or Herb for their Subſiſtance, and where they muſt have periſhed if Major Bonnet had not two Days after taken them off.
Teach goes up to the Governor of North-Carolina, with about twenty of his Men, ſurrender to his Majeſty’s Proclamation, and receive Certificates thereof, from his Excellency; but it did not appear that their ſubmitting to this Pardon was from any Reformation of Manners, but only to wait a more favourable Opportunity to play the ſame Game over again; which he ſoon after effected, with greater Security to himſelf, and with much better Proſpect of Succeſs, having in this Time cultivated a very good underſtanding with Charles Eden, Eſq; the Governor above mentioned.
The firſt Piece of Service this kind Governor did to Black-Beard, was, to give him a Right to the Veſſel which he had taken, when he was a pyrating in the great Ship called the Queen Ann’s Revenge; for which purpoſe, a Court of Vice-Admiralty was held at Bath-Town; and, tho’ Teach had never any Commiſſion in his Life, and the Sloop belonging to the Engliſh Merchants, and taken in Time of Peace; yet was ſhe condemned as a Prize taken from the Spaniards, by the ſaid Teach. Theſe Proceedings ſhew that Governors are but Men.
Before he ſailed upon his Adventures, he marry’d a young Creature of about ſixteen Years of Age, the Governor performing the Ceremony. As it is a Cuſtom to marry here by a Prieſt, ſo it is there by a Magiſtrate; and this, I have been informed, made Teach’s fourteenth Wife, whereof, about a dozen might be ſtill living. His Behaviour in this State, was ſomething extraordinary; for, while his Sloop lay in Okerecock Inlet, and he aſhore at a Plantation, where his Wife lived, with whom after he had lain all Night, it was his Cuſtom to invite five or ſix of his brutal Compani-
