A VISIT TO THK INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



piratical life ; anJ its primitive limHs soon disappear in tho 

 ijumbei-s who are aHracicd to it, for tbe sake of sharing in 

 its chances and its perils. Tlio pirate is a gtrnhkr in 

 several ways ■ he goes out under obligations for his equip- 

 ment to some petty Prince or CMef ; these obligations ho 

 can only procui*e the means of caiieelhng by desperate 

 deeds. Speculation thus becomes his habit ; and hiH life 

 becomes the recldess life of a desperado, — ^not to supply 

 the necessities of legitmiat^ poverty, but to feed artificial 

 and jself- created requirements. 



" At the end of the * monsoons/ says Captain Kloff, 

 the pirates betake themselves to their hamits, and are 

 occupied m dividing the spoils of the season. Then also 

 they indemnify their avaricious accomplices for the 

 advances they have made thcmj whether in stores or 

 provisions. This period is to them a time of rejoicing ; 

 the day is passed in cock-fighting, the night in smoking 

 opium : so that at the end of two or three days this 

 booty, obtained with so much trouble, is dissipated, and 

 they have to plan new act^ of piracy .** 



% Here, then, is exposed om grea,t element oi growth in 

 this evil, and indeed tlie chief source of its prosperity, and 

 the chief obstacle to its suppression. Hatched, aa it were, 

 tlu-ough neglect in not destroy hig the eggj — imperceptibly 

 attaining strength until it becomes formidable to slay — 

 the reptile is at last taken in hand by the wise charmeFj 

 and turned to profit. Piracy is mainly fostered by the 

 prijices, the nobles, the chiefs, the petty sovereigns, who 



