978-1-4222-3316-0

Pirate’s Paradise 19

granted the Carolinas, in the present-day American states of North and South Carolina. Charles also helped to send to the Bahamas 300 settlers who pledged loyalty to the monarchy. A Lawless Place In 1666, four years before Charles’s grant of the Bahamas, a settlement named for him had been founded on the island of New Providence. Charles Town soon became a magnet for pirates and outlaws. This was due in part to its fine harbor, and in part to the absence of real authority in Charles Town. The noblemen who had received the Bahamas grant did not actually live there, and the governors they sent to administer their lands were weak and inef- fective. The city of Charles Town became a rowdy, lawless place, a home for thieves, prostitutes, and pirates. In 1684, the Spanish—with whom the British were frequently at war throughout the 17th and 18th centuries—destroyed Charles Town. But the people of the city quickly rebuilt their settlement. For a certain type of person, the Bahamas could provide a good liveli- hood. Charles Town was home to many salvagers . These men combed the shores for wrecked treasure ships and picked through their remains. Some went a bit further in their quest for easy riches. Called wreckers , they lured ships laden with gold and other treasures onto the rocky reefs by placing lights there. When the unsuspecting captain of a ship passing at night saw one of the lights, he would assume it was a distant lighthouse and that his vessel was at a safe distance from the land. After a ship ran aground, the wreckers would board the vessel and confiscate its cargo by force.