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THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



punished with transportation for life. From 

 this time until the passage of the Emancipa- 

 tion bill the subject was continually pressed 

 upon the attention of Parliament. Slavery 

 existed in Great Britain in Saxon and Norman 

 times, when the peasantry were sold in the 

 market like cattle for exportation, and were 

 looked upon as mere chattels, to be bought and 

 sold with the land upon which they toiled. In 

 Scotland, even as late as 1780, a law existed 

 which compelled colliers, on entering a mine, 

 to perpetual service there, the right to their 

 labor passing with the mine to an inheritor or 

 purchaser, and their children being in like 

 manner attached to the mine, and forbidden 

 under severe penalty to seek other employment. 



Trojan War. The legend regarding the 

 Trojan war has, undoubtedly, a historical ori- 

 gin, in the fact of the actual, destruction of 

 Troy by a Grecian military expedition. About 

 11 94- '84 B. C., according to the traditions, 

 Paris, one of the sons of Priam, enticed Helen, 

 the beautiful wife of Menelaus, King of Sparta, 

 away from her husband, and, at the call of 

 Menelaus all the heroes of Greece flew to arms 

 to avenge this wrong. The Grecian host num- 

 bered 100,000 warriors, among whom were 

 Ulysses, Achilles, Ajax, Diomed, and Aga- 

 memnon, who, as brother of Menelaus, was 

 chosen to lead the expedition. The siege of 

 the city of Priam lasted ten years. Finally the 

 Greeks, by the device of Ulysses, built an im- 

 mense w r ooden horse, in which they concealed a 

 number of their warriors, and left it on the plain 

 in sight of the city, and then retired to their 

 ships as though abandoning the siege. The 

 Trojans, believing that the statue was left as 

 a propitiatory offering to their gods, carried it 

 within their walls, and at night the concealed 

 warriors issued from the horse and opened the 

 gates of the city to their returned comrades, 

 and Troy was sacked and burned. The king 

 and all his sons were killed ; in fact, according 

 to the legend, ^Eneas, and his father, Anchises, 

 and a few devoted followers, "were the only ones 

 to escape, and these, after long wanderings by 

 sea and land, finally settled on the shores of 

 Etruria, in Italy. The battles which were fought 

 before the walls of Troy have been immortalized 

 by Homer in the ' ' Iliad. ' ' 



Bride, Throwing Shoe after The 



custom of throwing a shoe after a departing 

 bride and groom originated so far back in the 

 dim and mystical past that the memory of man 

 stretcheth not back to its beginning. It is by 

 some thought to typify an assault, and is a 

 lingering trace of the custom among savage 

 nations of carrying away the bride by violence. 

 Others claim that it has a likeness to a Jewish 

 custom mentioned in the Bible. Thus, in 



Ruth, when the kinsman of Boaz gave up his 

 claim to the inheritance of Ruth, and to Ruth 

 also, he indicated his assent by plucking off 

 his shoe and giving it to Boaz. Also, we read 

 in Deuteronomy that when the brother of a 

 dead man refused to marry his widow she as- 

 serted her independence of him by " loosing 

 his shoe." 



Captain Kidd was born in Scotland, and 

 took to the sea when a mere boy. In 1 ()()"> a. 

 company composed of leading gentlemen in 

 Great Britain and in the Colonies was formed 

 to make a business of privateering and reap 

 the profits, which were known to be immense. 

 The "Adventure," a galley of 287 tons, quite 

 a large vessel for those days, was purchased, 

 and the command given to Kidd, who sailed 

 with two commissions, one of which empow- 

 ered him to act against the French, and the 

 other to cruise against pirates. Besides these 

 commissions under the Great Seal, he had the 

 ordinary letters of marque from the Commis- 

 sioners of the Admiralty. The king was to 

 have one tenth of all the booty, and the rest 

 was to be divided between the shareholders and 

 Kidd in certain specified proportions. A por- 

 tion was to be appropriated to the crew, who 

 were to receive no regular pay. Kidd left Plym- 

 outh April 23, 1696, captured a French fish- 

 ing vessel off Newfoundland, and in July 

 reached New York, where he remained until 

 September, when he sailed for Madagascar, 

 then one of the strongholds of the buccaneers. 

 In January of the following year he arrived at 

 the island, and in 1698 reports were abroad in 

 England that he had raised the black flag, and 

 orders were dispatched to the effect that he be 

 apprehended should he come within reach. 

 April, 1699, found him in the West Indies, 

 whither he had gone in a vessel called the 

 " Quidah Merchant." This he secured in a 

 lagoon in the island of Saona, near Ilayti, and 

 re-embarked in a small sloop named the " San 

 Antonio," for the Colonies of America. He 

 sailed up Long Island Sound to Oyster Bay, 

 after making a landing in Delaware Bay, and 

 there took aboard a New York lawyer named 

 James Emott, whom he afterward sent to 

 Boston to the Earl of Bellamont, who had be- 

 come governor of the Colonies. Emott was 

 Kidd's advance agent, sent forward to ascer- 

 tain how the privateersman would be received. 

 While the lawyer was absent on this mission, 

 Kidd buried some bales of goods and treasure 

 on Gardiner's Island. To the inquiries of the 

 New York lawyer Bellamont made evasive 

 answers, and then later induced Kidd to pro- 

 ceed to Boston, where he landed July 1, 1699. 

 Five days later, Kidd, who was examined by 

 the Council, was sent to England, whre he 



