Pirates and Piracy

PIRATES AND PIRACY . INTROD) CTION. har dl ho - There is y a person w , as a school boy, had not received the fire of. imagination and the stimulus for adventure and a roaming li fe through the stirring narratives concerning Cap ) and - o ea A tain idd other well kn wn s rovers . certain ineifable glamor metamorphosed these s s a robber into heroe , and lent an in lienable li “ ” so o s cense to their calling, that the s ng ter and romancist foun d in them and their deeds pro lific and w s u su genial themes, hile the ob c re g gestions of hidden treasures and mysterious caves have inspired many expeditions in quest of n s w A buried fortu e hich, like the rgo of old, have n h carried their ) aso s to the myt ical Colchis . s on Rus The pen of Byr , Scott, Poe, Stevenson, d n and s sell, an Stockto , the musical geniu of 4 Figu res AND PIRACY . w inspi Wagner, ere steeped in the productive and ) in ration of these lawless adventurers, gs s ley found in Lundy Island, the er twhile nest of “ u s the reckless tribe, a s bject for his We tward Ho ) ” s s Byr on, in The Corsair, ing ’ k- lue sea O e r the glad waters of the dar b , dle ss and our soul s as Our th oughts as boun , the illows o m Far as the bre ez e can bear, b f a , nd ehold our home ) Survey our empire , a b alms no lim its to thei sw The se ar e our re , r ay, O ur flag the sceptre al l who m e et obey . Our s the wild life in tum ult still to range st and o in eve r ch n e . From toil to re , j y y a g r Piracy was the growth of maritime adventu e, and developed with the advancement of com oe n w s merce . The Ph nicia s and Greeks ere e pe ciall y apt in the interstate wars which fr e u n q ently degenerated into rapine and plu der, and with them piracy became a recognized enter i ni prise . In Homeric times t was dig fied with — a respect worthy of a nobler cause a sentiment in which the freebooters of later centuries took — n . u arroga t pride The pirate cruel, vicio s, de — based to the lowest degree of turpitude estab IR AND IR 5 P ATES P ACY . lished a moral code governing his actions and s n n li and was circum cribi g his wanto cense, it ) ” in the rigorous observance of these trade laws and customs of their realm that this abortive s m ense of honor anifested itself . The successes of the Phaanicians and Greeks soon m ade the Mediterranean the theatre of maritime robber y, in later years conducted u r un nder the autho ity, sanction, and imm ity of w s . ss the the Barbary po er In fact, so reckle had enterprise become that the temerity of the free k and lances new no bounds, headquarters, so to s s speak, were e tabli hed, and for a long time maintained, at Cilicia . The vigorous campaign of Pompey in 67 against the pirates was but the precursor of that systematic defence which the nations of the w l s orld eventual y adopted . The Han eatic League of the cities of Northern Germany and neigh u its boring states, no do bt, had origin in the necessitous combination of merchants to resist m the attacks of the Norse en . England sent out m any expeditions to destroy the pestiferous free booter s W ho w A s armed from the frican coast, and 1815 ) i finally, in , the n ted States sent Decatur 6 PIRATES AND PIRACY . r to Al giers to annihilate the nefarious corsai s , who had thrived and become brazen in their recklessness during the three centur ies of their s s Al ascendant power . The incur ion of the gerine E pirates were made as far north as ngland, Ire o land, and Iceland, and thr ugh them an iniqui tous slave trade was developed . The law of nations did not place its ban upon this slave tr afiic until by statute England and the ) nited States atte mpted to obliterate this ineradicable r i blot upon ou civil zation, and only a half cen u A s r Ru l t ry ago u tria, P ussia, and ssia dec ared it to be piracy . un Piracy, by the law of nations, is p ishable with death within the jurisdictionof any nation under whose flag the capture may have been is o o made, for the pirate the c mm n enemy of Al has s mankind . though it pa sed the zenith of m its per verse glory, and odern naval devel op has s ment made it impracticable and impo sible, vestiges of piracy remain in the Malay Archi ea A pelago and the China S . s recently as 1864 five men were hanged in London on such a charge . sou ul li Privateering, the re rcef auxi ary to a IR I 7 P ATES AND P RACY. is s o weak navy, al o piracy, th ugh not recog nized law s so by the of nation . The private ship m which, under the authority of letters of arque s s and repri al is ued by the government, made war upon a hostile power, was always an indis pensable adjunct to naval warfare . England s o con idered ur privateer Paul ) ones a pirate . During the Civil War the Confederate cruisers w s Al ms ere termed pirate , and the abama clai made upon England for damage done by the Alabama, the Flor ida, and the Shenandoah arose from permitting privateers to depart from her ports . sw Al s The rise and ay of the corsairs of gier , n disor an Tunis , and Tripoli, developi g from g iz was of ed piracy, evidently the result the per secution of the Moors of Spain in the sixteenth u r e century, who, exiled and retrib tive , sought venge and lucre in the attacks upon the argosies from India to Spain . Their successes attracted us nt adventurers from Asia Minor, and th augme s ed they acquired formidable power, e tablished sa citadels and states , governed by daring and l gacious eaders , and levied blackmail upon Chris tian coun tries for the protection of commerce . It 8 PIRATES AND PIRACY . was not until the vigorous campaign of Decatur that the backbone of this sanctioned lawlessness of the Barbary States was broken and safety upon the high seas of the East assured . The bold character of these marauders can be best imagined when we reflect that in the seventeenth century the Al ger ine pirate s cruised nn in the English Cha el, blockaded the Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1635 for weeks in an Eng s m suc li h port, where he re ained helpless till is -of-war t ll cored by an Engl h man , and ac ua y entered the harbor of Cork and carried away who su s eight fishermen, bsequently were old as A s s . we s lave in lgiers But, as have een, piracy, which at one time was the formidable enemy of mankind and a menace to progress and develop is hi ment, now merely a matter of story . The limits of this article will not permit any e) tended review of lawless maritime depreda s s but tion in its various pha es, it may be within our province to refer for a moment to the buc caneer s filibuster s own and of our continent . The late war in Cuba brought the filibuster s once more into prominence . The term applies to one who w u o ou s so , arring pon an ther c ntry, doe , IR AND IR 9 P ATES P ACY . but b n not for private gain, for public e efit, and refers generally to those who had attempted to conquer certain Spanish-Am er ican possessions upon the plea that the objective country was ff su ering from anarchy and oppression . The theory was that sal vation coul d onl y be found in annexation to the ) nited States ; and if this so i r be , there are many spiritual fil buste s within our s - m has border to day . The ter now become generally applicable to adventurers from the ) ut k ow un nited States, b was un n n der that name until the expedition of LOpez to Cuba in 1 li 850 . A n u was u aro B rr a fi b ster, although we m ay justly doubt the virtue of his motives . m s s Willia Walker, perhap the foremo t of them all w li in 1854 , invaded Lo er Ca fornia , attempted was con to found a republic, defeated, and later a its quered Nicaragua and bec me president, only to shift about in his meteoric career of destiny and sail against Honduras , where he was cap - a t l s 1860 . tur d, cour martial ed, and hot in s hi It is to the buccaneer , however, that the s ) ” tory of piracy is indebted for the glory which may fill its pages ; it is to the men of the stamp f am and ) an o Morgan, D pier, Peter of Dieppe, 10 PIRATES AND PIRACY .

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