the capture of pirate ships, to every captain £100, to other officers £40,
to petty officers £30, and to ordinary seamen £20 were to be paid on
conviction of the offenders. To pirates, a reward of £200 was offered for
the surrender of a pirate captain or commander before the 6th September,
1718. The effect of the proclamation, in conjunction with the measures
taken in the Bahamas, was very great. By the 1st July, 1719, to which date
the time of grace was extended, all but three or four of the most
desperate rovers had retired from business. But against the most audacious
of them more vigorous measures were necessary.

It was of little use to hunt down pirates at sea, so long as their haunts
in the Bahamas and Madagascar were allowed to flourish, and, as the West
Indian rovers were the most mischievous to European trade, the Bahamas
were first taken in hand.

During the war, the Bahamas had been twice taken and plundered by the
French and Spanish; all semblance of authority had disappeared, and it was
estimated that there were upwards of two thousand pirates in and about
Providence. In 1718, Captain Woodes Rogers leased the islands for
twenty-one years, from the proprietors, and received a commission as
Governor; he sailed, for Providence, with a naval force and powers to
offer an amnesty to all who submitted. Five or six well-known pirate
captains made their peace with the Government, and a number of their crews,
though some of them went back to their old trade before long. England, La
Buze, and others slipped away and made for Madagascar. A council was then
formed, consisting of six of the adventurers and six of the inhabitants
who had never been pirates themselves. This was followed by the submission
of others; some were hung, and order of a sort was re-established in the
Bahamas.