The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1894-11-30

Sea-stealing. though they did not call it
bv so harsh Il name was Il leading indus
try with the thrifty jewellers in New York
two hundred wears ago. That was good
time for sturdy adventure atioat; and our
well -metted New Workers were not the
kind then. any more than they are now, to
let moncv-m making chances slip away by
default Even in referring to what is Styl
ed Cbut very crroneouSly) the drowsy per-
iod of the Dutch denomination, the most
romantic of our historians have not ven
tured the suggestion that anybody ever
went to sleep when there was bargain to
be made; and in the periodic which now
refer, when the English fairly were settled
in possession of New York by twenty years
of occupancy, exceeding wideawakeness
was the rule Nor was anybody troubled
with hsuueamishneSs Therefore it was that
our townsfolk, paltering no more with for
tune than they did with moral scruples,
set themselves brisklv to collecting the
revenues of the sea.
These revenues were raised by two diff
ferent systems: which may be likened for
convenience sake. to direct andto indirect
taxation. In the first case, our robust
towns people put out to sea in private arm
ed vessels ostentatiouslv carrying letters
of marquc emitting them to war against
the Kings cncmics-which empowering
documents they construed, as soon as they
had made an otfing from Sandy Hook, as
emitting them to lay hands upon all dc
Sirabe property that they found atoat
under any flag.
The indirect method of taxation had in
it less heroic quality than was involved in
the direct levy; yet was it, being safer in a
/ business way and almost as profitable very
: extensively carried on. Euphcmism was
well thought of even then in New York:
/ wherefore this more conservative class of
Sea-robherS posed Squarely as honest mer-
chants engaged in what they termed the
Red Sea Trade. At the foot of the letter
aS our French cousins say, their position
was well taken. Their socalled merchant
ships dropped down the harbor into the
( bay and thence out to the sca-ward. car
rvin" for merchantmen, oddly mixed lad
ings, whereof the main quantities were
arms and gunpowder and cannon-balls and
lead, and strong spirits, and provisions,
and general sea-storeS. Making ii course
to the southeastward, they would slide
around the Cape to some convenient meet
ing-placc in the Indian Ocean. usually
Madagascar, where they would fall in with
other ShipS-whcrcof the landing was
Eastern Stuf> and spices, and precious
! stones and Il good deal of deep-toncd vel
lowered Arabian gold No information
was volunteered by their posscSSorS, Il
rough and tumble dare devil bushv beard
ed set of men. as to where these plcaSin z
commodities came FROM nor did the New
Workers manifest an indiScrcct curiosity
being content that they could exchange
their New York ladng for the Oriental
adinw on terms which made the transac-
ton profitable, tin .Iohnsonian phrase be
vond the dreams of avaricc. When the
exchange had been effected the parties to
it separated amcably: the late venders of
the Oriental goods betaking themselves,
most glOriouslv drunk on their prodigal
purchases of West India rum, to parts un-