all matters of complaint or difference between province and province. As, 1. where persons quit their own province and go to another, that they may avoid their just debts though they be able to pay them; 2. where offenders fly justice . . .; 3. to prevent or cure injuries in point of commerce; 4. to consider of ways and means to support the union and safety of these provinces against the public enemies. In which Congress the quotas of men and charges will be much easier and more equally set than it is possible for any establishment made here [i. e. in England] to do; for the provinces, knowing their own condition and one another's, can debate that matter with more freedom and satisfaction and better adjust and balance their affairs in all respects for their common safety."1

Such was the first simple outline of the scheme which was further developed in Franklin's Plan, in 1754, and again in the Articles of Confederation, until maturity was reached in our present Federal Constitution. When we fully understand that it was the failure to adopt such wise schemes as those of Penn and Franklin that ultimately led to the Stamp Act, we shall be the better prepared to comprehend the American Revolution and to deal with it in a fair and impartial spirit.

2

1 Preston, Documents Illustrative of American History, p. 147. 2 This is too large a subject to receive full treatment in the present volume. My next work in the present series will be devoted to the development of the English colonies from 1689 to 1765, under the pressure of the struggle with New France, and it will thus lead naturally to my volumes on the American Revolution.

The golden

age of piracy.

The difficulties of Governor Fletcher were increased by the prevalence of piracy on the high seas. I have elsewhere shown how the seventeenth century came to be the golden age of piracy.1 As a sequel to the long maritime wars in which the Dutch and English put an end to the supremacy of Spain, came the age of buccaneers, when freebooters of all nations joined hands in plundering the Spanish coasts of America. Spaniards had come to be regarded by many people as the enemies of the human race, insomuch that it was hardly deemed criminal to rob and slay them, and thus buccaneering retained a slight flavour of respectability. The buccaneer, however, was not apt to be a person of tender conscience, and frequently developed into the fullfledged pirate, whose hand was against everybody without distinction of race, politics, or creed. Piracy throve greatly in the seventeenth century because maritime commerce expanded far more rapidly than the naval facilities for protecting it. Never before had so many ships been afloat and traversing long distances, loaded with cargoes of such immense value. Moreover the practice of privateering, whereby civilized nations sought to supply the deficiencies in their naval force, was extremely liable to degenerate into piracy. The abominable tariff and navigation acts also, by which commerce was stupidly hampered, aroused in mercantile communities a spirit of lawlessness which tolerated the vile pirate, very much as it aided and abetted the noble army of smugglers. If the pirate

1 Old Virginia and Her Neighbours, chap. xvi.

could afford to undersell the honest skipper, his customers could easily refrain from asking awkward questions.

The pirates'

Madagascar.

The war which brought firebrand and tomahawk upon Schenectady brought many a pirate craft into New York harbour. The principal cruising ground of these rascals was the Indian Ocean, where the richly laden ships of the English and Dutch East India companies were continually passing between the coasts of Hindustan or the Spice Islands to the Red Sea or the Cape of Good Hope. After a pirate had captured one or more of these vessels and taken on board all the treasure he could carry, he would make for New York, where he would pull out of his pocket some dog's lair on eared letter-of-marque and swear that he had taken all this Oriental stuff from Frenchmen as a lawful privateer. It was usually difficult to convict him of falsehood. A still more common practice was to sail to Madagascar with the plunder. The luxuriant tropical forests of that large island furnished an almost inaccessible lair for the pirates, and thither they repaired from all quarters. In the intervals between cruises many of them. dwelt there in palisadoed castles with moat and drawbridge, approachable only through labyrinthine paths which for further defence were studded with sharp thorns to lacerate the ill-shod feet of the natives. There they guzzled stolen wines of finest vintage, kept harems that might have made the Grand Turk envious, quarrelled and murdered

1 There were several haunts of pirates on the African coast, but Madagascar was the most notorious and important.

one another, and indulged in nameless orgies, until they wearied of such pastime and sallied forth again to the business of ocean robbery. On the coast of Madagascar was a strongly defended mart or emporium where our pirates would meet some merchant vessel from New York, and exchange their gold pieces and gems and Eastern shawls for rum or firearms or whatever else they needed. Then while the pirate was engaged in fresh robberies the merchant returned to New York, where those who bought her merchandise were not bound to know from whom she got it. The risks of such a voyage were considerable, for the merchant ship might itself fall a prey to some pirate, or it might be captured as a receiver of stolen goods by some East India Company's frigate on patrol. the voyages. But while the risks were not small, the profits were prodigious. For example, the ship Nassau, which sailed from New York in 1698, 66 was laden with Jamaica rum, Madeira wine, and gunpowder. The rum cost in New York 2s. per gallon, and was sold in Madagascar for £3 per gallon. The wine cost £19 per pipe, and was sold for £300; and the gunpowder we may suppose at a similar advance. In return the Nassau purchased East India goods and slaves of the pirates, and, taking 29 of the latter as passengers, sailed for home. The pirates paid £4000 for their passage, and the voyage is said to have netted the owners £30,000.” 1

Profits of

A trade abounding in such profitable ventures was not easy to suppress. The pirates had conven

1 Todd, The Story of New York, p. 171.

ient lurking-places in the West Indies and the Bahamas, and in the crooked sounds and deep inlets of the Carolina coast. Everywhere they had extensive dealings, underselling the regular merchants and defeating the navigation laws.

Effects in

New York.

The citizens of Charleston and of New the city of York, who coveted their wares, knew also that their ships were apt to be formidable, and so treated them usually with politeness. Sometimes the pirate captain was a man of polished address and entertaining speech, who could make himself acceptable at dinner tables and in good society. One of them, we are told, before venturing ashore, was careful to send some silks and cashmeres, with a trifle or so in the shape of costly gems, to Mrs. Fletcher and her stylish daughters. For a dozen years or more the streets of New York might have reminded one of Teheran or Bassora, with their shops displaying rugs of Anatolia or Daghestan, tables of carved teakwood, vases of hammered brass and silver, Bagdad portières, fans of ivory or sandalwood, soft shawls of myriad gorgeous hues and white crape daintily embroidered, along with exquisite ornaments of ruby, pearl, and emerald. In the little town which had been wont to eke out its slender currency with wampum, strange pieces of gold and silver now passed freely from hand to hand; Greek byzants, Arabian dinars, and mohurs from Hindustan, along with Spanish doubloons and the louis d'or of France. A familiar sight in taverns was the swaggering blade attired in blue coat trimmed with gold lace and pearl buttons, white knee

VOL. II.