Knox, Capt Robert

, the son of capt, Robert Knox, commander of the Anne frigate, in the East India service, was born about 1641, and probably brought up to the sea service. He went with his father to Fort George in 1657, and returning thence to England in 1659, put into Ceylon on account of a storm, where he, his father, and fourteen others were made prisoners, and his father died in this captivity, Feb. 9, 1660. After a servitude of nineteen years and a half, the subject of this memoir escaped from the inland parts of the island, where he was prisoner at large, to Areppa, a Dutch settlement on the north-west coast. Here he was hospitably received, and carried in one of their ships to Batavia, and thence, in an English ship, to England. Many of his companions whom he left at Ceylon, had become reconciled to their fate, married, and had families; but captain Knox, although often solicited, preserved his repugnance to such connexions, and his love of liberty. After his return he wrote “An historical relation of the Island of Ceylon, in the East Indies,” with an account of his captivity and escape; illustrated with plates and a map of the island, London, 1681, fol. The preface is by Dr, Robert Hooke, who probably had some share in the compilation. It was long esteemed a book of authority, It is uncertain when captain Knox died. He was cousin to Strype the historian. ¹