Linked to the slave trade, Pere Gibert, born in Altafulla, was the last Catalan pirate. In 1832 he attacked the American merchant ship Mexican, which had departed from the town of Salem – the one from the witch hunts of 1692 – in Massachusetts, and stole the 20,000 dollars in silver it was carrying. Jordi Maluquer de Motes, emeritus professor of economic history at the UAB, has reconstructed the true events in the novel El darrer viatge de la goleta Panda (Editorial Base). The main events narrated are real and documented.