CHAPTER XV— SEA-ROVERS 



Early Piracy. 



To say that the Phoenicians were the first pirates would be grossly 

 untrue, for it is probable that the gentleman who had that doubtful 

 honour lived in the days when the capital ship was a tree-trunk and the 

 owner's outstretched skins the sail. But they certainly developed the 

 business at a very early age and found it a useful way of getting rid of 

 their trade rivals, just as the civilised nations did many centuries later 

 when they subsidised the Barbary Corsairs. The earliest records show 

 that the Mediterranean was swarming with pirates and if Phoenician 

 traders could venture out into the Atlantic it is more than probable that 

 their pirates did too. One of the earliest recorded sea-rovers is 

 Myoparo the Phoenician, whose name was perpetuated in a type of fast 

 galley which was built without the usual beak bow for obvious reasons. 

 Mediterranean Piracy. 



In the old days of Greece and Rome piracy was regarded as quite 

 a gentlemanly profession in the Mediterranean, and in the struggle 

 between Phoenicia and Greece the terms trader and pirate were inter- 

 changeable. The Romans not being so inclined for the sea, their 

 development in this line was slower but it was nevertheless sure and in 

 67 B.C. Pompey had to carry out a big campaign which exterminated 

 the pirates, but not until they had done infinite harm. All through the 

 Middle Ages the Isles of Greece offered happy hunting grounds for the 

 pirates and it is difficult to tell whether they or the Sardinians, Maltese 

 and Genoese were the worst. Many disappointed Crusaders turned 

 corsair in the Mediterranean. 



Rollo. 



One of the most celebrated of the Norman corsairs was Rollo, who 

 in the heyday of the Viking power, when they practically ruled European 

 waters, was strong enough to burn Bordeaux and to ravage a very large 

 part of the French coast. His extraordinary daring was as celebrated 

 as his cruelty and he took his handful of men as far inland as Rheims, 

 Orleans and Poitiers. These campaigns of his lasted for thirty-six years 

 but in the year 912 he was converted to Christianity and then devoted 

 his whole efforts to exterminating the corsairs whose numbers had been 

 multiplied owing to his example. 



Saxon Pirates. 



The Saxon pirates have already been dealt with under the heading 

 of Vikings but the fact that the Norsemen were content to settle in the 

 lands that they had conquered did not keep the Danes ashore. They 

 not only spread over the North European coast but they kept big pirate 

 fleets at sea and for many years held all European commerce in tribute. 

 Piracy by the Cinque Ports. 



Secure in their privileges the actions of the Cinque Ports were often 

 very little removed from piracy, and when Henry III was fighting with 

 his Barons Henry de Montfort, Keeper of the Cinque Ports, openly 

 fitted out a squadron and sent it to sea to take possession of any ship, 



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