tificateſ; and Captain Thompſon, from whom the Negroes were taken, had them reſtored to him, for the Uſe of his Owners.
Vane cruiſed ſome Time off the Bar, in hopes to catch Yeats at his coming out again, but therein he was diſappointed; however, he unfortunately for them, took two Ships from Charles-Town, bound home to England. It happen’d that juſt at this Time two Sloops well mann’d and arm’d, were equipp’d to go after a Pyrate, which the Governor of South-Carolina was informed, lay then in Cape Fear River, a cleaning: But Colonel Rhet, who commanded the Sloops, meeting with one of the Ships that Vane had plundered, going back over the Bar, for ſuch Neceſſaries as had been taken from her, and ſhe giving the Colonel an Account of her being taken by the Pyrate Vane, and alſo, that ſome of her Men, while they were Priſoners on Board of him, had heard the Pyrates ſay, they ſhould clean in one of the Rivers to the Southward; he altered his firſt Deſign, and inſtead of ſtanding to the Northward, in purſuit of the Pyrate in Cape Fear River, he turns to the Southward after Vane; who had ordered ſuch Reports to be given out, on purpoſe to ſend any Force that ſhould come after him, upon a wrong Scent; for in Reality he ſtood away to the Northward, ſo that the Purſuit proved to be the contrary Way.
Colonel Rhet’s ſpeaking with this Ship, was the moſt unlucky Thing that could have happened, becauſe it turned him out of the Road, which in all Probability, would have brought him into the Company of Vane, as well as of the Pyrate he went after; and ſo they might have been both deſtroy’d; whereas, by the Colonel’s going a different Way, he not only loſt the Opportunity of meeting with one, but if the other had not been infatuated, to lye ſix Weeks together at Cape Fear, he would
