Captain William Kidd and Others of the Buccaneers
TextCHAPTER V
Kidd, and Stede Bonnet
The Guilt of Kidd. – Rumors of Buried Treasure. – Mesmeric Revelation. – Adventures of Bradish. – Strange Character of Major Bonnet. – His Piracies. – Encounters. – Indications of Insanity. – No Temptation to Turn Pirate. – Blackbeard. – Bonnet Deposed.
Mr. Charles Elliot, in his History of New England, writes: “It seems to have been felt necessary by those who were charged, in England, with complicity with Captain Kidd, that a vigorous prosecution should be urged, and that an example should be made of him, to satisfy a clamorous public opinion. He was brought to trial, and was convicted and sentenced for the murder of William Moore, one of his own sailors, whom he had struck in an altercation.
“This appears to have been the only blood laid against him; and the charge of piracy could hardly have been proved. As was the custom of that day, Kidd was not allowed counsel. He plead his commissions for what he had done, but was roughly treated by the court; and Livingston, who was one of his partners and sureties, had got possession of his papers, and refused to give them up to him.
“Kidd probably had no idea of being charged with piracy, nor did he consider himself a pirate; and if there had been no charge made against his partners, he would not have died on the gallows. He was hanged at Execution Dock, May 12, 1701; and all England was agog with the doings of the pirate Kidd. It was a mere accident that Kidd was hanged as a pirate instead of being feasted as a victor.”
These scenes occurred one hundred and seventy-five years ago. And yet, for some inexplicable reason, while hundreds of other events of vastly greater moment have passed into oblivion, the name of Captain Kidd, from that hour to this, has been almost a household word in both England and America.
Many believed that the Quedagh Merchant, instead of being burned at sea, was brought into the Hudson River at night, and sunk near the Highlands, with most of her treasure on board. Several circumstances seemed to corroborate this assertion. At the base of the Dunderberg, there could be seen sunk, deep in the bed of the river, and almost buried in its sands, the wreck of some large ship. A pamphlet was published, entitled:
“An Account of Some of the Traditions and Experiments Respecting Captain Kidd’s Piratical Vessel.”
The traditions here referred to asserted that Kidd’s vessel, the Quedagh Merchant, laden with the treasures of the East, was chased up the North River by an English man-of-war. Kidd, finding escape impossible, collected as much money as he could carry, and set fire to the ship, having left by far the larger part of the gold and silver on board. With a portion of the crew he ascended the river much farther, in boats, and then crossed the country, through the wilderness, to Boston.
These traditions are embellished with many romantic stories. It is said that as he and his piratic comrades were journeying along, they came to a log house in the woods. The man of the household was absent at his work. The woman, thinking that they were savages, in terror fled at their approach. In her fright she left one of her children behind. The bloodthirsty pirate, Kidd, in pure wantoness thrust his sword through the child.
An old Indian, who had wandered far away to Michigan, declared that he was on the river-bank when the pirates set fire to the ship and took to their boats. Very graphically he described the midnight scene as, buried in the glooms of the forest, he witnessed it in the brilliant illumination of the blazing vessel. He was induced to come all the way from Michigan to the Hudson to point out the spot of the sunken vessel. And deep in the water the charred timbers were to be seen. Another pamphlet was published, entitled:
“A Wonderful Mesmeric Revelation, giving an Account of the Discovery and Description of a Sunken Vessel, near Caldwell’s Landing, supposed to be that of the Pirate Kidd; including an Account of his Character and Death, at a distance of nearly three hundred miles from the place.”
This strange mesmeric revelation came from a Mrs. Chester, the wife of Charles Chester, of Lynn, Massachusetts. She declared that she had never heard anything about the sunken vessel; that never had she been upon the Hudson River; that she had never read or heard of the career of Kidd; and that she had never even been spoken to upon the subject, until, when placed in the magnetic state, the extraordinary revelation had been made to her.
While in this mesmeric condition, she saw, with clearest vision, the sunken vessel. Her eyes, with supernatural powers, pierced water, timbers, sand, and chests. There she saw bars of massive gold, heaps of silver coin, and precious jewels including many large and brilliant diamonds. The jewels had been enclosed in shot-bags of stout canvas. The bags had decayed, and the jewels were clustered in brilliant heaps. She also saw “gold watches, like ducks’ eggs in a pond of water,” and the wonderfully preserved remains of a very beautiful woman, with a necklace of large and lustrous diamonds around her neck.
A man was seen just leaving the spot, who was preternaturally revealed to Mrs. Chester as Captain Kidd. He was a large, stout man, not very tall, with broad chest and shoulders, thick neck, aquiline nose, piercing eyes, and a head indicative of great power and all destructive qualities.
A very able writer in the Merchant’s Magazine, of 1846, writes sarcastically of this mesmeric announcement:
“This most singular revelation, as it is corroborated by the traditions, presents us with another triumph of animal magnetism, and must serve not only to advance that science, but to demonstrate how much safer it is to rely upon tradition, than upon record evidence made in courts of justice held contemporaneously with the events, or official documents preserved in the public archives.
“In the present case, mesmerism has taken a progressive step; for it has not only disclosed what is now to be found in the waters of Cocks-rack, but also who was there one hundred and forty-five years ago. In this new application of the science we may hope not only to see the earth disembowelled, but the very forms and features of the ancient time brought up to our present view.
“What is more remarkable, if the traditions existed, as is pretended, is, that no individual or company should have undertaken, when the witnesses were living, to raise the vessel, especially as so many persons were found, near the time of the transactions of Kidd, credulous enough to ruin themselves in vain explorations after his money. But that perhaps was not an age of enterprise like the present, nor of humbug.”
There is usually some ground for a tradition. Its basis is generally truth.
As we have mentioned, in the days of Captain Kidd the seas were swarming with pirates. It would require volumes to relate their adventures. Many of these lawless men performed deeds far more extraordinary and infamous than any perpetrated by Kidd. There was, however, at that time, a pirate by the name of Bradish, whose actions, in the popular mind, were blended with those of Kidd.
He was boatswain of a ship, of the same name with that in which Kidd sailed from New York, the Adventure. The ship was bound to Borneo, the largest island in the world, if Australia is recognized as a continent, and sailed from England in March, 1697. On the voyage the vessel stopped at the Island of Polonais for water. Bradish, a desperate man, had formed a conspiracy with several of the sailors to watch their opportunity, seize the ship, and set out on a piratic cruise.
At Polonais, the captain and several of his officers went on shore in one of the boats. Bradish assumed the command, silently raised the anchor, spread the sail, and ran out to sea. The wide world was before them to go where they pleased. The commerce of the seas spread its wealth for their plunder. There was the sum of about forty thousand dollars in gold on board. This money Bradish divided equally with his piratic crew. He then cleared his decks for action, placed a lookout at the mast-head, and commenced his cruise in search of additional treasure.
They directed their course toward the American coast. What vessels they captured on the way is not known. Upon reaching Long Island, Bradish went ashore and deposited with some confederate there a large amount of money and jewels. If pursued by a man-of-war, he could easily run his vessel ashore, and the crew could disperse through the woods. Much of his treasure would still be safe.
He ran along to Block Island. Here they purchased two small vessels, and, dividing into two parties, separated, each party taking its share of the remaining treasure. It is said that there was enough to load both of the small vessels. Many of the men landed on the Rhode Island and Connecticut shore. They behaved very civilly; called at the farm-houses, and bought horses and food, for which they paid abundantly. The rumor of the landing and dispersion of the pirates spread. A proclamation was issued for their arrest. The captain and about eighteen of the men were apprehended, sent to England, tried, and executed. What became of the large ship, the Adventure, is not known.
By many it was supposed that she ran into the North River, and was scuttled and abandoned when near the Highlands.
We now bid adieu to Captain Kidd, leaving it with our readers to form their own opinion, from the facts here given, of the degree of praise or blame to be attached to his character.
About the same time when William Kidd was passing through his strange adventures, there was another buccaneer appearing upon the stage, whose character and career were still more astonishing. There was a gentleman in Barbadoes, of wealth, position, and education, by the name of Stede Bonnet. He had a large fortune, and was highly esteemed for his intellectual culture and his honorable character. He seemed to be exposed to no temptation whatever to enter upon the guilty and perilous life of a pirate. His melancholy fate excited pity rather than condemnation, as it was generally believed that he was the victim of some strange mental hallucination, which, in some degree at least, exonerated him from moral responsibility.
Some domestic griefs rendered him unhappy in his home. He fitted out, entirely at his own expense, a sloop armed with ten guns, and manned by seventy sailors, desperate men, ready for any deeds of violence and crime. The sloop he named the Revenge. It was his avowed intention to prey upon the Spanish commerce, which none of the English courts would then punish as piracy.
But he immediately entered upon the career of a pirate, capturing and plundering every vessel he came across, without any regard to the flag under which she sailed. His first cruise was off the Capes of Virginia. The first vessel he encountered was the Anne, from Glasgow. A few cannon-balls thrown across her bows brought her to. His boats, filled with demoniac men armed to the teeth, boarded the ill-fated prize, and plundered her of everything the pirates desired, money, clothes, provisions, and ammunition. The ship was then allowed to go on her way.
A day or two passed, and another sail was discerned in the distant horizon. She was soon overtaken by the swift-sailing sloop, which spread a wonderful cloud of canvas. It proved to be the Turbet, from his own island, Barbadoes. Instead of treating her kindly on that account, he plundered her mercilessly, put the crew in boats, to find their way to the shore as they best could, and set the vessel on fire.
Scarcely had the smoke and flame of the burning vessel vanished from their view, when another sail was descried. She proved to be the Endeavor, from Bristol. She was robbed of everything valuable. Another vessel soon underwent the same fate. It was the Young, from Leith.
Stede Bonnet was no sailor. He had no acquaintance with navigation. He, however, employed a skilled seaman to manage the ship in obedience to his commands as owner of the whole concern. After this short and very successful cruise on the Virginia coast, he ordered the sloop to be taken to the shores of New England. As they were passing the eastern end of Long Island, they met a vessel bound from one of the New England colonies to the West Indies. It was promptly plundered.
Stede Bonnet stood in for Gardiner’s Island, where he landed with a portion of his crew. He behaved in a very gentlemanly way, addressing all whom he met courteously, making many purchases and paying liberally for all he took. He then directed his course to South Carolina, and ran up and down before the harbor of Charleston. Two vessels, entering the harbor, he seized almost at the same time. One was a sloop from Barbadoes, laden with rum, sugar, and negroes. The other was a brigantine from New England. The hold of the Revenge was already packed full of plunder; and they had no room for the negroes. Taking, therefore, such few articles as they needed, they landed the crew and the negroes on an island, and wantonly ran the Barbadoes sloop ashore and set her on fire. The New England brigantine they plundered of all the money on board and such other articles of value as they needed, and let her go.
While on this cruise they met, in rogues’ companionship, another piratic ship, commanded by a desperado, an Englishman, by the name of Edward Teach. From the mass of hair which covered his face he was known by the name of Blackbeard. His beard came up to his eyes, was intensely black, and so long that he was accustomed to braid it and twist it with ribbons into cues, or tails, which he would hang over his ears. It is said that in aspect he was a revolting monster. This villain had captured a large and very strongly built East-Indian ship, upon which he had mounted forty heavy guns. With this powerful armament he swept the seas, bidding defiance to all assailants. Upon one occasion he encountered a British man-of-war of thirty guns. After sustaining an action of some hours, the man-of-war fled before him, and took shelter in the harbor of Barbadoes, under protection of the guns of the fort.
As Teach continued his triumphant cruise, he came across Bonnet’s piratic sloop. Finding that Bonnet understood nothing of maritime affairs, he, without difficulty, got up a conspiracy among his men, deposed him, and placed one of his own crew, a man by the name of Richards, in command of the Revenge. Thus he had two vessels with which to prosecute his lawless career. He took the deposed captain on board his own ship, saying to him with a sarcastic smile:
“I perceive, my dear sir, that you are not used to the cares and fatigues of commanding a vessel, and I will relieve you from them. It will be much pleasanter for you to live at your ease in my cabin. There you will have no duty to perform, and can follow your own inclinations.”
The career of this most ferocious of pirates was so strange that we must leave Stede Bonnet for a time, and devote a chapter to that fiend in human form, called Blackbeard.
CHAPTER VI
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.