PREPARATION
WE, OF THESE times, protected as we are by the laws and by the number
of people about us, can hardly comprehend such a life as that of the
American colonies in the early part of the last century, when it was
possible for a pirate like Blackbeard to exist, and for the governor
and the secretary of the province in which he lived perhaps to share
his plunder, and to shelter and to protect him against the law.
At that time the American colonists were in general a rough, rugged
people, knowing nothing of the finer things of life. They lived mostly
in little settlements, separated by long distances from one another, so
that they could neither make nor enforce laws to protect themselves.
Each man or little group of men had to depend upon his or their own
strength to keep what belonged to them, and to prevent fierce men or
groups of men from seizing what did not belong to them.
It is the natural disposition of every one to get all that he can.
Little children, for instance, always try to take away from others that
which they want, and to keep it for their own. It is only by constant
teaching that they learn that they must not do so; that they must not
take by force what does not belong to them. So it is only by teaching
and training that people learn to be honest and not to take what is not
theirs. When this teaching is not sufficient to make a man learn to be
honest, or when there is something in the man’s nature that makes him
not able to learn, then he only lacks the opportunity to seize upon the
things he wants, just as he would do if he were a little child.
In the colonies at that time, as was just said, men were too few and
scattered to protect themselves against those who had made up their
minds to take by force that which they wanted, and so it was that men
lived an unrestrained and lawless life, such as we of these times of
better government can hardly comprehend.
The usual means of commerce between province and province was by water
in coasting vessels. These coasting vessels were so defenseless, and
the different colonial government were so ill able to protect them,
that those who chose to rob them could do it almost without danger to
themselves.
So it was that all the western world was, in those days, infested
with armed bands of cruising freebooters or pirates, who used to stop
merchant vessels and take from them what they chose.
Each province in those days was ruled over by a royal governor
appointed by the king. Each governor, at one time, was free to do
almost as he pleased in his own province. He was accountable only to
the king and his government, and England was so distant that he was
really responsible almost to nobody but himself.
The governors were naturally just as desirous to get rich quickly,
just as desirous of getting all that they could for themselves, as was
anybody else—only they had been taught and had been able to learn
that it was not right to be an actual pirate or robber. They wanted
to be rich easily and quickly, but the desire was not strong enough
to lead them to dishonor themselves in their own opinion and in the
opinion of others by gratifying their selfishness. They would even have
stopped the pirates from doing what they did if they could, but their
provincial governments were too weak to prevent the freebooters from
robbing merchant vessels, or to punish them when they came ashore. The
provinces had no navies, and they really had no armies; neither were
there enough people living within the community to enforce the laws
against those stronger and fiercer men who were not honest.
After the things the pirates seized from merchant vessels were once
stolen they were altogether lost. Almost never did any owner apply
for them, for it would be useless to do so. The stolen goods and
merchandise lay in the storehouses of the pirates, seemingly without
any owner excepting the pirates themselves.
The governors and the secretaries of the colonies would not dishonor
themselves by pirating upon merchant vessels, but it did not seem so
wicked after the goods were stolen—and so altogether lost—to take a
part of that which seemed to have no owner.
A child is taught that it is a very wicked thing to take, for instance,
by force, a lump of sugar from another child; but when a wicked child
has seized the sugar from another and taken it around the corner, and
that other child from whom he has seized it has gone home crying, it
does not seem so wicked for the third child to take a bite of the sugar
when it is offered to him, even if he thinks it has been taken from
some one else.
It was just so, no doubt, that it did not seem so wicked to Governor
Eden and Secretary Knight of North Carolina, or to Governor Fletcher of
New York, or to other colonial governors, to take a part of the booty
that the pirates, such as Blackbeard, had stolen. It did not even seem
very wicked to compel such pirates to give up a part of what was not
theirs, and which seemed to have no owner.
In Governor Eden’s time, however, the colonies had begun to be more
thickly peopled, and the laws had gradually become stronger and
stronger to protect men in the possession of what was theirs. Governor
Eden was the last of the colonial governors who had dealings with the
pirates, and Blackbeard was almost the last of the pirates who, with
his banded men, was savage and powerful enough to come and go as he
chose among the people whom he plundered.
Virginia, at that time, was the greatest and the richest of all the
American colonies, and upon the further side of North Carolina was the
province of South Carolina, also strong and rich. It was these two
colonies that suffered the most from Blackbeard, and it began to be
that the honest men that lived in them could endure no longer to be
plundered.
The merchants and traders and others who suffered cried out loudly for
protection; so loudly that the governors of these provinces could not
help hearing them.
Governor Eden was petitioned to act against the pirates; but he would
do nothing, for he felt very friendly toward Blackbeard—just as a
child who has had a taste of the stolen sugar feels friendly toward the
child who gives it to him.
At last, when Blackbeard sailed up into the very heart of Virginia, and
seized upon and carried away the daughter of that colony’s foremost
people, the Governor of Virginia, finding that the Governor of North
Carolina would do nothing to punish the outrage, took the matter into
his own hands and issued a proclamation offering a reward of one
hundred pounds for Blackbeard, alive or dead, and different sums for
the other pirates who were his followers.
Governor Spottiswood had the right to issue the proclamation, but he
had no right to commission Lieutenant Maynard, as he did, to take down
an armed force into the neighboring province and to attack the pirates
in the waters of the North Carolina sounds. It was all a part of the
rude and lawless condition of the colonies at the time that such a
thing could have been done.
The governor’s proclamation against the pirates was issued upon the
eleventh day of November. It was read in the churches the Sunday
following and was posted upon the doors of all the government custom
offices in lower Virginia. Lieutenant Maynard, in the boats that
Colonel Parker had already fitted out to go against the pirates, set
sail upon the seventeenth of the month for Ocracock. Five days later
the battle was fought.
* * * * *
Blackbeard’s sloop was lying inside of Ocracock Inlet among the
shoals and sand-bars, when he first heard of Governor Spottiswood’s
proclamation.
There had been a storm, and a good many vessels had run into the inlet
for shelter. Blackbeard knew nearly all of the captains of these
vessels, and it was from them that he first heard of the proclamation.
He had gone aboard one of the vessels—a coaster from Boston. The wind
was still blowing pretty hard from the southeast. There were maybe a
dozen vessels lying within the inlet at that time, and the captain of
one of them was paying the Boston skipper a visit when Blackbeard came
aboard. The two captains had been talking together. They instantly
ceased when the pirate came down into the cabin, but he had heard
enough of their conversation to catch its drift. “Why d’ye stop?” he
said. “I heard what you said. Well, what then? D’ ye think I mind it
at all? Spottiswood is going to send his bullies down here after me.
That’s what you were saying. Well, what then? You don’t think I’m
afraid of his bullies, do you?”
“Why, no, captain, I didn’t say you was afraid,” said the visiting
captain.
“And what right has he got to send down here against me in North
Carolina, I should like to ask you?”
“He’s got none at all,” said the Boston captain, soothingly. “Won’t you
take a taste of Hollands, Captain?”
“He’s no more right to come blustering down here into Governor Eden’s
province than I have to come aboard of your schooner here, Tom Burley,
and to carry off two or three kegs of this prime Hollands for my own
drinking.”
Captain Burley—the Boston man—laughed a loud, forced laugh. “Why,
captain,” he said, “as for two or three kegs of Hollands, you won’t
find that aboard. But if you’d like to have a keg of it for your own
drinking, I’ll send it to you and be glad enough to do so for old
acquaintance’ sake.”
“But I tell you what ’tis, captain,” said the visiting skipper to
Blackbeard, “they’re determined and set against you this time. I tell
you, captain, Governor Spottiswood hath issued a hot proclamation
against you, and ‘t hath been read out in all the churches. I myself
saw it posted in Yorktown upon the Custom-House door and read it there
myself. The governor offers one hundred pounds for you, and fifty
pounds for your officers, and twenty pounds each for your men.”
“Well, then,” said Blackbeard, holding up his glass, “here, I wish
‘em good luck, and when they get their hundred pounds for me they’ll
be in a poor way to spend it. As for the Hollands,” said he, turning
to Captain Burley, “I know what you’ve got aboard here and what you
haven’t. D’ ye suppose ye can blind me? Very well, you send over two
kegs, and I’ll let you go without search.” The two captains were very
silent. “As for that Lieutenant Maynard you’re all talking about,”
said Blackbeard, “why, I know him very well. He was the one who was so
busy with the pirates down Madagascar way. I believe you’d all like to
see him blow me out of the water, but he can’t do it. There’s nobody
in his Majesty’s service I’d rather meet than Lieutenant Maynard. I’d
teach him pretty briskly that North Carolina isn’t Madagascar.”
* * * * *
On the evening of the twenty-second the two vessels under command of
Lieutenant Maynard came into the mouth of Ocracock Inlet and there
dropped anchor. Meantime the weather had cleared, and all the vessels
but one had gone from the inlet. The one vessel that remained was a New
Yorker. It had been there over a night and a day, and the captain and
Blackbeard had become very good friends.
The same night that Maynard came into the inlet, a wedding was held on
the shore. A number of men and women came up the beach in ox-carts and
sledges; others had come in boats from more distant points and across
the water.
The captain of the New Yorker and Blackbeard went ashore together a
little after dark. The New Yorker had been aboard of the pirate’s sloop
for all the latter part of the afternoon, and he and Blackbeard had
been drinking together in the cabin. The New York man was now a little
tipsy, and he laughed and talked foolishly as he and Blackbeard were
rowed ashore. The pirate sat grim and silent.
It was nearly dark when they stepped ashore on the beach. The New York
captain stumbled and fell headlong, rolling over and over, and the crew
of the boat burst out laughing.
The people had already begun to dance in an open shed fronting upon
the shore. There were fires of pine-knots in front of the building,
lighting up the interior with a red glare. A negro was playing a fiddle
somewhere inside, and it was filled with a crowd of grotesque dancing
figures—men and women. Now and then they called with loud voices
as they danced, and the squeaking of the fiddle sounded incessantly
through the noise of outcries and the stamp and shuffling of feet.
Captain Teach and the New York captain stood looking on. The New York
man had tilted himself against a post and stood there holding one arm
around it, supporting himself. He waved the other hand foolishly in
time to the music, now and then snapping his thumb and finger.
The young woman who had just been married approached the two. She had
been dancing, and she was warm and red, her hair blowsed about her
head. “Hi, captain, won’t you dance with me?” she said to Blackbeard.
Blackbeard stared at her. “Who be you?” he said.
She burst out laughing. “You look as if you’d eat a body,” she cried.
Blackbeard’s face gradually relaxed. “Why, to be sure, you’re a brazen
one, for all the world,” he said. “Well, I’ll dance with you, that I
will. I’ll dance the heart out of you.”
He pushed forward, thrusting aside with his elbow the newly-made
husband. The man, who saw that Blackbeard had been drinking, burst out
laughing, and the other men and women who had been standing around drew
away, so that in a little while the floor was pretty well cleared. One
could see the negro now; he sat on a barrel at the end of the room. He
grinned with his white teeth and, without stopping in his fiddling,
scraped his bow harshly across the strings, and then instantly changed
the tune to a lively jig. Blackbeard jumped up into the air and clapped
his heels together, giving, as he did so, a sharp, short yell. Then he
began instantly dancing grotesquely and violently. The woman danced
opposite to him, this way and that, with her knuckles on her hips.
Everybody burst out laughing at Blackbeard’s grotesque antics. They
laughed again and again, clapping their hands, and the negro scraped
away on his fiddle like fury. The woman’s hair came tumbling down her
back. She tucked it back, laughing and panting, and the sweat ran down
her face. She danced and danced. At last she burst out laughing and
stopped, panting. Blackbeard again jumped up in the air and clapped his
heels. Again he yelled, and as he did so, he struck his heels upon the
floor and spun around. Once more everybody burst out laughing, clapping
their hands, and the negro stopped fiddling.
Near by was a shanty or cabin where they were selling spirits, and by
and by Blackbeard went there with the New York captain, and presently
they began drinking again. “Hi, captain!” called one of the men,
“Maynard’s out yonder in the inlet. Jack Bishop’s just come across from
t’other side. He says Mr. Maynard hailed him and asked for a pilot to
fetch him in.”
“Well, here’s luck to him, and he can’t come in quick enough for me!”
cried out Blackbeard in his hoarse, husky voice.
“Well, captain,” called a voice, “will ye fight him to-morrow?”
“Ay,” shouted the pirate, “if he can get in to me, I’ll try to give
‘em what they seek, and all they want of it into the bargain. As for
a pilot, I tell ye what ’tis. If any man hereabouts goes out there
to pilot that villain in, ‘twill be the worst day’s work he ever did
in all of his life. ‘Twon’t be fit for him to live in these parts of
America if I am living here at the same time.” There was a burst of
laughter.
“Give us a toast, captain! Give us something to drink to! Ay, captain,
a toast! A toast!” a half dozen voices were calling out at the same
time.
“Well,” cried out the pirate captain, “here’s to a good, hot fight
to-morrow, and the best dog on top! ‘Twill be, Bang! bang!—this way!”
He began pulling a pistol out of his pocket, but it stuck in the
lining, and he struggled and tugged at it. The men ducked and scrambled
away from before him, and then the next moment he had the pistol out of
his pocket. He swung it around and around. There was perfect silence.
Suddenly there was a flash and a stunning report, and instantly a crash
and tinkle of broken glass. One of the men cried out, and began picking
and jerking at the back of his neck. “He’s broken that bottle all down
my neck,” he called out.
“That’s the way ‘twill be,” said Blackbeard.
“Lookee,” said the owner of the place, “I won’t serve out another drop
if ’tis going to be like that. If there’s any more trouble I’ll blow
out the lantern.”
The sound of the squeaking and scraping of the fiddle and the shouts
and the scuffling feet still came from the shed where the dancing was
going on.
“Suppose you get your dose to-morrow, captain,” some one called out,
“what then?”
“Why, if I do,” said Blackbeard, “I get it, and that’s all there is of
it.”
“Your wife’ll be a rich widdy then, won’t she?” cried one of the men;
and there was a burst of laughter.
“Why,” said the New York captain,—“why, has a—a bloody p—pirate like
you a wife then—a—like any honest man?”
“She’ll be no richer than she is now,” said Blackbeard.
“She knows where you’ve hid your money, anyways; don’t she, captain?”
called out a voice.
“The divil knows where I’ve hid my money,” said Blackbeard, “and I know
where I’ve hid it; and the longest liver of the twain will get it all.
And that’s all there is of it.”
The gray of early day was beginning to show in the east when Blackbeard
and the New York captain came down to the landing together. The New
York captain swayed and toppled this way and that as he walked, now
falling against Blackbeard, and now staggering away from him.