of bringing more Calamities upon themſelves, and ſo they were forced to let the Villains paſs with Impunity. The Government were not long in deliberating upon the Meſſage, tho’ ’twas the greateſt Affront that could have been put upon them; yet for the ſaving ſo many Mens Lives, (among them, Mr. Samuel Wragg, one of the Council;) they comply’d with the Neceſſity, and ſent aboard a Cheſt, valued at between 3 and 400 l. and the Pyrates went back ſafe to their Ships.
Blackbeard, (for ſo Teach was generally called, as we ſhall hereafter ſhew) as ſoon as he had received the Medicines and his Brother Rogues, let go the Ships and the Priſoners; having firſt taken out of them in Gold and Silver, about 1500 l. Sterling, beſides Proviſions and other Matters.
From the Bar of Charles-Town, they ſailed to North-Carolina; Captain Teach in the Ship, which they called the Man of War, Captain Richards and Captain Hands in the Sloops, which they termed Privateers, and another Sloop ſerving them as a Tender. Teach began now to think of breaking up the Company, and ſecuring the Money and the beſt of the Effects for himſelf, and ſome others of his Companions he had moſt Friendſhip for, and to cheat the reſt: Accordingly, on Pretence of running into Topſail Inlet to clean, he grounded his Ship, and then, as if it had been done undeſignedly, and by Accident; he orders Hands’s Sloop to come to his Aſſiſtance, and get him off again, which he endeavouring to do, ran the Sloop on Shore near the other, and ſo were both loſt. This done, Teach goes into the Tender Sloop, with forty Hands, and leaves the Revenge there; then takes ſeventeen others and Marroons them upon a ſmall ſandy Iſland, about a League from the Main, where there was neither Bird, Beaſt
