_The Adventures of Edward Teach, or Blackbeard._
Seizure of the Protestant Cæsar.--The Piratic Squadron.--Villany
of the Buccaneers.--The Atrocities of Blackbeard.--Illustrative
Anecdotes.--Carousals on Shore.--Alleged Complicity with the
Governor.--Hiding-place near Ocracoke Inlet.--Arrangements
for his Capture.--Boats sent from two Men-of-war.--Bloody
Battle.--The Death of the Pirate.--His Desperate and Demoniac
Character.
Blackbeard having, as it were, captured the Revenge, raised the black
flag of piracy upon both of his vessels. Soon he captured a third
vessel, which he manned and armed and added to his piratic squadron.
Entering the Bay of Honduras, he took a ship, from Boston, called the
Protestant Cæsar, and four sloops. Captain Wyar, of the Protestant
Cæsar, as the pirates’ balls whistled over his decks, abandoned his
ship, and taking to his boats, with all his crew, escaped to the
shore. One of the sloops also belonged to Boston. After plundering the
ship and sloop of all they wanted, they set both on fire, in revenge,
because they belonged to Boston, where some men had been hung for
piracy. The other three sloops they plundered and then let go.
They then continued their cruise, for some time, among the West India
Islands, capturing vessel after vessel. Thence sailing to the South
Carolinian coast, they ran up and down before the harbor of Charleston
for a week. Here they took a ship, bound out for London, with several
passengers, Captain Robert Clark commander. They also captured three
vessels entering the port, one of which had fourteen negroes on board.
Such a strong piratic force appearing before that important harbor,
struck the whole province with terror. They were quite unable to resist
such an armament. There were eight vessels in the harbor ready for sea.
They dared not venture out, and even feared that the pirates would come
into the harbor and take them. The trade of the place was thus, for a
season, utterly destroyed. It added much to the weight of this calamity
that the province had just passed through an expensive and exhaustive
war with the Indians.
Teach was in great want of medicines. He therefore detained all the
vessels he had taken, with their crews and passengers, and sent Captain
Richards, in the Revenge, to Charleston, with the following message to
the governor:
“I want a chest of medicines. Send me such a chest, by the bearer. If
you do not comply with this my demand immediately, without offering
any violence to the persons of my ambassadors, I will cut off the heads
of all the prisoners in my hands, and send them to you, and will burn
all the ships.”
Mr. Marks, one of the prisoners, was sent with Richards and the other
pirates to present this demand. While Mr. Marks was making this
application to the governor and council, Richards and his piratic gang
were insolently riding through the streets, with sabres in their hands
and pistols in their belts. The citizens were in a state of the highest
indignation; and yet they dared not speak a word or even look with a
frown. The villains returned to their ships with impunity, bearing a
chest of medicines valued at two thousand dollars. The lives of so many
husbands, sons, and brothers were at stake that the community was eager
to conciliate the pirates.
Blackbeard, having received the chest, liberated the vessels and the
prisoners. He had taken from the vessels gold and silver coin to the
amount of seven thousand dollars, besides provisions and other articles
of much value. They then sailed to the coast of North Carolina.
Blackbeard’s ship they called the Man-of-War. One sloop, as we have
mentioned, was commanded by Richards. Blackbeard placed upon another,
as commander, a fellow by the name of Hands. He had also another
vessel, which served as a tender. Thus this piratic squadron was now
composed of four vessels.
The amount of plunder, in money and goods, was very great. Blackbeard
formed a plan to secure nearly the whole for himself, and for a few
others of his favorites in the gang. He therefore, under pretence of
running his ship into Ocracoke Inlet for repairs, grounded her. He
summoned Hands’ sloop to his aid and ran her on shore.
He then went on board the tender sloop, where he had assembled his
confederates, forty in number, and had stored all the coin and many
of the most valuable goods. Seventeen of the crew, whom he wished to
get rid of, he landed on a small, sandy island three miles from the
mainland. Here they were exposed to perish, without food or water, or
any opportunity to escape. There was neither bird, beast, nor herbs on
the island.
The king, as we have mentioned, had issued a proclamation of pardon
for all the pirates who would surrender themselves. This consummate
villain, with about twenty of his comrades, sailed to the residence
of the governor, and surrendered themselves to his majesty’s
proclamation, and received a full pardon for all their past offences,
while they still retained their ill-gotten wealth. This was done with
no intention of abandoning their mode of life, but only to obtain a
respite, and prepare for future operations.
Bonnet was left behind, with the Revenge. He again, with a portion of
the men, assumed the command of the ship, of which he had been robbed.
But we must leave him for a time until we have followed out the career
of Blackbeard.
Charles Eden was then governor of North Carolina. He was either a very
corrupt man or a very simple one. The governor gave Blackbeard full
possession of the ship he had captured, and which he had named the
Queen Anne’s Revenge. A court of admiralty was held, and though Teach
had never received any commission as a privateersman, and it was a time
of peace, and the Queen Anne belonged to English merchants, she was
condemned as a prize taken from the Spaniards, and adjudged to belong
to Teach.
Blackbeard remained for a few weeks at the capital of the province;
paid his addresses to a beautiful young girl of sixteen, and was
married to her by the governor, who had probably received very rich
presents from the pirate. His biographer says that this was the
fourteenth wife of Teach, twelve of whom were still living. Soon he
again went to sea, beneath the pirate’s black flag. He directed his
course toward the West Indies, capturing two or three English ships by
the way, which he plundered, but left the ships and crew unharmed. He
then captured two French ships. The cargoes of both he stored in one.
The crews of both he placed in the other, and turned them adrift. With
his rich prize he returned to North Carolina, and shared the booty with
the governor.
Blackbeard and four of his crew went ashore, and took a solemn oath
that they found the French ship at sea abandoned, and without a soul
on board. It is curious to witness the expedients to which men will
resort to appease the qualms of conscience. After removing all the
ship’s company from their prize the captain and a boat’s crew boarded
her, and truly found her “without a soul on board.” Thus they satisfied
themselves that they did not take a false oath. In accordance with this
testimony the court adjudged the French vessel to be a lawful prize.
The governor had sixty hogsheads of sugar for his share. Mr. Knight,
his secretary, collector of the port, had twenty. All the remainder of
the booty the pirates divided among themselves.
The French vessel was still on the pirate’s hands. He greatly feared
that some vessel might come into the river acquainted with her, and
that his villany might be discovered. He set her on fire and burning
her to the water’s edge, her bottom sunk. Blackbeard remained for
some time cruising along the shores of Pamlico Sound. He was rich, and
prodigal of his wealth. Sometimes, in mere wantonness, he would plunder
a vessel. Again he would purchase articles, paying for them three or
four times their worth.
He often went ashore with his armed followers, and spent the night and
sometimes days in boisterous revelry. The planters did not dare to make
any remonstrances. He was a brutal wretch, and often, when frenzied
with drink, the wives and daughters of the planters were exposed to the
most terrible indignities. At times he was very courteous, presenting
his entertainers with rum, sugar, and other valuable articles. He
frequently assumed a very lordly air, levying heavy contributions, and
even bullying the governor, simply to show him what he dared to do.
The traders and planters consulted together to decide what course to
pursue in this terrible emergence. It was plain that the governor was
either in complicity with the pirate or was overawed by him. It was in
vain, therefore, to hope for redress through his interposition. They,
therefore, as secretly as possible, sent to the governor of Virginia,
soliciting an armed force from the men-of-war then lying before
Jamestown, to take and destroy this formidable pirate.
There were two men-of-war in the James River, the Pearl and the
Lime. The governor consulted with the two commanders. It was agreed
between them that the governor should hire two small sloops, of light
draft, which could run easily into the coves and among the shoals of
Pamlico Sound. The men-of-war were to place on board these sloops a
strong picked crew of thoroughly armed men. They were to take small
arms alone, as mounted cannon would require such depths of water as
to embarrass their operations. These sloops, rapidly propelled by
both sails and oars, could follow the pirate in all his coverts;
could overtake him should he attempt to escape by flight, and, by
simultaneously boarding the piratic craft, could overpower and cut down
the crew.
The expedition was speedily fitted out. At the same time the Virginia
governor issued a proclamation, offering a reward of five hundred
dollars for the capture, dead or alive, of Captain Teach, commonly
called Blackbeard; two hundred dollars for every other commander of a
pirate ship; for all inferior officers seventy-five dollars; for every
pirate on board such ship forty dollars. This proclamation, a copy of
which now lies before me, was dated at Williamsburg, November 24th,
1718, and was signed by the governor, A. Spottswood.
On the 21st of November the two sloops entered the mouth of Ocracoke
Inlet, and caught sight of the pirate. The governor of North Carolina,
and his secretary, Mr. Knight, hearing of these preparations, and
fearing that the capture of the pirate would bring their misdeeds to
light, sent him warning of his danger. Knight wrote to him:
“I have sent you four of your men. They are all I can meet with about
town. Be upon your guard.”
Blackbeard, one of the most reckless and determined of desperadoes, put
his vessel in posture for defence. He had with him then a crew of but
twenty-five men. Seeing the approach of the sloops, and anticipating
a battle with the morning’s dawn, he spent the night in drunken
carousals. Lieutenant Maynard, in command of the expedition, found the
water too shoal and the channel too intricate for him to reach the ship
that night. Under cover of the darkness he sent out a boat to mark the
way.
The morning was cloudless and calm. There was scarcely a breath of
wind; and not a ripple was to be seen on the mirrored surface of the
Sound. There was no escape for the pirate. The gentle breath which
swept the waters was fair. The sloops spread their sails, and with
lusty arms at the oars bore down upon the pirate. As they approached,
Blackbeard stood upon his deck, and with revolting oaths, which we
shall omit, interlarding his speech, shouted out:
“You villains, who are you, and what do you want?”
“Our colors show,” Lieutenant Maynard replied, “that we are no pirates.”
“Send your boat on board,” exclaimed Blackbeard, “that I may learn who
you are.”
“I have no boat to spare,” Maynard responded; “but as soon as I can
reach you with my sloops, I will come on board myself.”
Blackbeard took a tumbler of raw brandy. As he poured the burning fluid
down his throat he exclaimed in tones of rage and in that fearful
profanity with which his every utterance was mingled, that if they fell
into his hands they should receive no quarter.
“I expect no quarter,” Maynard responded, “neither do I ask for any.”
The gunwale of Maynard’s sloop, which took the lead, was scarcely
a foot high. The men on the deck were entirely exposed. Blackbeard
poured in upon them a broadside of grape-shot. The carnage was awful.
Twenty men, by that one discharge, were either killed or wounded.
Maynard, apprehensive of another discharge, ordered all the survivors
immediately into the hold, he alone remaining on deck, at the helm. The
men were directed to have their swords and pistols ready for a rush in
boarding, the moment the command should be given.
As the sloop approached the pirate they threw in upon her deck a new
sort of hand-grenades. They consisted of common junk bottles, filled
with powder, balls, and slugs, and were exploded by a fuse passing
through the mouth. They would have done great execution had not the men
been concealed in the hold.
The moment the bows of the sloop touched the pirate’s ship, as the
smoke cleared away a little, Blackbeard, seeing but few on deck,
shouted to his men:
“The villains are all knocked in the head, excepting three or four. Let
us jump on board and cut them down.”
The order was instantly obeyed. Fourteen pirates, with flashing sabres,
leaped over the bows of Maynard’s sloop, upon his deck. There were but
twelve men unwounded in the hold. At a given signal they rushed up, and
a battle of utter desperation ensued.
Blackbeard sprang toward Lieutenant Maynard, who was at the helm.
Their pistols were discharged simultaneously. The pirate received a
slight, but not a disabling wound. They rushed upon each other with
their swords. In the fierce conflict the blade of Maynard’s sword broke
in his hand. He stepped back to cock a pistol. Blackbeard was just in
the act of cutting him down, when one of Maynard’s men struck him from
behind, inflicting a terrible gash upon his neck. At the same moment
the desperado, who seemed to be almost insensible to wounds, received a
shot in his body from the lieutenant’s pistol.
The other sloop, called the Ranger, now came up and boarded the pirate.
Blackbeard fought like a tiger. At length a pistol-shot pierced
some vital part and he fell dead, after having received twenty-five
wounds. Eight more of the pirates who had boarded Maynard’s sloop were
weltering in their blood. The rest, many of them severely wounded,
leaped overboard. The drowning wretches cried for quarter. It was
granted. They were reserved only that they might be hanged.
Blackbeard’s head was cut from his body, and hung at the end of the
bowsprit of Maynard’s sloop. With this revolting trophy he sailed into
Newbern to obtain relief for his wounded men. In examining the papers
found on board the pirate’s vessel, the correspondence was discovered
between Governor Eden and his secretary with the pirate. There were
also several merchants in New York who were in friendly communication
with him. These papers would doubtless have been destroyed had it not
been for the desperate resolve which the pirate had formed.
Blackbeard had but little hope of escaping. He therefore posted one of
the most demoniac of the pirates, with a match, in the powder-room.
Assuring him that if they were taken they would assuredly be hanged,
and that it was far better to die by their own action, in an instant,
than to perish upon the scaffold, he instructed him that should the
ship be boarded and captured, he was to apply the match and blow them
all up together. It chanced that there were two prisoners in the ship’s
hold. They seized the pirate, and prevented him from executing his
design.
It was this same Blackbeard, to whom we have already alluded, who one
day, when flushed with drink, said to his boon companions:
“Come, let us make a hell of our own, and see who can stand it longest.”
One night, when drinking, in his cabin, with two or three companions,
he secretly drew out a small pair of pistols, blew out the candle,
and, crossing his hands, discharged them at random into the midst of
the company. One of the bullets struck an officer on the knee, and
crippled him for life. The other bullet fortunately harmed no one.
Being asked why he did this, he replied:
“If I did not now and then kill some of you, you would forget who I am.”
The following entries were found in his logbook, written with his own
hand, under different dates:
“Rum all out; our company somewhat sober.
“Confusion among us; rogues a-plotting.
“Great talk of separation.
“Took a vessel with a great deal of liquor on board; so kept the
company hot.”
It is evident that these godless wretches passed joyless and miserable
lives. Experience verifies the declaration of the Bible that “the way
of the transgressor is hard.”
The ship and stores captured by Lieutenant Maynard were in value
estimated at but twelve thousand five hundred dollars. Though this
wretched pirate had squandered his plunder with great prodigality, it
was generally supposed that he had valuable treasure secreted. In the
carousal of the night before his capture, one of the men asked if, in
case anything should happen to him in the engagement, his wife knew
where he had buried his money. He replied, “The devil and I alone knew
where it is. The one of us two who lives the longest will have the
whole.”
There were sixteen pirates, all of whom were wounded, who were taken
prisoners. They were conveyed to Virginia and hanged, excepting two who
were pardoned. Governor Eden was so terrified by the discovery which
had been made of his complicity with Blackbeard, and so apprehensive
that he would be called to account for his conduct, that he fell
sick with the fright, and in a few days died. His sixty hogsheads of
sugar, and the twenty which had been given to Knight, were seized by
Lieutenant Maynard, and confiscated. Thus all these guilty ones were
ruined. It is often and truly said, that Satan helps his dupes into
difficulty, but never helps them out.