It was the treaty of peace between England and Spain, signed at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1668, that contributed largely to the great increase of piracy in the West Indies and along the New England coast. The peace released a great many men who found themselves unable to obtain employment in merchant ships and this was particularly true in the West Indies where the colonial governors had commissioned a large number of privateers. It was but a step forward to continue that fine work without a commission after the war was over and to the mind of the needy seaman there was very little distinction between the lawfulness of one and the unlawfulness of the other. The suppression of buccaneering in the West Indies happened not long after and many of these adventurers raised a black flag and preyed upon the ships of every nation. The operation of the Navigation Acts also led to insecurity on the high seas and eventually to outright piracy; and so it came about that the pirate, the privateer, and the armed merchantman, often blended the one into the other. The first trial and execution of pirates in Boston took place in 1672. Rev. Cotton Mather, the pastor of the North Church, Boston, in his "History of Some Criminals Executed in this Land," relates the story of the seizure of the ship _Antonio_, off the Spanish coast. She was owned in England and her crew quarrelled with the master and at last rose and turned him adrift in the ship's longboat with a small quantity of provisions. With him went some of the officers of the ship. The mutineers, or pirates as they were characterized at the time, then set sail for New England and on their arrival in Boston they were sheltered and for a time concealed by Major Nicholas Shapleigh, a merchant in Charlestown. He was also accused of aiding them in their attempt to get away. Meanwhile, "by a surprising providence of God, the Master, with his Afflicted Company in the Long-boat, also arrived; all, Except one who Dyed of the Barbarous Usage. "The Countenance of the _Master_, who now become Terrible to the Rebellious _Men_, though they had _Escaped the Sea_, yet _Vengeance would not suffer them to Live a Shore_. At his Instance and Complaint, they were Apprehended; and the Ringleaders of this Murderous Pyracy, had sentence of Death Executed on them, in _Boston_." The three men who were executed were William Forrest, Alexander Wilson, and John Smith. As for Major Shapleigh; he was fined five hundred pounds, which amount was afterwards abated to three hundred pounds because of "his estate not being able to beare it."