n had fallen, and the rest being wounded, cried
out for quarter, which was granted, as the ringleader was slain. The
other sloop also attacked the men who remained in the pirate vessels,
until they also cried out for quarter. And such was the desperation of
Black Beard, that, having small hope of escaping, he had placed a negro
with a match at the gunpowder door, to blow up the ship the moment that
he should have been boarded by the king's men, in order to involve the
whole in general ruin. That destructive broadside at the commencement of
the action, which at first appeared so unlucky, was, however, the means
of their preservation from the intended destruction.

Maynard severed the pirate's head from his body, suspended it upon his
bowsprit-end, and sailed to Bath-town, to obtain medical aid for his
wounded men. In the pirate sloop several letters and papers were found,
which Black Beard would certainly have destroyed previous to the
engagement, had he not determined to blow her up upon his being taken,
which disclosed the whole villainy between the honorable governor of
Bermuda and his honest secretary on the one hand, and the notorious
pirate on the other, who had now suffered the just punishment of his
crimes.

[Illustration: _Black Beard's Head on the end of the Bowsprit._]

Scarcely was Maynard returned to Bath-town, when he boldly went and made
free with the sixty hogsheads of sugar in the possession of the
governor, and the twenty in that of his secretary.

After his men had been healed at Bath-town, the lieutenant proceeded to
Virginia, with the head of Black Beard still suspended on his
bowsprit-end, as a trophy of his victory, to the great joy of all the
inhabitants. The prisoners were tried, condemned, and executed; and thus
all the crew of that infernal miscreant, Black Beard, were destroyed,
except two. One of these was taken out of a trading-vessel, only the day
before the engagement, in which he received no less than seventy wounds,
of all which he was cured. The other was Israel Hands, who was master of
the Queen Anne's Revenge; he was taken at Bath-town, being wounded in
one of Black Beard's savage humors. One night Black Beard, drinking in
his cabin with Hands, the pilot, and another man, without any pretence,
took a small pair of pistols, and cocked them under the table; which
being perceived by the man, he went on deck, leaving the captain, Hands,
and the pilot together. When his pistols were pre