History shows that in our own country pirates appeared along the Carolina coast as far back as 1565, and before the settlement of the country by the English, under charter of Charles II., the pirates of the Spanish Main occupied the coast, the many harbors lending refuge and safe retreat, while permitting the burying of treasures. The Carolinas remained friendly to pirates with a persistency of popular favor which was well-nigh ineradicable. And this is quite readily understood when we reflect that the depredations were committed upon ships of His Catholic Majesty, the foe of England, and that the pirates brought their gold and silver plate to the colonies for sale and barter, thus bringing wealth and resource to the struggling communities; and, lastly, the example and sanction set by the king in knighting Henry Morgan, the leading pirate of the day. It was impossible to obtain a jury to convict any one upon the charge of piracy, and so the authorities found themselves helpless. The best known of all the pirates in America is beyond doubt Captain Kidd, of whom we all have sung: Oh, my name is Captain Kidd, As I sailed, As I sailed. Oh, my name is Captain Kidd, And God’s laws I did forbid, And right wickedly I did, As I sailed. The English government, alarmed at the bold and heinous offences committed by the Indian pirates in the Colonies, issued to him letters of marque against the French and the ubiquitous rover of the coast, whose “Jolly Roger” floating from the mizzen, with its sinister portend, struck terror to the helpless merchantman. His work was efficient and sweeping, and in 1691 the Council of the City of New York presented him £100, in appreciation of his energetic campaign. In 1697 he reached Madagascar to annihilate the pirates in the Eastern waters, but soon strange reports reached England concerning his actions, and it developed that he had fallen a victim to the seductive aphorism, “the pirate is the free child of the sea,” and in the degree as he was their destroyer, so he rose as their energetic leader. Subsequently he sailed to the West Indies, Delaware, Oyster Bay, and, burying his treasures on Gardiner’s Island, set sail for Boston, where he was captured, sent to England, and hanged on Execution Dock, London. The treasures found on Gardiner’s Island amounted to $170,000, and to this day hopes are entertained of other buried booty. The scope of Mr. Herrmann’s lecture is not to embrace the history of piracy, but to narrate the incidents and vicissitudes of a pirate’s life and to illustrate their _modus operandi_. His story depicts to us the terrible misdeeds as practised by those ferocious and heartless demons, amongst whom Captain Fly, Captain Teach, the Blackbeard, and Captain North were the most notorious. H. A. H. NEW YORK, February, 1902. PIRATES AND PIRACY. A LECTURE.