Historical Fiction/Adventure--Set in the 17th Century, Cornelius: The Orphan is based on an actual character in the author's ancestry. The author weaves a tale of adventure and mis-adventure as Cornelius Cursonwhit sets off at a young age from New Amsterdam [New York], traveling on the high seas to Holland in search of his fortune. After a time of modest wealth, gained by illegal enterprises, he his deceived by his partner and lover, and spends twelve years in a Rotterdam prison, Near the end of his term, Cornelius, through trickery, is conscripted into the Royal Dutch Navy, Cornelius ends up in Bermuda aboard a pirate ship captained by the infamous female pirate, Mary Read, after she saves him from certain death at the hand of his arch enemy, Captain Constantijn Kors. Cornelius finally arrives back in the New World. From Boston he travels to the settlement of Dover where, should he marry a woman for whom he has little interest and to whom he cannot divulge his checkered past, a land grant, and more trouble, awaits him.