History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 171

private warship and the mere pirate is very difficult to draw, and this is never more so
than in West Indian waters in the 16th and 17th centuries.
In the Parliament of 1601 there was a discussion concerning the losses suffered by
the burgesses of Yarmouth, Sandwich, and other ports at the hands of the halfpiratical, half-hostile ports of Nieuwport and Dunkirk. Among the explanations given
was that they could so readily arm their ships with cannon cast in England, and though
the export was prohibited, it was an active industry; it was stated that even during the
progress of the debate there was a ship in the Thames ready to sail with thirty-six
pieces of ordnance aboard. The queen's annual in-come from the export duty on
ordnance was no less than £3,000, and the result was that English ordnance sold as
familiarly in France and Flanders as in England, and these privateers readily bought it.
During the Dutch wars English shipping suffered severely from Dutch privateers. At
the same period, too, there was frequent intercourse between English and Dutch
pirates and buccaneers in the West Indies and on the Spanish Main.
The earliest term of piracy introduced was Rover (1390), a sea-robber, pirate; ad.
M.Du. or MLG. rover, from roven, to rob. The corresponding verb