ng Henry
Morgan, the leading pirate of the day. It was impossible to obtain a
jury to convict any one upon the charge of piracy, and so the
authorities found themselves helpless.

The best known of all the pirates in America is beyond doubt Captain
Kidd, of whom we all have sung:

Oh, my name is Captain Kidd,
As I sailed,
As I sailed.
Oh, my name is Captain Kidd,
And God's laws I did forbid,
And right wickedly I did,
As I sailed.

The English government, alarmed at the bold and heinous offences
committed by the Indian pirates in the Colonies, issued to him letters
of marque against the French and the ubiquitous rover of the coast,
whose "Jolly Roger" floating from the mizzen, with its sinister portend,
struck terror to the helpless merchantman.

His work was efficient and sweeping, and in 1691 the Council of the City
of New York presented him L100, in appreciation of his energetic
campaign. In 1697 he reached Madagascar to annihilate the pirates in the
Eastern waters, but soon strange reports reached England concerning his
actions, and it developed that he had fallen a victim to the seductive
aphorism, "the pirate is the free child of the sea," and in the degree
as he was their destroyer, so he rose as their energetic leader.
Subsequently he sailed to the West Indies, Delaware, Oyster Bay, and,
burying his treasures on Gardiner's Island, set sail for Boston, where
he was captured, sent to England, and hanged on Execution Dock, London.
The treasures found on Gardiner's Island amounted to $170,000, and to
this day hopes are entertained of other buried booty.

The scope of Mr. Herrmann's lecture is not to embrace the history of
piracy, but to narrate the incidents and vicissitudes of a pirate's life
and to illustrate their _modus operandi_. His story depicts to us the
terrible misdeeds as practised by those ferocious and heartless demons,
amongst whom Captain Fly, Captain Teach, the Blackbeard, and Captain
North were the most notorious.

H. A. H.
NEW YORK, February, 1902.

PIRATES AND PIRACY.

A LECTURE.

The limitations of a lecture will not permit the discussion of the
subject upon an extended scope, nor will it allow a more than cursory
review of the general doings, adventures, and methods of pirates in
general, leaving the historical treatment for another occasion.

The Latin word _pi