68 The Beginning of British Honduras

tache twirled in the Spanish fashion. Amongst the filibusters
he was distinguished for his fine manners, good taste, and
matchless ability as a cannonier. He liked to play the violin
on shipboard to entertain himself as well as his crew and the
visitors who often came to see him and hear him play. The
Brethren of the Coast called him a Fleming, but one writer
said he came from Hamburg. The Moskito Indians in the
Bay called him Filimingo and his vessel the big trampoose.
 In October 1682 Lynch sent the buccaneer captain John
Coxon to the Bay Settlement to fetch away the logwood cut-
ters in his ships, for Coxon had temporarily come to terms
with his government. In that atmosphere at Casinas the men
plotted to take the ships and go privateering, but Coxon
valiantly resisted, killed one or two with his own hand, forced
eleven overboard, and brought three back to Port Royal who
were condemned. Coxon formerly had a French commission
and had commanded the squadron which took Santa Marta
in June 1677 when he carried off the bishop and governor to
Jamaica for ransom. In 1683 he and Captain Bartholomew
Sharpe seized from a warehouse in the Gulf of Amatique
500 chests of indigo that were waiting to leave for Spain on
two ships.
 In 1683 Laurent Graff had two ships, a barque, 300 men,
and a sloop belonging to the English which Lynch requested
him in a letter to hand over. The buccaneers were all joining
him in the Bay, and Lynch then sent Coxon to offer the
Dutch sea-rover Captain Yanky, or Janke, or Janquais, men,
victuals, pardon, naturalization, and two hundred pounds in
money to him and Coxon if they would destroy the ship "La
Trompeuse," which was then also waiting for the Spanish
ships from Guatemala. But the offer was too small for this
Dutchman who had a French commission and knew that his
ship "La Dauphine" of 15 cannons and 150 men had a reputa-
tion for swiftness and his cannons for destructiveness. Like
Childe Harold, these men "n'er in virtue's ways did take de-