almost impossible to bring offenders in distant seas to justice, to say nothing of the cost and trouble of bringing them to England for trial.  Now it was enacted that courts of seven persons might be formed for the trial of pirates at any place at sea or upon land, in any of his Majesty’s islands, plantations, colonies, dominions, forts, or factories.  It was necessary that at least one of the seven should be the chief of an English factory, the governor or a member of council in a plantation or colony, or the commander of a King’s ship.  These courts had powers of capital punishment, and also had power to treat all persons who gave assistance or countenance to pirates as accessories, and liable to the same punishments as pirates.  The Act was to be in force for seven years only.  In 1706 it was renewed for seven years, and in 1714 again for five years.

The amnesty granted to some pirates, the hanging of others,[5] and the new Act of Parliament, caused a great abatement of the evil.  The Madagascar settlements still flourished, but for a time European trade was free from attack.  Littleton’s squadron had gone home, and was replaced by two royal ships, the Severn and the Scarborough, which effected nothing against the pirates, but served by their presence to keep them quiet.

The Severn and Scarborough sailed from England in May, 1703, under Commodore Richards, who died at Johanna in the following March.  The command was then taken by Captain Harland, who visited Madagascar and Mauritius, where two men were arrested, who afterwards made their escape at Mohilla.  The two ships returned to England in October, 1705.

Hamilton tells us how a

“Scots ship commanded by one Millar did the public more service in destroying them, than all the chargeable squadrons that have been sent in quest of them; for, with a cargo of strong ale and brandy, which he carried to sell them, in anno 1704, he killed above 500 of them by carousing, although they took his ship and cargo as a present from him, and his men entered, most of them into the society of the pirates.”

[1] This was probably a village near Ras Mabber, about one hundred and
    sixty-five miles south of Cape Guardafui.

[2] In ships of this class the quartermaster was next in importance to the
    captain or master.  The incident refers to the death of Moore, the
    gunner of the Adventure, who was killed by Kidd in a fit of anger
    for saying that Kidd had ruined them all.  The killing of Moore was one
    of the indictments against Kidd at his trial.

[3] Warren had returned from his first cruise in the autumn of 1697.

[4] One small Arab vessel that rashly attacked the Harwich, mistaking it
    for a merchant vessel, was disposed of with a broadside.

[5] Twenty were condemned and hung in one batch, in June, 1700; one of the
    Mocha mutineers among them.  This was probably Guillam, to whom Kidd
    had given a passage to America from Madagascar, and was supposed to
    have been the man who stabbed Captain Edgecombe.