OKIGIN OF PIRACY. 



Grecian^ and the Roman Governments, And yet, without 

 doubtj every formidable horde, which could at length spoil 

 a principality or starvo a nation, sprung from a single 

 knave or a handful of knaves^ conceiving the idea, that to 

 rob a boat might be as pro6 table as to nob a house. 

 Katare moulds the thief ; opporttmity and position make 

 him a water-thief ; the success of one invites the itssocia- 

 tion of others ; till at length the mdividual villain becomes 

 the founder of a vilkiioua community, of whom ea-ch 

 encourages the other in the path of daring, of avaiiccj and 

 of crueltj. 



*'Tkeii forth thqj nifth ae wHh the toirenl's svrccp. 

 And (ktidfi arc done wliich make the angel i ireop." 



In the intricacies of an ahchipelago especially, this 

 has ever been the natttral state of things. As surely as 

 spiders abound where there are nooks and comers, so have 

 pirates sprung up wherever there is a nest of islands, 

 offering creeks and shallows, headlands, rocka. and reefs, 

 —ffieilitles, in short, for krking, for surprise, for attack, 

 for escape. The barlmrons or semi-barbarous inhabita»t 

 of the ArcMpelago, bom and bred in this position, is burn 

 and bred a thief, It is as natural to liim to consider any 

 well-freighted, ill-protected tradiug-prahu his property, as 

 it is to the fishing eagle above his head to sweep down 

 upon the weaker but more hard-working bird, and swallow 

 Tvbat he has not had the trouble of catching. 



But the primiUve incBntives to piracy are soon lost 

 sight of in the p^mmrable ea-cikmrnt wlucli attaches to a 



