Pirates and Piracy

Pirates and Piracy

There is hardly a person who, as a school-boy, had not received the fire of imagination and the stimulus for adventure and a roaming life through the stirring narratives concerning Captain Kidd and other well-known sea rovers. A certain ineffable glamor metamorphosed these robbers into heroes, and lent an inalienable license to their calling, so that the songster and romancist found in them and their deeds prolific and genial themes, while the obscure suggestions of hidden treasures and mysterious caves have inspired many expeditions in quest of buried fortunes which, like the Argo of old, have carried their Jasons to the mythical Colchis. The pens of Byron, Scott, Poe, Stevenson, Russell, and Stockton, and the musical genius of [4]Wagner, were steeped in the productive inspiration of these lawless adventurers, and Kingsley found in Lundy Island, the erstwhile nest of the reckless tribe, a subject for his Westward Ho! Byron, in The Corsair, sings: Piracy was the growth of maritime adventure, and developed with the advancement of commerce. The Phnicians and Greeks were especially apt in the interstate wars which frequently degenerated into rapine and plunder, and with them piracy became a recognized enterprise. In Homeric times it was dignified with a respect worthy of a nobler causea sentiment in which the freebooters of later centuries took arrogant pride. The piratecruel, vicious, debased to the lowest degree of turpitudeestablished [5]a moral code governing his actions and circumscribing his wanton license, and it was in the rigorous observance of these trade laws and customs of their realm that this abortive sense of honor manifested itself. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 31551
Author: Herrmann, Oscar
Release Date: Mar 8, 2010
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Illustrator: Ehrlich, Frederick