sober, he was horrified to find that both had been executed.

WILLIAM KIDD, THE PIRATE.

The piracy alluded to became such a scandalous blight that strenuous
measures were taken to crush it. In 1697 Captain William Kidd, a New
York shipmaster and a brave and skillful navigator, was sent to assist
in the work. After he had cruised for a while in distant waters, he
turned pirate himself. He had the effrontery to return home three years
later, believing his friends would protect him; but, though they would
have been willing enough to do so, they dared not. He was arrested,
tried in England, convicted, and hanged. Piracy was finally driven from
the American waters in 1720.

In 1740 New York was thrown into a panic by the report that the negroes
had formed a plot to burn the town. It is scarcely possible that any
such plot existed, but before the scare had passed away four whites and
eighteen negroes were hanged, and, dreadful as it may sound, fourteen
negroes were burned at the stake. In addition, nearly a hundred were
driven out of the colony.

The fine harbor and noble river emptying into it gave New York such
advantages that, by 1750, it had become one of the most important
cities on the coast, though its population was less than that of
Philadelphia. At the time named, its inhabitants numbered about 12,000,
which was less than that of Philadelphia. The province itself contained
90,000 inhabitants. The chief towns were New York, Albany, and Kingston.
Brooklyn, which attained vast proportions within the following century,
was merely a ferry station.

SETTLEMENT OF NEW JERSEY.

New Jersey, as has been stated, was originally a part of New Netherland.
As early as 1618, the Dutch erected a trading post at Bergen. All now
included in the State was granted, in 1664, by the Duke of York to Lord
John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. Carteret was once governor of the
island of Jersey in the English Channel, and gave the name to the new
province. In the year mentioned, the first English settlement was made
at Elizabethtown, now known as Elizabeth.

[Illustration: THE FIRST FRIENDS' MEETING-HOUSE, BURLINGTON, NEW
JERSEY.]

In 1674, the province was divided into East and West Jersey, a
distinction which is preserved to some extent to the present day.
Berkeley, who owned West Jersey, sold it to a number of Quakers, some of
whom settled near Burlington. Carteret sold his part to William Penn and
eleven other Quakers. Th