be piracy.

Piracy, by the law of nations, is punishable with death within the
jurisdiction of any nation under whose flag the capture may have been
made, for the pirate is the common enemy of mankind. Although it has
passed the zenith of its perverse glory, and modern naval development
has made it impracticable and impossible, vestiges of piracy remain in
the Malay Archipelago and the China Sea. As recently as 1864 five men
were hanged in London on such a charge.

Privateering, the resourceful auxiliary to a weak navy, is also piracy,
though not recognized so by the law of nations. The private ship which,
under the authority of letters of marque and reprisal issued by the
government, made war upon a hostile power, was always an indispensable
adjunct to naval warfare. England considered our privateer Paul Jones a
pirate. During the Civil War the Confederate cruisers were termed
pirates, and the _Alabama_ claims made upon England for damage done by
the _Alabama_, the _Florida_, and the _Shenandoah_ arose from permitting
privateers to depart from her ports.

The rise and sway of the corsairs of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli,
developing from disorganized piracy, was evidently the result of the
persecution of the Moors of Spain in the sixteenth century, who, exiled
and retributive, sought revenge and lucre in the attacks upon the
argosies from India to Spain. Their successes attracted adventurers from
Asia Minor, and thus augmented they acquired formidable power,
established citadels and states, governed by daring and sagacious
leaders, and levied blackmail upon Christian countries for the
protection of commerce. It was not until the vigorous campaign of
Decatur that the backbone of this sanctioned lawlessness of the Barbary
States was broken and safety upon the high seas of the East assured.

The bold character of these marauders can be best imagined when we
reflect that in the seventeenth century the Algerine pirates cruised in
the English Channel, blockaded the Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1635 for
weeks in an English port, where he remained helpless till succored by an
English man-of-war, and actually entered the harbor of Cork and carried
away eight fishermen, who subsequently were sold as slaves in Algiers.
But, as we have seen, piracy, which at one time was the formidable enemy
of mankind and a menace to progress and development, is now merely a
matter of history.

The limits of this article will not permit any exten