A DOER OF THE WORD

“I know what you mean,” he said. “But that don’t make any difference. You just have to keep on giving, that’s all, see? Not all of ’em turn back. It helps a lot. Money is the only dangerous thing to give—but I never give money—not very often. I give myself, rather, as much as possible. I give food and clothing, too, but I try to show ’em a new way—that’s not money, you know. So many people need a new way. They’re looking for it often, only they don’t seem to know how. But God, dear brother, however poor or mean they are—He knows. You’ve got to reach the heart, you know, and I let Him help me. You’ve got to make a man over in his soul, if you want to help him, and money won’t help you to do that, you know. No, it won’t.”

He looked up at me in clear-eyed faith. It was remarkable.

“Make them over?” I queried, still curious, for it was all like a romance, and rather fantastic to me. “What do you mean? How do you make them over?”

“Oh, in their attitude, that’s how. You’ve got to change a man and bring him out of self-seeking if you really want to make him good. Most men are so tangled up in their own errors and bad ways, and so worried over their seekings, that unless you can set them to giving it’s no use. They’re always seeking, and they don’t know what they want half the time. Money isn’t the thing. Why, half of them wouldn’t understand how to use it if they had it. Their minds are not bright enough. Their perceptions are not clear enough. All you can do is to make them content with themselves. And that, giving to others will do. I never saw the man or the woman yet who couldn’t be happy if you could make them feel the need of living for others, of doing something for somebody besides themselves. It’s a fact. Selfish people are never happy.”

https://dmdujour.wordpress.com/2022/05/22/theodore-dreiser-a-doer-of-the-word/

Murderous 1600s pirate hid out in US colonies with impunity

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One tarnished silver coin at a time, the ground is yielding new evidence that in the late 1600s, one of the world's most ruthless pirates wandered the American colonies with impunity.

Newly surfaced documents also strengthen the case that English buccaneer Henry Every—the target of the first worldwide manhunt—hid out in New England before sailing for Ireland and vanishing into the wind.

"At this point, the amount of evidence is overwhelming and indisputable," historian and metal detectorist Jim Bailey, who's devoted years to solving the mystery, told The Associated Press. "Every was undoubtedly on the run in the colonies."

In 2014, after unearthing an unusual coin engraved with an Arabic inscription at a pick-your-own-fruit orchard in Middletown, Rhode Island, Bailey began retracing Every's steps.

Four 17th century silver coins with Arabic inscriptions rest together on a table in Warwick, R.I., Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022. The coin, at top left, was found in Connecticut, while the other three were found in Rhode Island. One coin at a time, the ground is yielding new evidence that in the late 1600s, every one of the world's most ruthless pirates wandered the American colonies with impunity.

Research confirmed that the exotic coin was minted in 1693 in Yemen. Bailey then discovered that it was consistent with millions of dollars' worth of coins and other valuables seized by Every and his men in their brazen Sept. 7, 1695, sacking of the Ganj-i-Sawai, an armed royal vessel owned by Indian emperor Aurangzeb.

Historical accounts say Every's band tortured and killed passengers aboard the Indian ship and raped many of the women before escaping to the Bahamas, a haven for pirates. But word quickly spread of their crimes, and English King William III—under enormous pressure from a scandalized India and the influential East India Company trading giant—put a large bounty on their heads.

Detectorists and archaeologists have since located 26 similar coins stretching from Maine to the Carolinas. All but three coins turned up in New England, and none can be dated later than when the Indian ship was captured.

"When I first heard about it, I thought, 'Wait a minute, this can't be true,'" said Steve Album, a rare coin specialist based in Santa Rosa, California, who helped identify all of the silver Arabic coins found in New England.

"But these coins have been found legitimately and in a few instances archaeologically, and every single one predates the sacking of the ship," said Album, who has lived in Iran and has traveled widely in the Middle East.

Detectorists have also unearthed a gold nugget weighing 3 grams (a tenth of an ounce)—slightly heavier than a U.S. penny—from a potato field perched on a hilltop in seaside Little Compton, Rhode Island.

[CONT]

https://phys.org/news/2022-12-1600s-pirate-hid-colonies-impunity.html