otherwise have
done, and which he certainly did far beyond the letter and spirit of his
instructions. He might have considered that, in all ages and among all
nations, with the exception of some of the Greek states,[18] piracy has
been held in the utmost abhorrence, and those guilty of it treated with
singular and barbarous severity; and that the most sanguinary laws were
established for the protection of person and property in maritime
adventure. The laws of Oleron, which were composed under the immediate
direction of our Richard I., and became the common usage among maritime
states, whose vessels passed through British seas, are conceived in a
spirit of the most barbarous cruelty.[19] Thus, if a poor pilot, through
ignorance, lost the vessel, he was either required to make full
satisfaction to the merchant for damages sustained, or to lose his head.
In the case of wrecks, where the lord of the coast (something like our
present vice-admiral) should be found to be in league with the pilots,
and run the ships on rocks, in order to get salvage, the said lord, the
salvers, and all concerned, are declared to be accursed and
excommunicated, and punished as thieves and robbers; and the pilot
condemned to be hanged upon a high gibbet, which is to abide and remain
to succeeding ages, on the place where erected, as a visible caution to
other ships sailing thereby. Nor was the fate of the lord of the coast
less severe,--his property was to be confiscated, and himself fastened
to a post in the midst of his own mansion, which being fired at the four
corners, were all to be burned together; the walls thereof demolished;
and the spot on which it stood be converted into a market-place, for the
sale only of hogs and swine, to all posterity.

These and many other barbarous usages were transferred into the
institutions of Wisbuy, which formed the _jus mercatorum_ for a long
period, and in which great care was taken for the security of ships
against their crews. Among other articles are the following.--Whoever
draws a sword upon the master of a vessel, or wilfully falsifies the
compass, shall have his right hand nailed to the mast.--Whoever behaves
riotously shall be punished by being keel-hauled.--Whoever is guilty of
rebellion (or mutiny) shall be thrown overboard.

For the suppression of piracy, the Portuguese, in their early
intercourse with India, had a summary punishment, and accompanied it
with a terrible example to deter others f