[Footnote 2: Capt. Thomas Smart of H.M.S. _Squirrel_. _Publications Col. Soc. Mass._, VIII. 179; _Acts of the Privy Council, Colonial_, III. 30.]
[Footnote 3: There was constant friction between admiralty judges and common-law judges in America as there had been in England. In 1726 Judge Menzies was expelled from the legislature of Massachusetts for stoutly standing by the complaints he had made to the Admiralty on this subject. A discussion of one of them, by Richard West, counsel to the Board of Trade, is printed in Chalmers, _Opinions_ (ed. 1858), pp. 515-519.]
This comes that the Lords Commissioners for Executing the Office of Lord High Admiral may be informed of a Case that hath lately occurred within the jurisdiction of Admiralty contained in my Commission,[4] Namely, One Benjamin Norton of Rhode-Island, and One Joseph Whippole, a Considerable Merchant of that Colony,[5] did fit out a Brigantine, and sent her under the Command of the said Norton to the West Indies last Fall (a Vessel by Common Observation more fit for Pirates than Trade for which they pretended to Employ her) who Fell in with the Pirates at St. Lucia in January last, and was (as he saith) taken by One Roberts a Pirate, though by the Sequel it appears, he is more to be considered as one of their Assistants and Correspondents, for after he had remained with them Six or Seven Weeks, They took a Ship Dutch Built of 250 Tuns Burthen, or thereby, and having Loaded her with Sugars, Cocoa, Negroes, etc. of very considerable Value, All this they gave to him for his Brigantine though of much more Value than She, and by the most Judicious in the Country, is supposed to have been committed to him as one of their Trusties, to Vend the Cargo in that Colony, a Practice not without precedent in that Colony these several Years past, if my Information fail not;[6] however, be that as it will, he comes with this Ship and Cargo into Tarpaulin Cove,[7] a Place lying between the Province of the Massachussets Bay and Rhode Island, where (by the by) the Pirates used to come to infest Our Coasts in April last: And did in a Clandestine Manner advise the said Joseph Whipple of his arrival.
[Footnote 4: See _Acts P.C. Col._, III. 38-40.]