Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period. Various

       WHOSE LOVE OF LEARNING AND WHOSE UNSELFISH

       DEVOTION MADE IT NATURAL AND POSSIBLE

       THAT I SHOULD LEAD THE STUDENT’S LIFE

PREFACE

       Table of Contents

       The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America have formed the laudable habit of illustrating the colonial period of United States history, in which they are especially interested, by published volumes of original historical material, previously unprinted, and relating to that period. Thus in the course of years they have made a large addition to the number of documentary sources available to the student of that period. First they published, in 1906, in two handsome volumes, the Correspondence of William Pitt, when Secretary of State, with Colonial Governors and Military and Naval Commanders in America, edited by the late Miss Gertrude Selwyn Kimball, containing material of great importance to the history of the colonies as a whole, and of the management of the French and Indian War. Next, in 1911 and 1914, they published the two volumes of Professor James C. Ballagh's valuable edition of the Letters of Richard Henry Lee. Then, in 1912, they brought out, again in two volumes, the Correspondence of Governor William Shirley, edited by Dr. Charles H. Lincoln, and illustrating the history of several colonies, particularly those of New England, during the period of what in our colonial history is called King George's War. More recently, in 1916, the Society published an entertaining volume of hitherto unprinted Travels in the American Colonies, edited by Dr. Newton D. Mereness.

      It was resolved that the next volume after these should be devoted to documents relating to maritime history. In proportion to its importance, that