It is curious to read in old annals of the number of cannon carried by small merchantmen.

We find the "Prudent Sarah" mounting 10 guns; the "Olive Branch," belied her peaceful name with 3, while the pink "Friendship" carried 8.

These years, too, were the privateers' harvest time.

During the Revolution the ships owned by one Newburyport merchant took 23,360 tons of shipping and 225 men, the prizes with their cargoes selling for $3,950,000.

But of the size and the profits of the privateering business more will be said in the chapter devoted to that subject.