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.
CHAPTER VII
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.