The French war had come to an end, so in January, 1699, a royal squadron of four men-of-war, the _Anglesea_, _Harwich_, _Hastings_, and _Lizard_, sailed from Portsmouth for Madagascar under Warren.[3] They carried with them four royal commissioners and a proclamation offering a free pardon, from which Every and Kidd were excepted, to all pirates who voluntarily surrendered themselves before the end of April, 1699. The pardon related only to acts of piracy committed east of the Cape of Good Hope, between the African and Indian coasts. After calling at St. Augustine's bay, where several pirates made their submission, the squadron reached Tellicherry in November. As it came to its anchorage, Warren died, and was buried on shore the following day. He was succeeded in the command by Littleton. In the following May, Littleton was on the Madagascar coast, where he remained till the end of the year before returning home. During the whole time he was in communication with the pirates. His dealings with them brought him into disrepute in shipping circles. Hamilton tells us that "for _some valuable reasons_ he let them go again; and because they found a difficulty in cleaning the bottoms of their large ships, he generously assisted them with large blocks and tackle falls for careening them." Possibly Hamilton's remark was due to the conduct of Captain White of the _Hastings_, whose behaviour excited such suspicion that Littleton placed him under arrest, fearing he would make his ship over to the pirates. Littleton remained on the Madagascar coast for eight months without firing a shot. When he first reached St. Mary's, the pirates greeted him with a salute of nine guns, to which he responded with five, and he was in close and daily communication with them. Whether any pirates made their submission to him does not appear; but it is probable that his presence strengthened the resolution to obtain pardon of those who had previously engaged themselves to Warren; among them Culliford and Chivers. The fact is that piracy was looked upon then more leniently than we should now regard it. Plundering and ill-treating Asiatics was a venial offence, and many a seaman after a cruise with the pirates returned to his calling on board an honest merchantman, without being thought much the worse for it.