down they went into the sea. In this way, men, women, and
children slipped out of sight among the waves as the vessel sailed
merrily on.

In one branch of his new profession Bonnet rapidly became proficient. He
was an insatiable robber and a cruel conqueror. He captured merchant
vessels all along the coast as high up as New England, and then he came
down again and stopped for a while before Charles Town harbor, where he
took a couple of prizes, and then put into one of the North Carolina
harbors, where it was always easy for a pirate vessel to refit and get
ready for further adventures.

Bonnet's vessel was named the _Revenge_, which was about as ill suited
to the vessel as her commander was ill fitted to sail her, for Bonnet
had nobody to revenge himself upon unless, indeed, it were his scolding
wife. But a good many pirate ships were then called the _Revenge_, and
Bonnet was bound to follow the fashion, whatever it might be.

Very soon after he had stood upon the quarter-deck and proclaimed
himself a pirate his men had discovered that he knew no more about
sailing than he knew about painting portraits, and although there were
under-officers who directed all the nautical operations, the mass of the
crew conceived a great contempt for a landsman captain. There was much
grumbling and growling, and many of the men would have been glad to
throw Bonnet overboard and take the ship into their own hands. But when
any symptoms of mutiny showed themselves, the pirates found that
although they did not have a sailor in command over them, they had a
very determined and relentless master. Bonnet knew that the captain of a
pirate ship ought to be the most severe and rigid man on board, and so,
at the slightest sign of insubordination, his grumbling men were put in
chains or flogged, and it was Bonnet's habit at such times to strut
about the deck with loaded pistols, threatening to blow out the brains
of any man who dared to disobey him. Recognizing that although their
captain was no sailor he was a first-class tyrant, the rebellious crew
kept their grumbling to themselves and worked his ship.

Bonnet now pointed the bow of the _Revenge_ southward--that is, he
requested somebody else to see that it was done--and sailed to the Bay
of Honduras, which was a favorite resort of the pirates about that time.
And here it was that he first met with the famous Captain Blackbeard.
There can be no doubt that our amateur pirate was very glad i