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 revolting against her, and one by one they gained their independence.
Among the most powerful of the rebelling provinces were Buenos Ayres and Venezuela; and, taking lesson from the success of our privateers, they sent out many swift sailing, well-armed vessels to prey upon Spanish commerce.

They did their work so effectively that by and by they extended their attacks to the vessels of all nations.