Bahamas - Pirates
The numerous small cays of the Bahamas, with the hundreds of tortuous channels and shallow waterways, afforded delightful retreats for the then numerous "gentlemen of the sea," by themselves styled buccaneers, but to others known as pirates. Pirates they were, at all events, if the old chronicles may be believed, and not only in Nassau, but throughout the entire chain of islands, north and south, indulged in every kind of debauchery and excess. It is difficult to tell just when they were finally exterminated; but the descendants of their contemporaries, the wreckers, continued to exist until late into the 19th century.
The Spaniards returned again and again, at one time being re-inforced by the French; but the pirates and buccaneers continued to flourish, and at last became so impudent (daring even to scuttle the ships of his British Majesty, King George I, and force many of his unfortunate subjects to "walk the plank," that he dispatched that famous navigator, Captain Woodes Rogers, with instructions to either reduce the pirates to obedience or destroy their colony. Captain Woodes Rogers was the bold privateer who, in 1707, rescued Alexander Selkirk, after his four years' solitary exile on the island of Juan Fernandez, made this prototype of Robinson Crusoe first mate aboard his ship, and gave him command of one of his Spanish prizes.
Captain Rogers was sent out with particular instructions to kill, or capture alive with a view to hanging, the notorious John Teach, alias "Blackbeard", who had made Nassau his rendezvous, after having been driven from the Virgin Islands, and who was commodore, as he styled himself, of as desperate a gang of pirates as the world had ever known.
Edward Teach or Blackbeard, is represented as the leading spirit or principal commanderamong the pirates at Nassau at this period. This is not historically correct, and is based upon the following statement made in McKinnen's Tour through the West Indies, published in 1804, in which he says "This extraordinary man had united with his fortunes a desperate and formidable gang of pirates, styling himself their commodore, and assuming the authority of a legitimate chief under a wild fig tree, .the trunk of which still remains, and was shown me in the eastern part of the town, he used to sit in council among his banditti, concerting or promulgating his plans and exercising the authority of a magistrate."
Captain Teach derived the name of "Blackbeard" from his long, black, and flowing whiskers, which (says one who had the privilege of conversing with him in his palmy days) he suffered to grow to an immoderate length, and the effect of which he was solicitous to heighten by twisting them up in small tails, like a Ramillies wig.
When his evil passions were aroused — which was nearly all the time — he appeared a perfect fury. He always went into action with three braces of pistols thrust in his belt and slung over his shoulders, and with lighted matches under his hat, sticking out over each of his ears.
In Nassau, Blackbeard was looked upon as the devil incarnate, and indeed he was never more flattered than when his resemblance to his Satanic Majesty was commented on, either by friend or foe.
He delighted in exhibiting himself to his merry men as a demon, and one day when business was dull, over under the lee of Hog Island, in the harbor of Nassau, he appeared in the role of Devil in what he playfully called "a little hell of my own." It was a private performance, with himself as sole actor and his men as suffering spectators. He collected a great quantity, some say a ton, of brimstone and combustibles between decks of his pirate ship, and after driving his crew below and battening down the hatches, he set fire to the mass and compelled the miserable wretches to remain while he enacted his conception of the devil, to the life.
The situation finally became intolerable and the men burst the hatches and escaped to the deck; though Blackbeard was not only unaffected by the smoke and fumes, but seemed actually to enjoy them, like the diabolical salamander that he was.
Blackbeard sailed for North Carolina, where he surrendered to the governor, and accepted the king's pardon. Through the influence of the governor he obtained a legal right to the large vessel "The Queen Anne's Revenge." Here he married a young lady sixteen years of age, the governor attending the ceremony. It was reported that this was his fourteenth wife, twelve of whom were still alive. His brutality and cruelty towards this young woman even caused his abandoned crew of pirates to complain.
Teach soon resorted to his old occupation. Captain Woodes Rogers arrived too late to capture the pirate, who sailed for the Carolina coast, where he shortly after met his merited fate at the hands of Lieutenant Maynard of the King's navy. Caught in Ocracoke Inlet, to the south of Hatteras, Blackbeard was brought to bay and forced to fight the brave lieutenant, who overcame him after a desperate contest, and cutting off his head, stuck it on the end of his bowsprit, and in this manner carried the "captain and his whiskers" into port.
It was in the latter part of 1718 that Blackbeard met his untimely end; but the Bahama pirates, and following them the wreckers, continued to exist for long years thereafter. All the maritime nations having united against them, however, they no longer prospered, and were compelled to eke out a mere existence by fishing for conchs. As these shellfish were (and are now) very abundant in Bahama waters, and as the pirates and their descendants subsisted, in great measure, upon their flesh, the natives have acquired the name of "Conchs".
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