. The Governor of Pennsylvania, recognizing the impending
danger and the necessity of prompt action, sent to Sandy Hook, where
there was a British man-of-war, the _Phoenix_, and urged that this
vessel should come down into Delaware Bay and put an end to the pirate
ship which was ravaging those waters. Considering that Worley had not
been engaged in piracy for much more than four weeks, he had created a
reputation for enterprise and industry, which gave him a very important
position as a commerce destroyer, and a large man-of-war did not think
that he was too small game for her to hunt down, and so she set forth to
capture or destroy the audacious Worley. But never a Worley of any kind
did she see. While the _Phoenix_ was sailing along the coast,
examining all the coves and harbors of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the
_New York's Revenge_ put out to sea, and then proceeded southward to
discover a more undisturbed field of operation.

We will now leave Worley's vessel sailing southward, and go for a time
to Charles Town, where some very important events were taking place. The
Governor of South Carolina had been very much afraid that the pirates in
general would take some sort of revenge for the capture of Stede Bonnet,
who was then in prison awaiting trial, and that if he should be
executed, Charles Town might be visited by an overpowering piratical
force, and he applied to England to have a war-vessel sent to the
harbor. But before any relief of this kind could be expected, news came
to Charles Town that already a celebrated pirate, named Moody, was
outside of the harbor, capturing merchant vessels, and it might be that
he was only waiting for the arrival of other pirate ships to sail into
the harbor and rescue Bonnet.

Now the Charles Town citizens saw that they must again act for
themselves, and not depend upon the home government. If there were
pirates outside the harbor, they must be met and fought before they
could come up to the city; and the Governor and the Council decided
immediately to fit out a little fleet. Four merchant vessels were
quickly provided with cannon, ammunition, and men, and the command of
this expedition would undoubtedly have been given to Mr. Rhett had it
not been that he and the Governor had quarrelled. There being no naval
officers in Charles Town, their fighting vessels had to be commanded by
civilians, and Governor Johnson now determined that he would try his
hand at carrying on a sea-figh