James Sullivan, age 7, of Staten Island, N.Y., for his question:

IS THERE REALLY PIRATE'S TREASURE?

Historically, there has been piracy in every period, going back to 100 B.C. when pirates worked in the Mediterranean Sea. From the third century until medieval times, pirates roamed the North and Baltic seas. They were eventually swept from the sea lanes by powerful Venetian and Hanseatic League naval forces.

Since there were pirates from almost the start of recorded history, there has also been the possibility and probability that buried pirate treasure did indeed exist.

One of the .world's most famous stories of both buried treasure and pirates is Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island.'' It's a book that first appeared in 1883 and told the story of a young man named Jim Hawkins and his adventures with a very powerful pirate named Long John Silver. Although it was fiction, much of the information in the fast moving yarn was based on stories Stevenson had read and heard about actual bold and notorious buccaneers.

Writer Stevenson was born in 1850, about 50 years after the last of the noted pirates had left the sea lanes. English pirates were men who captured Spanish ships than were laden with gold that the Spaniards were bringing from the Americas to Spain. After war between Spain and England ended, the English no longer captured Spanish ships and gold, and the days of the pirates were soon over.

But stories of buried treasure were told and retold since much of the plunder that was taken by pirates was never returned to rightful owners.

One of the American pirates most famous for his menacing deeds was Captain Teach, or Blackbeard, as he was called. He worked along the coastline of South Carolina.

There were stories that he left buried treasure. Other well known pirates include Edward Mansfield and Henry Morgan from England and Jacques Nau and Jean Laffite from France.

Piracy is robbery committed or attempted on the high seas, and international law now makes punishment for such an act very severe.

Pirates on old sailing ships were the bad guys. The good guys were the sailors who eventually captured the pirates and took them back to the courts for trial and punishment.