reproof of the Dey's prime minister to the British consul: "You told us
that the Americans should be swept from the seas in six months by your
navy, and now they make war upon us with some of your own vessels which
they took from you."




CHAPTER XX.

Piracy in the West Indies--Its Cause--Means by Which It Was Wiped
Out--Piracy in the Mediterranean.


We hear little of pirates in these days, but for ten years or more after
the close of the War of 1812 the West Indies were infested by them. Our
Government saw that in self-defense they must be wiped out, for they
grew bolder with every month and made it unsafe for our commerce in
those waters.

Where did they come from and what gave rise to the ocean nuisances?
About the time named Spain was the mistress of most of the South
American countries. When she discovered America through Columbus, and
for a long period afterward, she was one of the greatest maritime
nations in the world. Like England at the present time, she had colonies
in all parts of the globe, and had she not been so cruel and unwise in
the treatment of her dependencies, would still have retained a great
deal of her former greatness and power; but she is one of the few
nations that never learn from experience, and a short time after our
second war with Great Britain her South American colonies began