November 13, 1649, Mary Oliver was presented for stealing goats, and a month later she was presented for speaking against the Governor, saying that he was unjust, corrupt and a wretch, and that he made her pay for stealing two goats when there was no proof in the world of it. She was sentenced to be whipped next lecture day at Salem, if the weather be moderate, not exceeding twenty stripes. Capt. William Hathorne and Mr. Emanuel Downing were to see the sentence executed. At the same court George Ropes complained that Mary Oliver kept away a spade of his and she was fined 5s. February 28, 1649-50, Mary Oliver thus far had escaped the second whipping, for at her request Mr. Batter asked that her sentence be respited, which the Court granted "if she doe go into the Bay with Joseph Hardy this day or when he goeth next into the Bay with his vessell" otherwise she was to be called forth by Mr. Downing and Capt. Hathorne and be punished. If she returned, the punishment was to hold good. The next day Mary Oliver's fine was remitted to the end that she use it in transporting herself and children out of this jurisdiction within three weeks. And there ended her turbulent career in the town of Salem, so far as the Court records show. Until comparatively recent times New England shipping sailed the seas in frequent danger of attack by pirate vessels. Before the town of Boston was settled, Capt. John Smith, "the Admiral of New England," wrote: "As in all lands where there are many people, there are some theeves, so in all Seas much frequented, there are some Pyrats," and as early as the summer of 1632, one Dixey Bull was plundering small trading vessels on the Maine coast and looting the settlement at Pemaquid. Shipping, sailing to and from England, was obliged to run the gauntlet of the Dutch and French privateers and the so-called pirates sailing out of Flushing and Ostend made several captures that affected the fortunes of the Boston traders. In 1644, the Great and General Court sitting in Boston, granted a commission to Capt. Thomas Bredcake to take Turkish pirates--the Algerines--who were a constant danger to vessels trading with Spain. John Hull, the mint-master who made the "pine tree shillings," had a brother Edward, who went a-pirating in Long Island Sound and after dividing the plunder made for England.