ave greater importance and interest than these
two. In some of our colonial wars, as later in those of the Revolution
and of 1812, American privateering assumed such proportions as to make
it, for brief periods, one of the leading American industries. We
cannot quite say the same concerning American piracy, and indeed it
might be thought disrespectful to our ancestors--or predecessors, for
pirates mostly died young and left few descendants--but at least it
will be conceded that piracy at times flourished in American waters,
that not a few of the pirates and of those on shore who received their
goods and otherwise aided them were Americans, that their activities
had an important influence on the development of American commerce,
and that documents relative to piracy make interesting reading.

It is a matter for regret and on the editor's part for apology, that
the book should have been so long in preparation. Work on it was begun
prosperously before our country was engaged in war, but the "spare
time" which the editor can command, always slight in amount, was much
reduced during the period of warfare. Moreover, the Society, very
properly, determined that, so long as war continued, the publication
of their volumes and the expenditures now attendant upon printing
ought to be postponed in favor of those patriotic undertakings,
especially for the relief of suffering, which have made their name
grateful to all lovers of the Navy and in all places where the
_Comfort_ and the _Mercy_ have sailed.

It may be objected against the plan of this book, that privateering
and piracy should not be conjoined in one volume, with documents
intermingled in one chronological order, lest the impression be
created that piracy and privateering were much the same. It is true
that, in theory and in legal definition, they are widely different
things and stand on totally different bases. Legally, a privateer is
an armed vessel (or its commander) which, in time of war, though
owners and officers and crew are private persons, has a commission
from a belligerent government to commit acts of warfare on vessels of
its enemy. Legally, a pirate is one who commits robbery or other acts
of violence on the sea (or on the land through descent from the sea)
without having any authority from, and independently of, any organized
government or political society. (Fighting and bloodshed and murder,
it may be remarked by the way, though natural concomitants of the