nd, prosperous agricultural regions, contained
almost one-half the English-speaking population of America. As colonies,
they had found the Old World eager for their rice, tobacco, indigo,
and tar, and slavery was the means of labor so firmly established that
one-fifth of the inhabitants were black. By contrast, the Northern
States were still concerned with commerce as the very lifeblood of their
existence. New England had not dreamed of the millions of spindles which
should hum on the banks of her rivers and lure her young men and women
from the farms to the clamorous factory towns. The city of New York
had not yet outgrown its traffic in furs and its magnificent commercial
destiny was still unrevealed. It was a considerable seaport but not yet
a gateway. From Sandy Hook, however, to the stormy headlands of Maine,
it was a matter of life and death that ships should freely come and
go with cargoes to exchange. All other resources were trifling in
comparison.

CHAPTER IV. THE FAMOUS DAYS OF SALEM PORT

In such compelling circumstances as these, necessity became the mother
of achievement. There is nothing finer in American history than the
dogged fortitude and high-hearted endeavor with which the merchant
seamen returned to their work after the Revolution and sought and
found new markets for their wares. It was then that Salem played
that conspicuous part which was, for a generation, to overshadow the
activities of all other American seaports. Six thousand privateersmen
had signed articles in her taverns, as many as the total population of
the town, and they filled it with a spirit of enterprise and daring.
Not for them the stupid monotony of voyages coastwise if more hazardous
ventures beckoned and there were havens and islands unvexed by trade
where bold men might win profit and perhaps fight for life and cargo.

Now there dwelt in Salem one of the great men of his time, Elias Hasket
Derby, the first American millionaire, and very much more than this. He
was a shipping merchant with a vision and with the hard-headed sagacity
to make his dreams come true. His was a notable seafaring family,
to begin with. His father, Captain Richard Derby, born in 1712, had
dispatched his small vessels to the West Indies and Virginia and with
the returns from these voyages he had loaded assorted cargoes for Spain
and Madeira and had the proceeds remitted in bills of exchange to
London or in wine, salt, fruit, oil, lead, and handkerc