Charles, spite of the favour he had shown to the buccaneer chief, was compelled however, by treaties with his allies and by the complaints of his own subjects, whose commerce was injured by these illegal traders, to use his most strenuous endeavours to put an end to them; and his successor was even still more in earnest. In 1684, a law was passed against pirates, which was confirmed by the proprietaries of South Carolina, and their commands issued, that it should be rigorously enforced within their jurisdiction. But this was not an easy matter. The colonists not only favoured the bold buccaneer, who brought abundance of Spanish gold and silver into their country, but they were irritated against the Spaniards, who, justly perhaps, incensed by the English encroachments on their borders, had destroyed the Scotch settlement at Port Royal, and were glad of any means to make reprisals. Little attention therefore was paid by the English to the suppression of piracy. “The pirates,” says Hewitt, in his history of South Carolina, “had already by their money, their gallant manners, and their freedom of intercourse with the people, so ingratiated themselves into the public favour, that it would have been no easy matter to bring them to trial, and dangerous even to have punished them as they deserved. When brought to trial, the courts of law became scenes of altercation, discord and confusion. Bold and seditious speeches were made from the bar in contempt of the proprietaries and their government. Since no pardons could be obtained, but such as they authorised the governor to grant, the assembly violently proposed a bill of indemnity, and when the governor refused his assent to this measure, they made a law empowering magistrates and judges to put in force the _habeas corpus_ act of England. Hence it happened that several of those pirates escaped, purchased lands from the colonists, and took up their residence in the country. While money flowed into the colony by this channel, the authority of government was too feeble a barrier to stem the tide and prevent such illegal practices.” The very proprietaries themselves at length, to gratify the people, granted an indemnity to all the pirates, excepting in one case, where the plunder had been from the dominions of the Great Mogul. Very justly does this historian remark, “that the gentleness of government towards these public robbers, and the civility and friendship with which they were treated by the people, were evidences of the licentious spirit which prevailed in the colony.” And not only an evidence of this, but of the enmity which existed towards the Spaniards; so great indeed was this enmity, that but for the earnest remonstrances of the proprietaries, which in this case were regarded, they would have invaded Florida to drive the Spaniards thence, and that even while the two nations were at peace.