_The Close of Stede Bonnet’s Career._
Bonnet’s Abandonment by Blackbeard.--Avails Himself of the
King’s Pardon.--Takes Commission as a Privateer.--Rescues
Blackbeard’s Pirates.--Piratic Career.--Enters Cape Fear River
for Repairs.--Captured by Colonel Rhet.--The Conflict.--Escapes
from Prison.--The Pursuit, and Trial and Sentence.
It will be remembered that Stede Bonnet was deposed by Blackbeard. When
Blackbeard abandoned most of his crew, at Ocracoke Inlet, and landed
others on a desert island, that he might rob them of their share of
the spoil, Bonnet was left behind with the rest. His own sloop, the
Revenge, was ashore. He got her off, assumed the command, manned her
with pirates, and sailed to Bathtown, where he surrendered himself,
taking advantage of the king’s proclamation, and received a certificate
of pardon.
Just then war broke out between England, France, and Holland, as
allies, on the one hand, and Spain upon the other. Bonnet sailed from
Bathtown for the Island of St. Thomas, to get a commission to go
privateering against the Spaniards. When he was on his way to the
inlet he accidentally learned from two of the pirates that Blackbeard
and his gang were gone; and that, carrying away all the money and
effects of value, they had left several men to perish on a desert
island. Bonnet sailed for their relief. They were nearly starved,
and had been a day and two nights without any food. Bonnet found the
island, and rescued them, adding them to his crew.
Then, instead of going to St. Thomas for his commission, he directed
his course to the coast of Virginia. Meeting a vessel loaded with
provisions, he took from it twelve barrels of pork and four hundred
weight of bread. Assuming that he was an honest man, and not a pirate,
he gave in return eight casks of rice and an old cable. No bargain was
made. He took what he wanted, and gave what he pleased. Two days after
this, Bonnet pursued and captured a sloop of sixty tons. It was an act
of unmitigated piracy. He took from his prize two hogsheads of rum and
two of molasses. The crew were turned adrift. Eight men were sent to
take charge of the prize. In the night they ran away, to go pirating on
their own account.
Bonnet threw off all restraint. Assuming the name of Captain Thomas,
he ranged the seas, plundering every vessel he encountered. A few
miles off from Cape Henry he captured two ships from Virginia, bound
to Glasgow. They were comparatively valueless prizes, containing only
tobacco. The next day he captured a small sloop. With the strange
inconsistency which marked his character, he took from the sloop
twenty barrels of pork, which he replaced by two barrels of rice and a
hogshead of molasses. From this sloop two men voluntarily joined his
company.
The next ship they captured was bound to Glasgow from Virginia. They
found nothing on board they wanted but some combs, pins, and needles.
For these Bonnet paid a barrel of pork and two barrels of bread.
Directing his course toward Philadelphia, he captured a schooner bound
to Boston. It proved a barren prize.
Soon after this he took three vessels, two bound from Philadelphia to
Bristol, England, and one to Barbadoes. In these Bonnet found nearly a
thousand dollars in coin. He robbed them and let them go. The two last
days in July he captured two quite rich prizes. They were well supplied
with provisions, and had between two and three thousand dollars in
money on board. He turned the crews adrift in their boats and kept both
the vessels and cargo. His own sloop of war, which he had renamed the
Royal James, had become leaky, and needed repairs. He ran into Cape
Fear River to find some secluded cove, where, far from observation, he
could careen his vessel. One hundred and fifty years ago this stream
presented a vast solitude, fringed by the dense and boundless forest.
As Bonnet was entering the river he captured a small vessel, which he
ripped to pieces to mend his own. In one of the coves of the broad
stream he was detained two months in making repairs. In the mean time
a new governor had come to South Carolina. Tidings reached Charleston
that a piratic vessel, with two prizes, was concealed up the river. The
whole community was alarmed, fearing another visit. The governor and
council met to deliberate.
Colonel William Rhet appeared before them and generously offered to
fit out two vessels, at his own expense, and attack the pirates. His
proposal was accepted, and a commission granted him accordingly. In a
few days two sloops were equipped. One, called the Henry, had eight
guns and seventy men and was commanded by Captain John Masters. The
other, the Sea Nymph, of eight guns and sixty men, Captain Fayser Hall
commanded. Both were under the direction of Colonel Rhet.
On the 14th of September the two vessels sailed. When they reached
Sullivan’s Island, a small ship from Antigua came in. The captain
brought the intelligence that just off the bar he was taken and
plundered by a piratic vessel of twelve guns and ninety men, commanded
by Charles Vane; that two other vessels had also been captured, one
from the coast of Guinea, with between ninety and a hundred negro
slaves on board. A pirate, by the name of Yeats, with twenty-five men,
had been placed in command of the slaver. Vane had also captured two
ships bound from Charleston to London.
Colonel Rhet, upon hearing these tidings, resolved to pursue Vane. It
was rumored that the pirates had sailed south. Colonel Rhet, with his
two sloops, crossed the bar, on the 15th of September, and directed his
course along the southern coast, searching every bay and inlet. Not
finding Vane, he turned north, and entered Cape Fear River in pursuit
of his first design. In ascending the river both sloops ran aground,
which caused considerable delay. Thus the watchful pirates learned that
there were two sloops aground in the river. Bonnet sent down three
boats, crowded with pirates, to attack them. The crews soon found their
mistake, and rowing hastily back to Bonnet, gave him the unwelcome news
that two well-armed sloops were ascending the river with the evident
design to attack him.
Bonnet made immediate preparations for a battle. He had several
prisoners with him. He wrote a letter to the governor, intrusting it to
one of these prisoners, Captain Mannering. It was as follows:
“If the sloops now ascending the river are sent out against me by the
governor, I shall get clear off. And I will burn and destroy all ships
or vessels going in or coming out of South Carolina.”
What effect this letter had upon the governor we know not. But the next
morning the tide floated Colonel Rhet’s sloops, and he advanced to the
attack. The masts of the three piratical vessels were soon plainly seen
over a forest-crowned point of land. The sloops pressed forward to
attack on each quarter of the pirate, intending to board him. Bonnet,
perceiving this, edged in as near the shore as possible. The water was
shoal, and the tide being out, soon both sloops ran upon sandbanks. One
was very near the Royal James, and could open fire upon her. The other
was at more than gunshot distance. The pirates’ ship also grounded,
and, fortunately for them, careened over with her deck sloping from her
foe. Thus the sides of the vessel afforded a rampart, which protected
the pirates from shot, and over which they could take deliberate aim at
their antagonists.
To add to this calamity, the Henry, in which Colonel Rhet was, and
which had grounded within pistol-shot of the pirate, leaned with her
deck inclined toward the pirate. Thus every man was exposed. This gave
the pirates an immense advantage, which they were not slow to improve.
Neither of them could use their cannon. For five hours the antagonists
kept up a brisk fire with their small arms. The pirates spread to
the breeze their blood-red flag, and assailed their foes with oaths,
taunts, and insults.
“Why don’t you come on board?” they shouted. “We are all waiting for
you. Come as quick as you can. We will give you the warmest reception
you ever had.”
Rhet’s men replied, “Be patient. We are busy just now. Very soon we
will pay you a visit which you will never forget.”
The rising tide first floated Colonel Rhet’s sloop. Hastily repairing
his rigging, which had been much shattered by the fire, he bore down
upon the pirate, intending to give a finishing stroke by boarding
him. The other sloop would, in a few moments, be afloat to join in
the assault. Bonnet saw his case to be hopeless, and sent a boat to
Colonel Rhet bearing the white flag of truce. After some time spent in
capitulating, Bonnet was compelled to surrender unconditionally.
In the severe battle which had taken place, ten men had been killed
and fourteen wounded on board Rhet’s sloop, the Henry. Six of the
wounded died of their wounds. A few shot had struck the other sloop,
the Sea Nymph, killing two men, and wounding four. The pirates,
protected by the position of their vessel, lost seven killed, and five
wounded. Two of the latter soon died of their wounds.
Colonel Rhet weighed anchor on the 13th of September, and on the 3d
of October entered Charleston with thirty-four pirates as prisoners,
and their vessels. The capture excited great rejoicing throughout the
whole province. As there was no public prison on the shore, the pirates
were all kept, for two days, under a careful guard, in the hold of
one of the vessels. The watch-house was in the mean time enlarged and
strengthened, and they were transferred to that building, over which a
guard of the provincial militia was placed.
Major Bonnet was committed into the custody of the marshal, and
imprisoned in a strong room in his house. Two of these miserable men,
David Hariot, the sailing-master, and Ignatius Pell, the boatswain,
offered to turn state’s evidence. They were also taken to the house
of the marshal, that they might be separated from the rest of the
crew. They were carefully locked up, and two sentinels, every night,
patrolled the house with loaded muskets.
Three weeks passed before suitable preparations could be made for
the trial. On the night of the 24th of October, Bonnet and his
sailing-master made their escape. The boatswain refused to go with
them, as he was assured of pardon in consideration of the evidence he
bore against his comrades. The flight of the prisoners made a great
noise throughout the province. The people were open in their indignant
declaration that the governor, and others of the magistracy, had
connived at their escape.
The whole community was panic-stricken. It was feared that Bonnet would
get up another company of pirates, and take a terrible revenge for
the hanging of his comrades. The government was alarmed both by the
reproaches and the peril. A proclamation was issued offering a reward
of three thousand five hundred dollars for the capture of the fugitive
pirate. Several armed boats were sent to skirt the shore, north and
south, in pursuit of him.
Bonnet had, in some way, got on board a small sail-boat in the harbor,
and put to sea. But a storm arose, and he had no provisions. He was
therefore compelled to put back to Sullivan’s Island. In some way
the governor got an intimation of this. He promptly communicated the
intelligence to Colonel Rhet, and gave him a commission to pursue
Bonnet. That night the energetic colonel set out in his sloop, with a
number of men for Sullivan’s Island. The two pirates had left their
boat at the shore and wandered into the woods, where they had concealed
themselves. Colonel Rhet tracked them to their covert. They were
discovered in a thicket, with a negro and an Indian. As they endeavored
to escape they were fired upon. A bullet pierced Hariot’s heart, and
he fell dead. Both the negro and the Indian were struck down severely
wounded. The wretched Bonnet, seeing escape hopeless, and utterly
disheartened, surrendered. He was carried back to Charleston in irons.
On the twenty-eighth of October, 1718, a court of vice-admiralty
was held, and continued, by several adjournments, until the twelfth
of November. Nicholas Trot, chief justice of the province of South
Carolina, presided, with other assistant judges. Before this tribunal,
Bonnet, and thirty-four of his crew, were arraigned. The indictment
enumerated the various acts of piracy which they had committed. All but
two pleaded not guilty.
There was but little defence attempted. The crew pleaded that they had
been taken off a desert island, and shipped to go to St. Thomas. Being
at sea, without provisions, and in a starving condition, they were
compelled, to save their lives, to take some food from other vessels.
Major Bonnet took the same ground--that they had helped themselves to
food which did not belong to them, but as the only way by which they
could save their lives.
But their piratic acts were clearly proved, and that they had shared
among themselves their ill-gotten booty. The speech of the lord
chief-justice, in pronouncing sentence upon Bonnet, was so admirable in
tone, that it deserves, with slight abbreviation, insertion here:
“You, Stede Bonnet, stand convicted of piracy. It is fully proved that
you piratically took and rifled no less than thirteen vessels since you
sailed from North Carolina, having accepted the king’s act of grace,
and pretended to leave that wicked course of life.
“You know that the crimes you have committed are contrary to the law
of nature, as well as to the law of God, by which you are commanded
that you shall not steal. And the apostle Paul expressly affirms that
‘thieves shall not inherit the kingdom of God.’
“To theft you have added the greater sin of murder. How many you have
killed, in your piracies, I know not. But this we know, that you killed
no less than eighteen persons of those sent, by lawful authority, to
put a stop to your rapines.
“However you may fancy that that was killing men fairly in open fight,
yet this know, that the power of the sword not being committed into
your hands, you were not empowered to use any force, or fight any one.
Therefore those persons that fell in the action, in doing their duty to
their king and country, were murdered. And their blood now cries out
for vengeance against you. For it is the voice of nature, confirmed by
the law of God, that ‘whosoever sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his
blood be shed.’
“And consider that death is not the only punishment due to murderers;
for they are threatened to have ‘their part in that lake which burneth
with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.’
“As your own conscience must convince you of the many and great evils
you have committed, by which you have highly offended God, so I suppose
I need not tell you that the only way of obtaining pardon and the
remission of your sins from God, is by a true and unfeigned repentance,
and faith in Christ, by whose death and passion you can alone hope for
salvation.
“You, being a gentleman, and having had the advantage of a liberal
education, I believe it will be needless for me to explain to you the
nature of repentance and faith in Christ. They are so fully mentioned
in the Scriptures that you can not but know them. But, considering
the course of your life, I have reason to fear that the principles of
religion which had been instilled into you by your education, have been
corrupted, if not entirely defaced by the infidelity of this wicked
age; and that the time you allowed for study was rather applied to the
polite literature than to a serious search after the law and will of
God.
“In the Scriptures is found the great mystery of fallen man’s
redemption. They would have taught you that sin is the debasing of
human nature, and that religion and walking by the laws of God are
altogether preferable to the ways of sin and Satan. I hope that the
present afflictions, which God has laid upon you, have now convinced
you of this.
“And consider how he invites all sinners to come to Him, and He will
give them rest; for He has assured us that ‘He came to seek and to save
that which was lost;’ and that ‘whosoever cometh to Him, He will in
nowise cast out.’ So that now, even at the eleventh hour, if you will
sincerely turn to Him, He will receive you.
“But do not mistake the nature of repentance to be only bare sorrow for
the evil and punishment which sin has brought upon you. Your sorrow
must arise from the consideration of your having offended a gracious
and merciful God. But I need not give you any particular directions
as to the nature of repentance. I speak to one whose offences have
proceeded, not so much from his not knowing, as from his slighting and
neglecting his duty.
“I only heartily wish that what, in compassion to your soul, I have
now said, may have that effect upon you that you may become a true
penitent. Having now discharged my duty to you as a Christian, by
giving you the best council I can with respect to the salvation of your
soul, I must now do my office as a judge. The sentence which this court
awards to you is:
“That you, Stede Bonnet, shall go from hence to the place whence you
came, and from thence to the place of execution; where you shall be
hanged by the neck until you are dead. And may God have mercy upon you.”
On Saturday, November 8th, 1718, twenty-two of the pirates were hung
upon the same gallows, at White Point, near the provincial city of
Charleston. A few days after, Stede Bonnet, the gentleman of wealth,
position, and culture, swung from the same gallows.