or twenty commanded brigs of their own. The sea permitted them to escape from the terrible sermons of the Mathers, to make a fortune, to rise to a social position, and to wear with dignity the title of gentleman. Sea breezes carried them into distant lands where they saw strange peoples and stranger customs which slowly dissolved in skepticism the faith and usages of their fathers.
When piping times of peace were broken, as often happened, by wars between England and other imperial powers, the losses of regular trade were more than offset by privateering at the expense of the French or Dutch or Spaniards. As soon as a storm burst, the government issued licenses to private shipowners authorizing them to seize the vessels and goods of the enemy wherever found on the high seas. Daring captains, who shared the loot with their sailors, were financed by local merchant princes and let loose in shoals upon the foe. In the journals left by such freebooters, operating under the color of the law with seal and parchment in their cabins, may be read many a tale of exciting adventure. "Brave living with our people," wrote one of them, Captain Benjamin Norton, who sailed for the West Indies in 1741 to singe the Spaniard's beard. "Punch every day, which makes them dream strange things which foretells Great Success in our Cruize. They dream of nothing but mad Bulls, Spaniards and bagg of Gold."
From privateering it was easy to turn to piracy. Thus did the doughty Captain Sawkins, who, with a hardy crew, harried the Panama coasts. When a local Spanish governor asked to see their commission, the Captain replied that they brought "commissions on the muzzles of our guns, at which time he should read them as plain as the flame of gunpowder could make them." Yet Captain Sawkins was not a godless man; finding his pirate crew shaking dice on a Sunday, he threw the shining ivories overboard to express his deep indignation at such profanation of that holy day.
Others equally courageous were more consistently pagan
