ved the reſt from Deſtruction; for before that Teach had little or no Hopes of eſcaping, and therefore had poſted a reſolute Fellow, a Negroe, whom he had bred up, with a lighted Match, in the Powder-Room, with Commands to blow up when he ſhould give him Orders, which was as ſoon as the Lieutenant and his Men could have entered, that ſo he might have deſtroy’d his Conquerors: and when the Negro found how it went with Black-beard, he could hardly be perſwaded from the raſh Action, by two Priſoners that were then in the Hold of the Sloop.
What ſeems a little odd, is, that ſome of theſe Men, who behaved ſo bravely againſt Black-beard, went afterwards a pyrating themſelves, and one of them was taken along with Roberts; but I do not find that any of them were provided for, except one that was hanged; but this is a Digreſſion.
The Lieutenant cauſed Black-beard’s Head to be ſevered from his Body, and hung up at the Bolt-ſprit End, then he ſailed to Bath-Town, to get Relief for his wounded Men.
It muſt be obſerved, that in rummaging the Pyrate’s Sloop, they found ſeveral Letters and written Papers, which diſcovered the Correſpondence betwixt Governor Eden, the Secretary and Collector, and alſo ſome Traders at New-York, and Black-beard. It is likely he had Regard enough for his Friends, to have deſtroyed theſe Papers before the Action, in order to hinder them from falling into ſuch Hands, where the Diſcovery would be of no Uſe, either to the Intereſt or Reputation of theſe fine Gentlemen, if it had not been his fixed Reſolution to have blown up together, when he found no poſſibility of eſcaping.
When the Lieutenant came to Bath-Town, he made bold to ſeize in the Governor’s Store-Houſe, the
