ver, in Regard ships must goe to the Cape
to Clear the horshooe before they can gett into James River, and soe
may be Endangered. I wait your Excellys Order and Directions and
withall to favour me with a true relation of the success of the
Action betwixt Capt. Passenger and the Pirate:[6] I humbly take leave
to subscribe Right Excellent

Your Excellencies Faithful and
most Obliged servant

CHA. SCARBURGH.

May 3d
1700

[Footnote 2: Colonel Scarborough was also collector of customs in his
district.]

[Footnote 3: Old Point Comfort? It is just possible that "Mr.
Mekennie", p. 264, or "Mr. Makennie", here, may mean the celebrated
pioneer of Presbyterianism, Rev. Francis Makemie, who is sometimes
said to have lived in Lynnhaven parish before settling down in
Accomac, on the Eastern Shore.]

[Footnote 4: The Horseshoe is a sandy shoal running from the shore
north of Old Point Comfort eastwardly toward the channel between Cape
Charles and Cape Henry.]

[Footnote 5: Doc. no. 92.]

[Footnote 6: For Captain Passenger's own account, see _Cal. St. P.
Col._, 1700, p. 311. Governor Nicholson accompanied him in person,
aboard the _Shoreham_. During most of the fight the two ships were
within pistol-shot of each other. Finally the pirate, with all masts
and sails shattered, drifted aground. Then, having laid a train to
thirty barrels of gunpowder, he threatened to blow the ship up, and
the governor, to save the lives of the forty or fifty English
prisoners, gave quarter, promising to refer the pirates to the king's
mercy if they should surrender quietly. So 111 of them were sent to
England in the _Essex Prize_ and the fleet of merchantmen convoyed by
her, June 9. The trial was of three who were brought in without having
been included in the surrender. It was held, in accordance with the
Virginian act, by a commission of oyer and terminer, appointed by the
governor. All three of them were hanged, although "One of them,
Cornelius Frank, said, Must I be hanged that can speake all
Languages"? Another curious passage in the trial deserves to be
quoted: "_Mr. Atty. Gen._ Did the Pyrates talk of blowing their Shipp
up? _Ed. Ashfeild._ Yes, they did, and went to prayers upon it." Nor
less the picture, in the evidence of either this or an adjoining
trial, of the pirate captain "with a gold chain around his neck, and a
gold Tooth-picker hanging from it"--_nouveau riche_!]

_94. John and Adam Thorowgood to Captain Passenger. M