t. The warriors no longer make war,
and fish has taken the place of the flesh of their enemies as a staple
diet.

Under the cliffs of Dominica is a memory of the Civil War, for there the
Confederate vessel _Alabama_ finally escaped the Federal man-of-war
_Iroquois_. A few miles further north, between Dominica and Guadeloupe,
in The Saints Passage, was fought, in 1782, the great sea-battle between
Rodney and De Grasse, which ended in the decisive victory of the
English over the French and gave Britain the mastery of the Caribbean
Sea. It ranks as one of the great historic sea-fights of the world.

The next island on the direct line to the north, St. Kitts, is not
destitute of fame. As Cecil had told Stuart, St. Kitts or St.
Christopher was first a home for buccaneers, and later one of the keys
to the military occupation of the West Indies. Its neighbor, St. Nevis,
together with other claims to romance, has a special interest to the
United States in that Alexander Hamilton--perhaps one of the greatest of
American statesmen--was born there.

Near St. Kitts lies Antigua, where the _Most Blessed Trinity_--despite
her name, one of the most famous pirate craft afloat--settled after her
bloody cruises. Its captain was Bartholomew Sharp, described as "an
acrid-looking villain whose scarred face had been tanned to the color of
old brandy, whose shaggy brows were black with gunpowder, and whose long
hair, half singed off in a recent fight, was tied up in a nun's wimple.
He was dressed in the long embroidered coat of a Spanish grandee, and,
as there was a bullet hole in the back of the garment, it may be
surmised that the previous owner had come to a violent end. His hose of
white silk were as dirty as the deck, his shoe buckles were of dull
silver."

Sharp, with 330 buccaneers, had left the West Indies in April, 1760.
They landed on the mainland, and, crossing the isthmus, made for
Panama. Having secured canoes, they attacked the Spanish fleet lying at
Perico, an island off Panama City, and, after one of the most desperate
fights recorded in the annals of piracy, they took all the ships,
including the _Most Blessed Trinity_. Then followed a long record of
successful piracy, of battle, murder and sudden death, of mutiny and
slaughter grim and great. Sharp, who, with all his crimes, was as good a
navigator as he was reckless a fighter, sailed the _Most Blessed
Trinity_ with his crew of desperadoes the whole length of South Ameri