Many of the
Christian captives had really nothing to bind them to the faith of their
fathers--neither home nor lands, wealth nor kindred, and they were
doubtless dazzled by the amazing success which accompanied the arms of the
leaders of the pirates. Is it wonderful, then, that such men in such an age
should grasp at the chance of freedom and throw in their lot with their
captors?
It was treachery, it was apostasy, and no amount of sophistry can prove it
to have been otherwise; but the man who would sit in judgment in the
present day must try to figure to himself what the life of a galley-slave
meant--a life so horrible and so terrible that it is impossible, in the
interest of decency, to set down a tithe of what it really was.
We who in the present day sit in judgment upon the virtues and vices of a
bygone age can, in the ordered security of our modern civilisation, see
many things which were hidden from our forefathers, even as in another
three hundred years our descendants will be able to point the finger of
scorn at the mistakes which we are now committing. We have seen how it was
that the pirate States arose; we have seen also how, in future generations,
they were allowed to abide. We cannot, in common honesty, echo the words
already quoted of the historian that "these are the judgments of God, and
things ordered by His divine providence and infinite wisdom," neither can
we acquit the heirs of the ages for that slackness which prevented them
from doing their duty; we have, however, to ask ourselves this question,
that, had it fallen to our own lot to deal with the problem of the
extermination of the pirates, should we have done better?
One word in conclusion.
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