Los Angeles herald., 1892-11-27

about the coast of California and British
Columbia which is named the Halcyon,
and which is thought, with apparently
good reasons, to be employed in the opium
smuggling trade
The San Francisco papers speak of her
as pirate ship. but the people who have
charge Of the Halcyon hardly come up to
the definition Of pirate even as given by
the nonpartisan dictionary. Like certain
gentleman who figured in the "late un.
pleasantness," all they ask is to be left
alone. They chase nobody, but are often
Hhased, the advantage derived therefrom
Rccruing chiefly to the revenue officials of
Canada or the United States if they effect
capture. Still, so far, nothing seems to
have been proved against the vessel except
that she smells of opium, and that her
captain is an undoubted liar.
When the yacht was seized at Victoria,
B. c.. the other day. the authorities asked
Skipper James Collins, who was in COM
mand:
Where were you bound?"
"To the north SEAS" he replied.
"What for?'
Hunting"
Hunting what"
Ducks"
He also explained that he had been driven
into the port of Victoria by stress OF
weather. But although the officials could
find no good reasons for holding him and
his composite crew of Chinese, Japanese
and Yankees, they learned that since the
arrival of the craft the price of opium had
gone down, and therefore fined him $500 on
general principles, which he cheerfully
agreed to pay, and is now practically in
Of ba ~ h<>x x,;t
And this, forsooth, is latter day piracy.
gler being termed pirate, and then to
read of the deeds of those dead and gone
worthless who were in the pirate business
''for keeps" Away back in the old days.
when Greece was divided into little war
ring republics, nearly every galley that
was rowed over the waves of the Egean or
the eastern Mediterranean was pirate in
the same sense that European noblemen Of
the Middle Ages were often robbers and
thieves. That was an age when might
triumphed over right and the modern doc
trine of the survival of the fittest received
its strongest exemplification. Law there
was none, save that of the tyrant or pop
nlar ruler who might chance to reign over
petty but plucky communities like Argos,
Hellas and ,Phoenicia on the Asiatic shore.
Their sailors were pirates in the strictest
sense of the word, and also merchantmen.
They bartered with those they could not
rob- but where the strong hand was Of
avail no glove of kid covered the iron grip
of avarice.
To the many cared galley, with it's slaves
as the means of propulsion and it's load Of
stolen goods, succeeded in time another
sort of rowboat-those great war vessels,
great for the time at least, in which the
piratical northmen swept out from their
Icy Businesses beneath the arctic circle to
ravage the weafthier and more luxurious
nations Of the south. All the seacoast
habitations of ancient Britain, Gaul and
Germany had reason to dread these fierce
robbers of the ocean, who, not content with
the product of their forays, seized in addi-
tion to the goods and persons of their VIC
Tins the very land on which their dwell
ings stood, and founded colonies that were
to be the progenitors of those two great
nations, France and England and incl
1entally also of the United States
To the oar succeeded the sail, and still it
was piracy that led the march of progress
In the conquering Of the sea as well as of
the lane. Fierce, relentless and avid as
the wolf who howls on the track of q be-
lated traveller in the northern forest, the
skin winged craft bore down upon some
devoted seaport or some smaller vessel
that had been marked for pillage.
There followed in course of time still
greater Improvements in the art of naviga-
tion, and with the discovery of America
began what may be termed the golden age
of piracy. The history of the Sixteenth
and Seventeenth centuries fairly teens
with tales of riot, debauchery and blood
shed in the New World. The Spanish con-
querors despoiled the natives of Mexico
and Peru; their successors founded towns
and lived in almost barbaric luxury, and
on thcm there swooped like birds Of prey
upon defenseless lambs the fierce adven-