vered from a recent visit by another pirate, Vane.

Being in want of medicines, Teach sent his lieutenant, Richards, on shore
with a letter to the Governor demanding that he should instantly send off
a medicine chest, or else Teach would murder all his prisoners, and
threatening to send their heads to Government House; many of these
prisoners being the chief persons of the colony.

Teach, who was unprincipled, even for a pirate, now commanded three
vessels, and he wanted to get rid of his crews and keep all the booty for
himself and a few chosen friends. To do this, he contrived to wreck his
own vessel and one of his sloops. Then with his friends and all the booty
he sailed off, leaving the rest marooned on a small sandy island. Teach
next sailed to North Carolina, and with the greatest coolness surrendered
with twenty of his men to the Governor, Charles Eden, and received the
Royal pardon. The ex-pirate spent the next few weeks in cultivating an
intimate friendship with the Governor, who, no doubt, shared Teach's booty
with him.

A romantic episode took place at this time at Bath Town. The pirate fell
in love, not by any means for the first time, with a young lady of 16
years of age. To show his delight at this charming union, the Governor
himself married the happy pair, this being the captain's fourteenth wife;
though certain Bath Town gossips were heard to say that there were no
fewer than twelve Mrs. Teach still alive at different ports up and down
the West India Islands.

In June, 1718, the bridegroom felt that the call of duty must be obeyed,
so kissing good-bye to the new Mrs. Teach, he sailed away to the Bermudas,
meeting on his way half a dozen ships, which he plundered, and then
hurried back to share the spoils with the Governor of North Carolina and
his secretary, Mr. Knight.

For several months, Blackbeard remained in the river, exacting a toll from
all the shipping, often going ashore to make merry at the expense of the
planters. At length, things became so unbearable that the citizens and
planters sent a request to the Governor of the neighbouring colony of
Virginia for help to rid them of the presence of Teach. The Governor,
Spotswood, an energetic man, at once made plans for taking the pirate, and
commissioned a gallant young naval officer, Lieutenant Robert Maynard, of
H.M.S. _Pearl_, to go in a sloop, the _Ranger_, in search of him. On
November 17, 1718, the lieutenant sailed for Kicquetan in the J