来源：《BBC历史》2023年一月号
Until the 16th century, England's European rivals, particularly the Spanish, had led the charge to colonise the New World, and made themselves fantastically wealthy in the process. All that changed in the 1600s when – having already established colonies at Virginia and across New England – the English made a move south to the bustling trading centre of the Americas: the Caribbean.
直到16世纪，英国的欧洲竞争对手，尤其是西班牙人，领导了对新大陆的殖民，并在这个过程中获得了惊人的财富。这一切都在17世纪发生了变化，当时英国人已经在弗吉尼亚和整个新英格兰建立了殖民地，他们向南迁移到美洲繁华的贸易中心：加勒比海。
They arrived in a region already swarming with Spanish, French, Portuguese and Dutch vessels, which gave English pirates ample opportunity for raiding. Then, at the midpoint of the 17th century, the authorities in London passed a series of laws that made the plunder of merchant ships irresistible not only to English pirates, but also to English colonists.
加勒比海地区已经挤满了西班牙、法国、葡萄牙和荷兰的船只，这给了英国海盗充足的劫掠机会。然后，在17世纪中叶，伦敦当局通过了一系列法律，使得对商船的掠夺不仅对英国海盗，而且对英国殖民者都是不可抗拒的。
The 1651 Navigation Act stated that colonial goods could come in only on English vessels. The aim of the legislation was simple: to cripple the economies of England's European competitors. Yet it wasn't just foreign merchants who suffered: by cutting off a diverse range of desirable goods in an instant, the act also denied English colonists a valuable income stream.
1651年《航海法》规定，殖民地货物只能通过英国船只进入英国。这项立法的目的很简单：削弱英国欧洲竞争对手的经济。然而，受害的不仅仅是外国商人：该法案瞬间切断了各种各样的理想商品，也剥夺了英国殖民者宝贵的收入来源。
And so these colonists now began to turn to pirates. Plantation island governors and those in the southern North American colonies either turned a blind eye to pirates, who could spirit in goods such as wine, silks from Asia, spices, cash and sometimes jewels – or they financed piracy outright, aiding and abetting the raids whenever necessary. One such raid took place in 1695 when a group of pirates led by Henry Avery captured the Indian ship Ganj-i-Sawai, slaughtered many of the men and women on board and made off with everything. Avery mysteriously disappeared after the raid, but many of his men sought refuge in North America – mostly in Philadelphia and Providence, Rhode Island.
因此，这些殖民者开始有求于海盗。种植园岛的总督和北美南部殖民地的总督要么对海盗熟视无睹，因为海盗可以从亚洲走私葡萄酒、丝绸、香料、现金，有时甚至是珠宝，要么公开资助海盗，在必要时协助和唆使海盗劫掠。1695年发生了一次这样的劫掠，当时由亨利·艾弗里率领的一批海盗劫持了印度船只甘吉·伊·索瓦伊号，屠杀了船上的许多男女，并带走了所有东西。艾弗里在劫掠后神秘失踪，但他的许多船员在北美洲寻求庇护——大部分在费城和罗德岛州的普罗维登斯。
Avery's raid on the Ganj-i-Sawai was utterly ruthless but it was far from unusual. Soon, piracy was so rampant across the Caribbean that it had become impossible to keep the shipping lanes under control. Too many governors and colonists entertained pirates, which only encouraged illegal maritime activities. Pirates were also starting to go after Spanish ships, which threatened the precarious peace between the two nations.
艾弗里对甘吉·伊·索瓦伊号的劫掠非常残忍，但并不罕见。很快，海盗在加勒比地区猖獗到无法控制航道的地步。太多的总督和殖民者招待海盗，这只会助长非法的海上活动。海盗也开始追击西班牙船只，这威胁到两国之间岌岌可危的和平。