egion as when it was inhabited merely by Indians. They frequently
touched at little seaside settlements, and boldly sailed into the harbor
of Charles Town. But, unlike the unfortunate citizens of Porto Bello or
Maracaibo, the American colonists were not frightened when they saw a
pirate ship anchored in their harbors, for they knew its crew did not
come as enemies, but as friendly traders.

The early English colonists were not as prosperous as they might have
been if the mother country had not been so anxious to make money out of
them. They were not allowed to import goods from any country but
England, and if they had products or crops to export, they must be sold
to English merchants. For whatever they bought they had to pay the
highest prices, and they could not send into the markets of the world to
get the best value for their own productions.

Therefore it was that a pirate ship was a very welcome visitor in
Charles Town harbor. She was generally loaded with goods, which, as they
were stolen, her captain could afford to sell very cheaply indeed, and
as there was always plenty of Spanish gold on board, her crew was not
apt to haggle very much in regard to the price of the spirits, the
groceries, or the provisions which they bought from the merchants of the
town. This friendly commerce between the pirates and the Carolinians
grew to be so extensive that at one time the larger part of the coin in
circulation in those colonies consisted of Spanish gold pieces, which
had been brought in and used by the pirates for the purchase of goods.

But a pirate is very seldom a person of discretion, who knows when to
leave well enough alone, and so, instead of contenting themselves with
robbing and capturing the vessels belonging to people whom their Charles
Town friends and customers would look upon as foreigners, they boldly
sailed up and down the coast, seeking for floating booty wherever they
might find it, and when a pirate vessel commanded by an English captain
and manned principally by an English crew, fell in with a big
merchantman flying the English flag, they bore down upon that vessel,
just as if it had been French, or Spanish, or Dutch, and if the crew
were impertinent enough to offer any resistance, they were cut down and
thrown overboard.

At last the pirates became so swaggeringly bold and their captains so
enterprising in their illegal trading that the English government took
vigorous measures, not only to break