In 1744,
however, came his golden harvest time!
It was a little after midwinter of that year that Sir. Chaloner Ogle
made him commodore of a sixteen-ship squadron in the waters of the
Leeward Islands where there was decidedly good hunting in the way of
prize ships. Off Martinique were many French and Spanish boats simply
waiting, it would almost seem, to be eaten alive by the enemy's
cruisers; and Captain Peter who had the sound treasure-hunting
instinct of your born adventurer, proceeded to gobble them up! In the
four months that rolled jovially by between the middle of February and
the middle of June, the Captain captured twenty-four of these prizes,
one alone with a plate cargo valued at two hundred and fifty thousand
pounds! Ah, but those were the rare days for a stout-hearted seafaring
man, with a fleet of strong boats and an expensive taste!
Captain Warren brought his prizes to New York and handed them over to
his father-in-law's firm,--advertised in the old papers as "Messieurs
Stephen de Lancey and Company,"--who acted as his agents in
practically all of what Janvier disrespectfully styles "his French and
Spanish swag"! Governor Clinton had exempted prizes from duty, so it
was all clear profit.
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