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Piracy embodies the romance of the sea at its highest expression. It is
a sad but inevitable commentary on our civilization, that, so far as the
sea is concerned, it has developed from its infancy down to a century or
so ago, under one phase or another of piracy. If men were savages on
land they were doubly so at sea, and all the years of maritime
adventure--years that added to the map of the world till there was
little left to discover--could not wholly eradicate the piratical germ.
It went out gradually with the settlement and ordering of the far-flung
British colonies. Great Britain, foremost of sea powers, must be
credited with doing more both directly and indirectly for the abolition
of crime and disorder on the high seas than any other force. But the
conquest was not complete till the advent of steam which chased the
sea-rover into the farthest corners of his domain. It is said that he
survives even today in certain spots in the Chinese waters,--but he is
certainly an innocuous relic. A pirate of any sort would be as great a
curiosity today if he could be caught and exhibited as a fabulous
monster.