ip out into the country, and that it was their dream to
live there one day when they should be rich. Certain it is that as
soon as our hero did get a little money at last he could hardly wait
to buy the farm land far out of town on the river. But that time was
not yet.

Needless to say, Peter's married life, happy as it was, could not keep
him long on shore. We keep finding his name and the names of his ships
in the delicious old newspapers of his day: Captain Warren has just
arrived; Captain Warren's ship has "gone upon the careen" (i.e., is
being repaired); Captain Warren is sailing next week, and so on, and
so on. The New York _Gazette_ for May 31, 1736, states that: "On
Saturday last, Captain Warren in His Majesty's ship the Squirrel
arrived here in eight weeks from England." One perceives that this was
record time, and worth a journalistic paragraph!

Troubles becoming more rife with Spain in 1739, Peter begged for
active service and got it. This probably was the beginning of his
great prosperity, though his wealth did not become sensational until
nearly five years later. Fortunes were constantly being made in prize
ships in those days, and you may be sure that our enterprising
sea-fighter was not behind other men in this or in anything else
calling for initiative and daring! At all events the records seem to
show that he bought his lands in the Green Village,--Greenwich,--about
1740, when he was thirty-seven. Whether he built his house at that
early date is not clear, but he probably didn't have money enough yet,
for when he did build, it was on a magnificent scale. In 1744,
however, came his golden harvest time!

It was a little after midwinter of that year that Sir. Chaloner Ogle
made him commodore of a sixteen-ship squadron in the waters of the
Leeward Islands where there was decidedly good hunting in the way of
prize ships. Off Martinique were many French and Spanish boats simply
waiting, it would almost seem, to be eaten alive by the enemy's
cruisers; and Captain Peter who had the sound treasure-hunting
instinct of your born adventurer, proceeded to gobble them up! In the
four months that rolled jovially by between the middle of February and
the middle of June, the Captain captured twenty-four of these prizes,
one alone with a plate cargo valued at two hundred and fifty thousand
pounds! Ah, but those were the rare days for a stout-hearted seafaring
man, with a fleet of strong boats and an expensive taste!