However, he fitted out a sloop with ten guns and 70 men, entirely at his own expense, and in the nighttime sailed from Barbados. He called his sloop the Revenge; his first cruise was off the capes of Virginia, where he took several ships, and plundered them of their provisions, clothes, money, ammunition, etc. in particular the Anne, Captain Montgomery, from Glasgow; the Turbet from Barbados, which for country sake, after they had taken out the principal part of the lading, the pirate crew set her on fire; the Endeavour, Captain Scot, from Bristol, and the Young from Leith. From hence they went to New York, and off the East End of Long Island, took a sloop bound for the West Indies, after which they stood in and landed some men at Gardner’s Island, but in a peaceable manner, and bought provisions for the company’s use, which they paid for, and so went off again without molestation.
Some time after, which was in , Bonnet came off the bar of South Carolina, and took a sloop and a brigantine bound in; the sloop belonged to Barbados, Joseph Palmer Master, laden with rum, sugar and Negroes; and the brigantine came from New England, Thomas Porter Master, whom they plundered, and then dismiss’d; but they sailed away with the sloop, and at an inlet in North Carolina careened by her, and then set her on fire.
After the sloop had cleaned, they put to sea, but came to no resolution what course to take; the crew were divided in their opinions, some being for one thing, and some another, so that nothing but confusion seem’d to attend all their schemes.
The major was no sailor as was said before, and therefore had been obliged to yield to many things that were imposed on him, during their undertaking, for want of a competent knowledge in maritime affairs; at length happening to fall in company with another pirate, one Edward Teach, (who for his remarkable black ugly beard, was more commonly called Blackbeard:) This fellow was a good sailor, but a most cruel hardened villain, bold and daring to the last degree, and would not stick at the perpetrating the most abominable wickedness imaginable; for which he was made chief of that execrable gang, that it might be said that his post was not unduly filled, Blackbeard being truly the superior in roguery, of all the company, as has been already related.
To him Bonnet’s crew joined in consortship, and Bonnet himself was laid aside, notwithstanding the sloop was his own; he went aboard Blackbeard’s ship, not concerning himself with any of their affairs, where he continued till she was lost in Topsail Inlet, and one Richards was appointed captain in his room. The Major now saw his folly, but could not help himself, which made him melancholy; he reflected upon his past course of life, and was confounded with shame, when he thought upon what he had done: his behaviour was taken notice of by the other pirates, who liked him never the better for it; and he often declared to some of them, that he would gladly leave off that way of living, being fully tired of it; but he should be ashamed to see the face of any Englishman again; therefore if he could get to Spain or Portugal, where he might be undiscovered, he would spend the remainder of his days in either of those countries, otherwise he must continue with them as long as he lived.
When Blackbeard lost his ship at Topsail Inlet, and surrendered to the King’s proclamation, Bonnet reassumed the command of his own sloop, Revenge, goes directly away to Bath Town in North Carolina, surrenders likewise to the King’s pardon, and receives a certificate. The war was now broke out between the triple allies and Spain; so Major Bonnet gets a clearance for his sloop at North Carolina, to go to the island of St. Thomas, with a design (at least it was pretended so) to get the Emperor’s commission, to go a privateering upon the Spaniards. When Bonnet came back to Topsail Inlet, he found that Teach and his gang were gone, and that they had taken all the money, small arms and effects of value out of the great ship, and set ashore on a small sandy island above a league from the main, seventeen men, no doubt with a design they should perish, there being no inhabitant, or provisions to subsist withal, nor any boat or materials to build or make any kind of launch or vessel, to escape from that desolate place: they remained there two nights and one day, without subsistence, or the least prospect of any, expecting nothing else but a lingering death; when to their inexpressable comfort, they saw redemption at hand; for Major Bonnet happening to get intelligence of their being there, by two of the pirates who had escaped Teach’s cruelty, and had got to a poor little village at the upper end of the harbour, sent his boat to make discovery of the truth of the matter, which
