Chief-yustice Trott and the Carolina Pirates. general could mould as well as direct. Second, all acts of Assembly were laid before him prior to their confirmation by the Upper House, so that he might see that they in every way confprmed to the laws of England, also that they would be such as were not repugnant to the Lords Pro prietors. Third, to prosecute and take charge of all criminal matters. In short, he was the court. Fourth, to keep his eye sharply upon the Indian trade, and to so turn the tide of it that it should come in laden with the highest moneyed values. In addition to these, and much more unneces sary to name, he was to have full control of the pushing of the matter of the King's cus toms. All collectors of same were not only to report to him, but also to consult with him and to receive and act upon his advice. As naval officer he had full jurisdiction over every ship outward or inward bound. For these many duties, though I cannot say they were also onerous, he received the magnificent sum of,£40 per annum, about $200. It can therefore be a matter of no surprise that he set about devising ways and means of perquisites. Before being commissioned attorney-gen eral of Carolina, Trott had been governor of one of the Bahamas. It was while occupy ing this position that he was accused by Kdward Randolph, then surveyor-general of customs, of being entirely too friendly with well-known characters of piratical tenden cies, with whom he curried favor in order to further his own interests. Randolph even asserted that Trott had provided a safe har bor for the vessels of certain pirates for whom search was being made with the view to bringing them to justice. How much truth there was in these accusations, never became known, at least not in Carolina. One thing in Trott's favor was that the same charge had been made by Randolph against various other governors, for the sur veyor-general was a blustering, outspoken man, " pirate mad," as many asserted.
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At any rate, Trott came to the province with this charge hanging about him as a most unpleasant bit of moral drapery. This may have been the chief cause of his unusual harshness and severity during the famous trial of the pirates, Stede Bonnet and others, in Charleston, in 171 8. Any leniency on his part might have seemed a confirmation of Randolph's charge. I am aware that in a recent defense of Chief-Justice Trott it is claimed that there were two Nicholas Trotts, and that the first attorney-general of the Province of Carolina was never even a resident of the Bahamas. As this statement is directly opposed to that of every history of South Carolina I have examined, I know not what proof the writer of the said defense can bring forward in substantiation of the claim. Only the bare assertion is made in the article, and nothing given to sustain it. The trial of the Carolina pirates was one that attracted wide-spread attention at the time, and that is still alluded to, and incidents in connection with it quoted, to this day. The Johns Hopkins University has considered it of sufficient import. to in clude it in their series of Historical and Political Studies : the volume, the twelfth in the scries, having been prepared in 1894, by Shirley Carter Hughson, under the title of "The Carolina Pirates and Colonial Com merce." At the time Trott was appointed chiefjustice the whole Carolina coast from the mouth of the Cape Fear River td the St. John's was infested with pirates. So, too, was the track of merchant vessels from the Colonies to England and from Carolina to Barbadoes, Jamaica, and other West India Islands. For the rice ships going out, and the vessels laden with sugar, rum, and fine dress-stuffs, coming in, were the most tempt ing of prizes. In four years' time about forty vessels were taken on the Carolina coast. The laws of those days touching pirates were rather lax; or, rather, perhaps, the
