tion promising pardon to all pirates who should surrender themselves in the space of twelve months. Capt. Woods Rogers, with a few vessels, took the island of New Providence, the chief rendezvous of the PIRATES ON A CAPTURED SHIP. pirates, in the name of the crown of England. All the pirates, excepting about ninety who escaped in a sloop, took advantage of the King's proclamation. Rogers was made governor of the island. He built forts, and had a military establishment. From that time the West Indies were fairly protected from the pirates. They yet infested the coast of the Carolinas. About thirty of them took posses sion of the mouth of the Cape Fear River. Governor Johnson determined to extirpate them. He sent out an armed vessel under the command of William Rhett, who captured a piratical sloop with its commander and about thirty men, and took them to Charleston. Johnson soon afterwards embarked in person, and sailed after and captured another armed sloop. All the pirates excepting two were killed during the desperate fight that occurred, and those two were hanged. Those first taken into Charleston were also hanged, excepting one man. Altogether, forty-two pirates were executed at Charleston. Privateersmen cruising under the Spanish American flags degenerated into downright pirates. In 1819 Commodore Perry was sent to the West Indies in the frigate John Adams to cruise against the pirates who swarmed there; but before he had accomplished much he was smitten by yellow fever, and died just as his ship was entering the port of Trinidad. Two other small vessels were sent to cruise against them. Many convictions and executions for piracy had PIRATES-PITT taken place; but as there had been many federates. The former was found concealed in a closet in the ladies' cabin of the boat. He was taken out, and with his accomplices, lodged in Fort McHenry. Pitcairn, JOHN, military officer; born in Fifeshire, Scotland, about 1740; was made major in the British army in 1771. Leading troops to seize stores at Concord, he engaged in the fight at Lexington, and was shot dead on entering the redoubt on Bunker (Breed's) Hill, June 17, 1775. escapes through loop-holes in the law, the act of Congress on that subject was revised and strengthened. In one of the sections of the new act the name of piracy and the punishment of death were extended to the detention or transportation of any free negro or mulatto in any vessel as a slave. On June 28, 1861, the steamer St. Nicholas. Captain Kirwan, that plied between Baltimore and Point Lookout, at the mouth of the Potomac River, left the Pitcher, MOLLY. In the BATTLE OF former place with forty or fifty passengers, MONMOUTH (q. v.) a shot from the Britincluding about twenty who passed for ish artillery instantly killed an American mechanics.. There were a few women gunner while working his piece. His wife, among them-one who professed to be a Mary, a young Irishwoman twenty-two young Frenchwoman. When, on the fol- years of age, and a sturdy camp-follower, lowing morning, the steamer was near had been fetching water to him constantly Point Lookout, the Frenchwoman was sud- from a spring near by. When he fell there denly transformed into a stout young man, appeared no one competent to fill his and the twenty mechanics into well-armed place, and the piece was ordered to be reMarylanders, who demanded the surrender moved. Mary heard the order, and, dropof the St. Nicholas. Kirwan had no ping her bucket and seizing a rammer, means for resistance, and yielded. The vowed that she would fill her husband's other passengers were landed on the Vir- place at the gun and avenge his death. ginia shore, and the captain and crew She did so with skill and courage. The kept as prisoners. Then 150 armed ac- next morning she was presented to Washcomplices of the pirates went on board ington by General Greene, who was SO the steamer, which was destined for the pleased with her bravery that he gave her Confederate navy. She cruised down the a commission as sergeant and had her Chesapeake, captured three brigs, and, name placed on the pay-list for life. The with her prizes, went up the Rappahan- fame of "Sergeant Mary," or Molly Pitchnock River to Fredericksburg, where the er, as she was more generally known, pirates sold their plunder, divided the spread throughout the army. prize-money, and were entertained at a public dinner by the citizens. There the young Marylander produced much merriment by appearing in the costume of a Frenchwoman. A few days afterwards some of Kenly's Baltimore police were on the steamer Mary Washington, going home from a post on the Chesapeake. On board were Captain Kirwan and his crew; also Thomas and his associates, who had captured the St. Nicholas, evidently in tending to repeat their operation on the Mary Washington. The captain was directed to land at Fort McHenry. When the pirates perceived the destination of the vessel young Thomas remonstrated. Finally he drew his revolver, and calling his fellow-pirates around him, he threatened to throw the officers overboard and seize the vessel. The pirates were overcome by numbers. General Banks sent a squad of men on board to seize Thomas and his con Pitman, BENN, author; born in Trowbridge, England, July 22, 1822; came to the United States in 1853, and settled in Cincinnati, where he taught stenography; discovered a method of making relief copper plates of engravings in 1855; was the official stenographer in the trial of the assassins of President Lincoln, and in the "Ku-klux Klan," the "Sons of Liberty," and other noted causes, in 1865-67. His publications include Trials for Trea son at Indianapolis; and The Assassination of President Lincoln, and the Trial of the Conspirators. Pitt, FORT, the most important military post of the English in the American colonies west of the Alleghanies. The garrison had launch-boats to bear the Englishmen to the country of the Illinois. For some time the bitter foes of the English the Mingoes and Delawares-had been seen hovering around the post. On May PITT 27, 1763, they exchanged a large quantity service, placing England in the front rank of skins with the English traders for of nations. By his energy in pressing the powder and lead, and then suddenly dis- war in America (see FRENCH AND INDIAN appeared. Towards midnight the Delaware WAR) he added Canada to the British chiefs warned the garrison that danger Empire and decided for all time the hovered around them, and warned them future of the Mississippi Valley. All to fly, offering to keep the property safe; but the garrison preferred to remain in their strong fort, and the Indians, after murdering a whole family near the fort and leaving a tomahawk as a declaration of war, withdrew and threatened Fort Ligonier. See PONTIAC; DU QUESNE. Pitt, WILLIAM, the "Great Commoner "; born in Westminster, England, Nov. 15, 1708; educated at Eton and Oxford, he entered Parliament in 1735, where he was the most formidable opponent of Robert Walpole. In 1744 the famous Duchess of Marlborough bequeathed him $50,000" for having defended the laws of his country and endeavoring to save it from ruin." Afterwards Sir William Pynsent left him the whole of his fortune. Ile held the office of vice-treasurer of Ireland (1746), and soon afterwards was made paymaster of the army and one of the privy council. In 1755 he was dis WILLIAM PITT. missed from office, but in 1757 was made secretary of state, and soon infused his own energy into every part of the public through the progress of the disputes between Great Britain and its American colonies he advocated a conciliatory and righteous policy towards the Americans. In 1766 he was called to the head of affairs again; was created Earl of Chatham; but quitted office forever in 1768. In the House of Lords he opposed coercive measures towards the Americans, in speeches remarkable for their vigor and eloquence. He was opposed to the political independence of the Americans, for he deprecated a dismemberment of the empire, and, while opposing a motion to that effect, in an earnest speech in the House of Lords (April, 1778), he swooned, and was carried to his home so much exhausted that he never rallied. He had risen from a sickbed to take his place in Parliament on that occasion, and the excitement overcame him. He died in Hayes, Kent, May 11, 1778. His funeral was a public one, at the national expense. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, and a handsome marble monument was erected to his memory. When he became the first minister of the realm, he saw, with enlightened vision, the justice and the policy of treating the American colonies with generosity and confidence. This treatment gained their affections, and, under his guidance, they gave such generous support to the government in the war with the French and Ind. ians that the conquest of Canada was achieved, and the French dominion in America was destroyed. At the same time Halifax, with the sanction of the spiritless and undiscerning George II., was urging schemes of taxation which irritated the colonists and alienated their regard. The project of an American Stamp Act was pressed (1757), which Pitt disdained to favor in the day of the distress of the colonists. He was thwarted in his desire to be just to all, and, through the efforts of the Duke of Cumberland, Pitt and Temple were both driven from office in April, 1757, leaving the government in a state of anarchy in the hands of incom |