re
brimstone. He laughed at the gasping fellows about him and declared that
he would be just as willing to breathe the fumes of sulphur as common
air. When at last he threw open the hatches, some of the men were almost
dead, but their stalwart captain had not even sneezed.

In the early part of the eighteenth century Blackbeard made his
headquarters in one of the inlets on the North Carolina coast, and there
he ruled as absolute king, for the settlers in the vicinity seemed to be
as anxious to oblige him as the captains of the merchantmen sailing
along the coast were anxious to keep out of his way. On one of his
voyages Blackbeard went down the coast as far as Honduras, where he took
a good many prizes, and as some of the crews of the captured vessels
enlisted under him he sailed north with a stronger force than ever
before, having a large ship of forty guns, three smaller vessels, and
four hundred men. With this little fleet Blackbeard made for the coast
of South Carolina, and anchored outside the harbor of Charles Town. He
well understood the present condition of the place and was not in the
least afraid that the citizens would hang him up on the shores of the
bay.

Blackbeard began work without delay. Several well-laden ships--the
Carolinians having no idea that pirates were waiting for them--came
sailing out to sea and were immediately captured. One of these was a
very important vessel, for it not only carried a valuable cargo, but a
number of passengers, many of them people of note, who were on their way
to England. One of these was a Mr. Wragg, who was a member of the
Council of the Province. It might have been supposed that when
Blackbeard took possession of this ship, he would have been satisfied
with the cargo and the money which he found on board, and having no use
for prominent citizens, would have let them go their way; but he was a
trader as well as a plunderer, and he therefore determined that the best
thing to do in this case was to put an assorted lot of highly
respectable passengers upon the market and see what he could get for
them. He was not at the time in need of money or provisions, but his men
were very much in want of medicines, so he decided to trade off his
prisoners for pills, potions, plasters, and all sorts of apothecary's
supplies.

He put three of his pirates in a boat, and with them one of the
passengers, a Mr. Marks, who was commissioned as Blackbeard's special
agent, with orders to