o be again interesting to the pirates.

About this time one of the most famous of sea-robbers was harassing the
Atlantic coast of North America, and from New England to the West
Indies, he was known as the great pirate Blackbeard. This man, whose
real name was Thatch, was a most terrible fellow in appearance as well
as action. He wore a long, heavy, black beard, which it was his fancy to
separate into tails, each one tied with a colored ribbon, and often
tucked behind his ears. Some of the writers of that day declared that
the sight of this beard would create more terror in any port of the
American seaboard than would the sudden appearance of a fiery comet.
Across his brawny breast he carried a sort of a sling in which hung not
less than three pairs of pistols in leathern holsters, and these, in
addition to his cutlass and a knife or two in his belt, made him a most
formidable-looking fellow.

Some of the fanciful recreations of Blackbeard show him to have been a
person of consistent purpose. Even in his hours of rest when he was not
fighting or robbing, his savage soul demanded some interesting
excitement. Once he was seated at table with his mate and two or three
sailors, and when the meal was over he took up a pair of pistols, and
cocking them put them under the table. This peculiar action caused one
of the sailors to remember very suddenly that he had something to do on
deck, and he immediately disappeared. But the others looked at their
captain in astonishment, wondering what he would do next. They soon
found out; for crossing the pistols, still under the table, he fired
them. One ball hit the mate in the leg, but the other struck no one.
When asked what he meant by this strange action, he replied that if he
did not shoot one of his men now and then they would forget what sort of
a person he was.

At another time he invented a game; he gathered his officers and crew
together and told them that they were going to play that they were
living in the lower regions. Thereupon the whole party followed him down
into the hold. The hatches and all the other openings were closed, and
then Blackbeard began to illuminate the scene with fire and brimstone.
The sulphur burned, the fumes rose, a ghastly light spread over the
countenances of the desperadoes, and very soon some of them began to
gasp and cough and implore the captain to let in some fresh air, but
Blackbeard was bound to have a good game, and he proceeded to burn mo