprise the pirate with the help of his discontented comrades. They were all ready to betray each other. Chichester was inclined to think that Jennings really intended to reform, and at all events he had not plundered the King’s subjects. Some diamonds came into the hands of the Government, but the valuable ‘small ends’ (perhaps of tobacco) had been ‘carried away in the shipmen’s great breeches.’ Both Thomond and Chichester were inclined to mercy, but the English Council remembered its ill-success in Coward’s case, and Jennings was duly hanged. Скачать книгу