CHAPTER IX
THE STUART NAVY GOES FORTH AGAINST THE "PYRATS"
After the death of Queen Elizabeth and the respite
from the Anglo-Spanish naval fighting there was little
employment for those hundreds of our countrymen
who had taken to the sea during the time of Drake. Fighting
the Spaniards or lying in wait for treasure ships bound
from the West Indies to Cadiz was just the life that
appealed to them. But now that these hostilities had
passed, they felt that their means of livelihood were gone.
After the exciting sea life with Drake and others, after the
prolonged Armada-fighting, it would be too tame for them
to settle down to life ashore. Fishing was not very profitable,
and there was not sufficient demand for all the men to
ship on board merchant ships.
So numbers of these English seamen unfortunately took to piracy. Some of them, it would be more truthful to say, resumed piracy and found their occupation haunting the English Channel, the Scillies being a notorious nest for pirates. Notwithstanding the number of these robbers of the sea who were always on the look out, yet, says our friend Smith of Virginia, "it is incredible how many great and rich prizes the little barques of the West Country daily brought home, in regard of their small charge."
But the strenuous measures which were being now taken
