The agents sent over by the Lords of Trade and Plantations were unable to make progress against the flagrant evasions of the Navigation Acts. Randolph, who arrived in Boston in 1679, was the most active of these agents, and when he seized several vessels for irregular trading, the courts decided against him and “damages were given against his Majesty.”[18] He afterwards complained of those privateers that were fitting out for the Spanish West Indies and writes of Mr. Wharton of Boston, as “a great undertaker for pyratts and promoter of irregular trade.” “New England rogues and pitiful damned Scotch pedlars,” he termed those who opposed him. The pirates or privateers were supplied with provisions by vessels from the mainland and prize goods were taken in payment. Vessels were often fitted out at Rhode Island and manned in New York and Arabian gold was to be found in both colonies; “in fact, ’tis the most beneficiall trade, that to Madagascar with the pirates, that was ever heard of, and I believe there’s more got that way than by turning pirates and robbing.” So wrote the New York governor, and later, he again wrote to the Lords at Whitehall: “The temptation is soe great to the common seamen in that part of the world where the Moores have so many rich ships and the seamen have a humour more now than ever to turne pirates.”[19] The profits of piracy and the irregular trade practiced at that time were large, indeed, and twenty-nine hundred per cent profit in illicit trade was not unusual, so there is little wonder that adventurous men took chances and honest letters-of-marque sometimes seized upon whatever crossed their course. The pirate, the privateer and the armed merchantman often blended the one into the other. FOOTNOTES [1] _True Travels, Adventures and Observations of Captain John Smith_, London, 1630. [2] Oppenheim, _The Administration of the Royal Navy_, p. 177. [3] _True Travels, Adventures and Observations of Captain John Smith_, London, 1630. [4] _Purchas, His Pilgrimage_, Vol. IV, p. 1882. [5] Perforst, _i.e._, forced. [6] Mainwaring, _The Beginnings, Practices and Suppression of Pirates, ca. 1717_. MS. in British Museum. [7] To ply: to beat up against a wind. [8] Floaty, _i.e._, draw little water. [9] As early as 1613, English pirates were established at Mamora, at the mouth of the Sebu River on the Barbary Coast. That year about thirty sail were using the port. [10] By 1618 there were one hundred and fifty Turkish vessels to only twenty English at Algiers. [11] Doyle, _English Colonies in America_, Vol. I, p. 383. [12] _Massachusetts Archives_, Vol. 35, folio 61. [13] John Esquemeling, _The Buccaneers of America_, London, 1684. [14] Viscount Bury, _Exodus of the Western Nations_, Vol. II, London, 1865. [15] _New York Colonial Documents_, Vol. IV, p. 447. [16] _New York Colonial Documents_, Vol. IV, p. 1116. [17] Babson, _History of Gloucester_, p. 138. [18] _Andros Tracts_, Vol. III, p. 5.