In 1699 an Act was passed through Parliament of such severity as to drive many of the outlaws from American waters. It was largely a revival of the Act of 28, Henry VIII., was in force for seven years, and was twice renewed. The war of the Spanish Succession, moreover, gave many men of piratical inclinations an opportunity of sailing under lawful commissions as privateers against the French and Spaniards. In this long war, too, the French filibusters were especially numerous and active. In 1706 there were 1200 or 1300 who made their headquarters in Martinique alone.[533] While keeping the French islands supplied with provisions and merchandise captured in their prizes, they were a serious discouragement to English commerce in those regions, especially to the trade with the North American colonies. Occasionally they threatened the coasts of Virginia and New England, and some combined with their West Indian cruises a foray along the coasts of Guinea and into the Red Sea. These corsairs were not all commissioned privateers, however, for some of them seized French shipping with as little compunction as English or Dutch. Especially after the Treaty of Utrecht there was a recrudescence of piracy both in the West Indies and in the East, and it was ten years or more thereafter before the freebooters were finally suppressed. Footnotes: [Footnote 424: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 501, 552. _Cf._ also Nos. 197, 227.] [Footnote 425: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 364-366, 431, 668.] [Footnote 426: Ibid., Nos. 476, 609, 668. Paine was sent from Jamaica under arrest to Governor de Cussy in 1684, and thence was shipped on a frigate to France. (Bibl. Nat., Nouv. Acq., 9325, f. 334.)] [Footnote 427: Ibid., Nos. 668, 769, 963.] [Footnote 428: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 769, 963, 993.] [Footnote 429: Ibid., Nos. 1065, 1313.] [Footnote 430: Ibid., No. 1313.] [Footnote 431: Ibid., Nos. 1190, 1216.] [Footnote 432: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, No. 1173.] [Footnote 433: Ibid., Nos. 1168, 1190, 1223, 1344; _cf._ also Nos. 1381, 1464, 1803. In June 1684 we learn that "Hamlin, captain of La Trompeuse, got into a ship of thirty-six guns on the coast of the Main last month, with sixty of his old crew and as many new men. They call themselves pirates, and their ship La Nouvelle Trompeuse, and talk of their old station at Isle de Vaches." (Ibid., No. 1759.)] [Footnote 434: C.S.P. Colon., 1681-85, Nos. 777, 1188, 1189, 1223, 1376, 1471-1474, 1504, 1535, 1537, 1731.] [Footnote 435: Ibid., Nos. 1222, 1223, 1676, 1678, 1686, 1909; _cf._ also Nos. 1382, 1547, 1665.] [Footnote 436: Ibid., Nos. 552, 599, 668, 712.