As life became more difficult for the pirates in the home waters, they migrated further afield, where they could practise their calling with less interference. Thus piracy spread to the far-off West Indies, and the coast of New England, and eventually to the Red sea and Madagascar. For many years the latter island was the happy haunt of the pirates, where they lived in security, married native women, and reigned as petty kings. From here they were able to lay heavy toll on passing ships sailing between England and the East Indies.
The natural haunts of the pirates were in archipelagos and indented coasts, and there at one time or another such places as the Greek islands, the Indian ocean, the coast of Cilicia, the British Isles, Norway and the West Indies became their lurking places.
In England itself, up to the i6th century, piracy was not un common, and it was no unusual event for the inhabitants of the Cinque ports to sally forth in their small ships and plunder any passing vessel, and on more than one occasion the fleet of New Romney attacked and plundered the ships of its rival, Yarmouth.
The West Indies.—The West Indies were well prepared for practical exploration both geographically and historically. Since the i6th century the buccaneers (q.v.) had preyed upon the ' Spaniard, and there were innumerable hiding-places, hidden bays in uncharted islands, where pirates could meet in safety and divide the spoils and prepare for their next adventure. During the 17th century the island of Tortuga, or Turtle island, off the coast of Hispaniola, became a regular pirate republic. Good markets for stolen plunder were to be found on the New England coast, and in Jamaica and at New Providence island, as well as in Ireland and certain places in the west of England.
Much of the piracy in the West Indies and America was the direct outcome of the Spanish policy of forbidding her colonists the right of trading with foreigners, in spite of her inability to supply their needs herself. Naturally the Spanish Americans were only too eager to buy smuggled goods, at very low prices, and were not likely to be very particular to enquire where the goods came from. England and France also tried to insist on their colonists trading exclusively with themselves, at their own prices, which, combined with the almost total lack of policing by the regular navies, led to wholesale buying of smuggled merchandise, procured by irregular methods. It was not until the reign of William III., about 1700, that workable laws were made for try ing pirates, and even then it was often difficult to get a jury to condemn a pirate who was looked upon as a public benefactor. Owing to the difficulty of policing the seas, particularly in distant waters, the custom arose in the reign of Charles I., and continued until that of George I., of granting free pardons to all pirates who would surrender themselves by a certain date. The result was that when things had become too warm for a pirate, he would make his submission to the authorities and receive the royal par don, and, as soon as ever his booty was spent, resume his old practices. One of the greatest wholesale pardoning of pirates
was carried out by Captain Woodes Rogers at New Providence in the Bahamas in 1718. At this time there were more than 2,000 freebooters entrenched in this pirate stronghold, but Rogers dealt so successfully with them that almost all surrendered.
Organization.—The ranks of the pirates were recruited from a type of seafaring man who disliked steady work with its small rewards, and preferred a life of danger, with a prospect of gain ing sudden wealth. Af ter every European war ships would be laid up and crews disbanded. There being no honest employment for all these sailors, they were compelled by circumstances to take any employment at sea that offered itself ; and as often as not this consisted of signing on in a ship where no questions were asked, and no wages paid, but where every member of the crew took a share of any profits which might accrue from the voyage.
Very often when a pirate captured a merchant ship the crew of the latter were invited to join the pirates. Some would do so willingly, others only under compulsion. Most pirates when brought to trial pleaded that they had been compelled to join the pirates, and had done so only to save their lives. It often happened that amongst the members of a captured crew there would be some "sea-artist," as a particularly skilful navigator was called, and he would be compelled to sign on whether he wished to or not. A common source of piracy was the privateer, an armed ship that sailed under a letter of marque, which was apt to drift into piracy, when its legitimate prey was not forthcoming, to supply the prize-money which paid the wages of officers and crew. This fact was pointed out by Cotton Mather (q.v.), the New England divine, in one of his "hanging sermons" delivered at Boston to condemned pirates. In one which he preached in called "A Brief Discourse occasioned by a Tragical Spectacle of a Number of Miserables under Sentence of Death for Piracy," he stated, "the Privateering Stroke so easily degenerates into the Piratical, and the Privateering Trade is usually carried on with an Unchristian Temper, and proves an Inlet into so much De bauchery and Iniquity." The same view was expressed by Nelson when he declared that all privateers were no better than pirates, although this wide accusation cannot be allowed to include such famous and patriotic privateers as Captain Fortunatus Wright or Commodore Walker. Many a shady privateer was little better than a pirate, and the letter of marque under which he sailed a mere pretence, as in the case of a pirate who plundered Spanish ships in the 17th century, under a commission sold to him by the governor of a Danish West India island, himself a reformed pirate. This docu ment, written in Danish, proved, when translated, to entitle the holder to hunt for goats and wild pigs on the island of Hispaniola and nothing more.