by Craig Cabell
In my letter of the 14th of August last, I gave your Lordships an account that one Capt. Tach a noted pyrate in a ship of 40 guns run ashore in June, at the mouth of Ocracoke Inlet in North Carolina where that ship and two of the four sloops he had under his command were lost, and that he and his crew had surrendered to the Governor of that Province. Since which one Howard, Tach’s Quartermaster, came into this Colony, with two negroes which he own’d to have been piratically taken, the one from a French ship and the other from an English brigantine. I caused them to be seized pursuant to H.M. Instructions, upon which, encouraged by the countenance he found here, he commenced a suit against the officer who made the seizure, and his insolence became so intolerable, without applying himself to any lawful business, that the Justices of the Peace where he resided thought fit to send him on board one of the Kings ships as a vagrant seaman. Hereupon he caused not only the Justice who signed the warrant but the Captain and Lieutenant of the man of war to be arrested each in an action of £500 damages. And one of the chief lawyers here undertook his cause.
This extraordinary behaviour of a pyrate well known to have been very active in plundering divers vessels on this coast but the year before, occasioned a more strict enquiry into his course of life after his departure from hence, and at last it came to be discovered that though he and the rest of Tache’s crew, pretended to surrender and to claim the benefit of H.M. Proclamation, they had nevertheless been guilty of divers piracys after the fifth of January for which they were not entitled to H.M. pardon. I therefore thought fit to have him brought to a tryal, but found a strong opposition from some of the Council agt. trying him by virtue of the Commission under the great Seal pursuant to the Act of the 11th and 12th of King Wm. though I produced the King’s Instruction directing that manner of tryal; but having at length overcome their scruples, I had this person tryed and convicted of taking and destroying no less than twelve ships and vessels after the 5th of January and long after notice of H.M. Proclamation.
About the time of this tryal I received advice from North Carolina, that Major Bonnet who was one of Tach’s associates and surrendered with him, was gone out again in a sloop, and betaking himself to fresh piracys had been taken by some vessels fitted out for that purpose by the Government of South Carolina. That Tach with divers of his crew kept together in North Carolina went out at pleasure committing robberies on this coast and had lately brought in a ship laden with sugar and cocoa, which they pretended they found as a wreck at sea without either men or papers, that they had landed the cargo at a remote inlet in that Province and set the ship on fire to prevent discovery to whom she belonged: and having at the same time received complaints from divers of the trading people of that Province of the insolence of that gang of pyrates, and the weakness of that Governmt. To restrain them, I judged it high time to destroy that crew of villains, and not to suffer them to gather strength in the neighbourhood of so valuable a trade as that of this Colony.
Having gained sufficient intelligence of the strength of Tache’s crew, and sent for pilots from Carolina, I communicated to the Captains of H.M. ships of war on this station the project I had formed to extirpate this nest of pyrates. It was found impracticable for the men of war to go into the shallow and difficult channels of that country, and the Captains were unwilling to be at the charge of hiring sloops which they had no orders to do, and must therefore have paid out of their own pocketts, but as they readily consented to furnish men, I undertook the other part of supplying at my own charge sloops and pilots. Accordingly I hired two sloops and put pilots on board, and the Captains of H.M. ships having put 55 men on board under the command of the first Lieutenant of the Pearle and an officer from the Lyme, they came up with Tach at Ocracoke Inlet on the 22nd of last month, he was on board a sloop which carried 8 guns and very well fitted for fight. As soon as he perceived the King’s men intended to board him, he took up a bowl of liquor and calling out to the Officers of the other sloops, drank Damnation to anyone that should give or ask quarter, and then discharged his great guns loaded with partridge shot, which killed and wounded twenty of the King’s men who lay exposed to his fire without any barricade or other shelter; he resolutely entered the first sloop which boarded him, nor did any one of his men yield while they were in a condition to fight. His orders were to blow up his own vessel if he should happen to be overcome, and a negro was ready to set fire to the powder, had he not been luckily prevented by a planter forced on board the night before and who lay in the hold of the sloop during the action of the pyrates. Tach with nine of his crew was killed, and three white men and six negroes were taken alive but all much wounded.
The loss of the King’s men is very considerable for the number, there being ten killed in the action, and four and twenty wounded of whom one is since dead of his wounds. I do myself the honour of giving your Lordships the particulars of this action because, it has, I hope, prevented a design of the most pernicious consequence to the trade of these Plantations, which was that of the pyrates fortifying an Island at Ocracoke Inlet and making that a general rendezvous of such robbers. While the preparations for this service were carrying on, I proposed to our late Assembly and prevailed with them to pass an Act giving rewards for apprehending and destroying of pyrates, by which there is to be paid particularly for Tach £100, and half the rewards promised by H.M. Proclamation, for every one of his, or any other crew of pyrates taken on this coast, to be paid out of the publick money now in the hands of the country’s Treasurer: but I did not communicate to the Assembly nor Council, the project then forming agt. Tach’s crew for fear of his having intelligence, there being in this country and more especially among the present faction, an unaccountable inclination to favour pyrates, of which I beg leave to mention some instances.
Besides the favour shown to Tache’s Quarter Master in advising him to sue for his liberty and for his pyratical effects; some of the same gang having passed through this country in their way to Pennsylvania, and contrary to my Proclamation assembling in great numbers with their arms, and endeavouring to debauch some sailors out of the merchant ships to join them, the Officers of the Government could find none to assist in the disarming and suppressing that gang.
On the tryal of some pyrates lately brought hither, arguments have been used to justify their villainies, and to acquitt them, upon the bare allegation of their being forced into that wicked Association without any proof, or so much as a probability of their acting by constraint. I received some days ago the honour of your Lordships of the — of August and H.M. Commission for pardoning pyrates, which came very seasonably to save Howard the Quartermaster then under sentence of death, but by H.M. extending his mercy for all piracys committed before the 18th of August, is now set at liberty. I must on this occasion entreat your Lordships directions as well concerning the effects of this man as of others which appear to have been piratically taken.
By H.M. Instructions I am commanded to seize and secure the effects of all pyrates brought in here; until H.M. pleasure be signified therein: and by H.M. late Commission, I observe that all forfeitures are remitted to such as surrender within the time therein mentioned: what I am therefore in doubt of is, whether by the remitting all forfeitures, H.M. intends only to restore the pyrates to the estates they had before the committing their pyracies, or to grant them a property also in the effects which they have piratically taken. There is besides the two negro boys, about £50 in money and other things taken from the aforenamed Howard, and now in the hands of the Officer who seized it on H.M. behalf, of which an inventory is lodged in the Secretary’s Office here. I therefore pray your Lordships advice and commands how these effects are to be disposed, where the person in whose possession they were found is pardoned. I also expect from North Carolina a considerable quantity of sugar and cocoa, which were in the possession of Tach and his crew, and appear to have been the lading of that ship which they lately brought in there under pretence of a wreck, but in reality was taken piratically near Bermuda from the subjects of the
French King, and the men put on board a ship of the same nation taken at the same time, as some of Taches crew now in custody allege. If these men were saved alive it is probable they may lay claim to the lading of their ship: but if they are not, there is some consideration due to the Officers and men who rescued the same out of the hands of the pyrates etc. Observing by the publick prints as well as the letters from divers of the merchants that the French settlement on Mississippi, begins to make a considerable noise in the world, I cannot forbear taking notice of one particular circumstance thereof, for which I cannot find any foundation.
It is advised by a letter from South Carolina inserted in the Political State for the month of August last, that the French had formed a design in conjunction with some of their neighbouring Indians to cut off the Cherokees, and the writer of that letter is so particular as to mention the precise time, when, and the number of men by whom, it was to be put in execution. The traders employed by the late Indian company who have been among the Cherokees all the last summer arrived here a few days ago with about 70 horse load of skins, and brought in with them four of the Great men of that Nation, declare that they heard of no such discourse there; though they left the Cherokee country long after the time mentioned for this supposed attack from the French: besides that the Cherokees being a numerous Nation consisting of upwards of 4000 fighting men, and seated in the fastnesses of the great mountains are not so easily to be destroyed by the small numbers which the Carolina intelligence says are marching against them.
So that it is not improbable, but that the French hopes from their new settlement may be as ill grounded, as the Carolina fears of their Indian neighbours. But whatever may be the progress of this new Colony, it is certainly the British interest to obstruct its growth, not only by interrupting the communication between that, and Canada, but by extending our commerce among the Indians, and particularly by cultivating a good correspondence with these Cherokees who are now very friendly to the English, and especially to those of this country employed among them by the gentlemen of the late Indian Company and who have furnished them with arms and ammunition in greater proportion than the people of Carolina are capable of supplying.
By the account I have had from our Indian traders these Cherokees are little farther distant from Virginia than they are from Charlestown: They are an increasing people, and the rather to be courted because of the barrier they may afford us agt. this new settlement of the French: whereas those Indian Nations that inhabit among or near the British settlements are of small account, by reason of their daily decrease, such are the Cattawbaws who from a powerful nation, are of late become much lessened, by a remarkable dispensation of Providence in rendering their women for the most part barren; as if Heaven design’d by the diminution of these Indian neighbours, to make room for our growing settlements. The scarcity and dearth of iron, which the merchants of England have for some time complained of, and the people here have sensibly felt, may I hope be happily remedied by the late discoverys of mines in this Colony: one of which has been found at the head of Rappahannock River, by some German miners which I employed in that service, which is reputed richer than any in Europe, and lies within less than ten miles of water carriage. Several gentlemen here are concerned with me, and ready to set up an iron works if it may be allowed: and I am not without hopes of discovering other mines of a nobler metal, as soon as the country comes to be seated nearer the Great Mountains (over which I discovered the passage) and which may serve to check the vain boasts of the Spaniards, as if the Treasures of the Universe are solely committed to them. I shall conclude this letter with informing your Lordships of the death of Mr. Berkeley one of the Council here, in whose stead I humbly recommend Mr. Cole Digges, a gentleman of good parts, and of an estate which may be reckoned amongst the first in this country, he is descended of an honourable Family in England, and his father served for divers years with great reputation in the office of a Councillor and Deputy Auditor here. This gentleman lives near the seat of Government, and is on that account preferable to others whose remoteness makes them unwillingly attend on the business of the Council.
Signed,
A. Spotswood
Appendix II
Unhappiness in the Colonies: Various Letters
Letter from South Carolina Governor Robert Johnson to the Council of Trade and Plantations dated 18 June 1718. He sends an impassioned plea for naval protection from the pirates operating off the coast of his colony:
The unspeakable calamity this poor Province suffers from pyrates obliges me to inform your Lordships of it in order that his Majesty may know it and be induced to afford us the assistance of a frigate or two to cruse hereabouts upon them for we are continually alarmed and our ships taken to the utter ruin of our trade; twice since my coming here in 9 months time they have lain off of our barr taking and plundering all ships that either goe out or come in to this port, about 14 days ago 4 sail of them appeared in sight of the Town tooke our pilot boat and after wards 8 or 9 sail with several of the best inhabitants of this place on board and then sent me word if I did not immediately send them a chest of medicines they would put every prisoner to death which for their sakes being complied with after plundering them of all they had were sent ashore almost naked.
This company is commanded by one Teach alias Blackbeard has a ship of 40 guns under him and 3 sloops tenders besides and are in all above 400 men. I don’t perceive H.M. gracious proclamation of pardon works any good effect upon them, some few indeed surrender and take a certificate of there so doing and then several of them return to the sport again; notwithstanding there has for this 3 months last past been a man of war Capt. Perce Comr. at Providence several sloops have fitted out a pyrating from thence during her being there and I am credibly informed there are above 20 sail now in these seas so yet. Unless ships are sent to cruse upon them, all the trade of these American parts will be stopped, for hardly a ship goes to sea but falls into their hands.
As to the war with the Indians I have since my coming made peace with. several nations particularly the great nation of the Creeks who live to the southward near St. Augustine, but Treaties with them are very precarious, so long as the French from Movele and Spaniards from St. Augustine live and have built forts amongst them and doe continually by presents and furnishing them with arms and ammunition and buying the slaves and plunder encourage them to war upon us, this is certainly fact and I can have no redress although have several times demanded it. Servants slaves robbers and debtors frequently escape from hence there and when demanded can have no return from the Governor but that he will send to the King his Master to know his pleasure therein and so are always Kept and protected; a sloop arrived here from Providence about six days ago but I can’t learn Capt. Rogers Governor of those Islands is yet arrived there, ’tis to be hoped he has frigates with him and a good force of land men otherways he will run some risk of being attacked by pyrates for it being there nest and rendezvous they will be unwilling to have the place settled, I am advised there are 6 or 700 now there, etc.
Signed,
Robert Johnson254
The following letter is from a Mr Godin dated 17 December 1717, outlining Blackbeard’s activities off the South Carolina coast among other matters:
Our Assembly by a late Act has increased the duty of goods imported here etc. There is likewise a late Act that 18 months after the ratification thereof lays an additional duty upon negroes of £40 etc. Negroes will now fetch a better price than ever etc. The Act for carrying on the Indian trade by the publick is continued for 5 years which in the opinion of many is not thought to be for the advantage of the country. We are very much afraid we shall by that means loose in a few years all our Indians who will goe over to the French interest and become greater enemies than ever, the Act is in itself a monopoly and the country has no further to doe in it then to oblige such as should goe amongst the Indians to trade to give security for their good behaviour among the Indians and the Indians themselves are alrea
dy averse to this manner of carrying on the trade amongst them and deem it as a hardship imposed upon them.
There have already been some vessels in the Bay of Mexico Pensacola and Moville with our Indian trading goods and have sold them to the French and Spaniards and are return’d hither with considerable quantities of skins and more will be going, though’ there is now since passed a Law to prevent them, here are in port some Bristol man who now talks of fitting out directly from Bristol to these places which will prove of very evil consequence to this country and by which means we may lose all our Indians and this chiefly by reason that the country has engrossed the whole trade thro’ a mercenary and ignorant temper which reigns in most of our people. ’Tis highly reasonable this should be remedied by disannulling the Act at home as they have done that of the Virginia Company for carrying on that trade by a Company Virginia, our Assembly has at length posted the Act for cancelling their bills of credite, this next March is to be paid in a tax of £47,000 of which £24,000 is to sink the same of bills and the remaining £27,000 to pay of sundry orders and debts contracted by the Publick. In March 1718 is to be paid in another tax of £30,000 to sink the same value in bills, so that by March come 12 months will be cancelled £54,000 bills, unless they’ll think fit to break again thro’ their Act and forfeit their publick faith, etc.
The next letter is dated 13 June 1718 and this is about the blockade of Charles Town and other matters:
South Carolina, 13th June, 1718. Capt. Mede sailed over our barr 18th May in company with Capt. Hudson and Capt. Clarck in the Crowley, the latter put back for his passengers and boats that he lost going over the barr and the 22nd as he was just proceeding from the barr was unfortunately taken by two pirates, one a large French ship mounted with 40 guns and the other a sloop mounted with 12 guns with two other sloops for their tenders having in all about 300 men all English the ship is commanded by one Theach and the sloop by one Richards who have been upon this account in those and other vessels about two years and is the same sloop and company that was off of our barr the last summer and took two vessels inward bound they now took besides Capt. Clarck, Capt. Craigh in a small ship belonging to this place as he went over the barr bound for London and the William Capt. Hewes from Weymouth.