The New Student's Reference Work/Piracy

Pi'racy is robbery on the high seas, and, although considered a crime at the present time by all nations, formerly the sea-rover was as much a pirate as a trader. The combined piracy with lawful seafaring enterprise. In the days of piracy was considered a respectable, even a dignified, calling, and the  had a natural genius for it. Cilicia was long the headquarters for piracy, until in 67 B. C.  made his memorable expedition against the pirates with great naval and military forces. The were the terror of western coasts and waters from the 8th to the 11th Christian centuries. The was formed for mutual defense against the  and other pirates. Later the Moslem rovers scourged the Mediterranean, commingling naval war on a large scale with peddling, thieving and stealing people as slaves. was a stronghold of pirates till well into the 19th century, and in the 17th century the swarmed with Algerine pirates. In 1635 these corsairs entered, and carried off a boat with eight fishermen, to be sold as in Algiers. The buccaneers preyed mainly on the Spanish commerce with the Spanish-American colonies. Captain Kidd, (), who was sent out against pirates in 1696 by a private company in, was found to be playing the game of pirate himself, was arrested and tried for piracy and murder, found guilty and hanged on May 23, 1701. The original of Pirate was John Gow, who, though bold and successful under the guise of friendship, was proved to be a great villain, and with nine of his men was executed. So late as 1864 five men were hanged in London for murder and piracy. The slave-trade was not considered piracy by the law of nations, though the  and  declared it to be such by statute, and after 1840,  and  made the same declaration. The home of professional piracy is now confined to the.