316 ISLES or SUMMER. 



The most violent of the sea-wolves that infested the waters of 

 the Bahamas, and the neighboring seas, was a native of Bristol, 

 England, by the name of Edward Tench. The historic name of 

 Black Beard was conferred upon him by his cotemporaries on 

 account of the color and quantity of hair which helped so much 

 to give him a wild and savage appearance. He first made himself 

 felt and feared as a privateer. Sailing in that capacity in the 

 early part of the eighteenth century, from the island of Jamaica, 

 he soon distinguished himself by his daring intrepidity and reck- 

 less courage. Between privateering and piracy there is but a 

 single short step. A little practice in capturing, robbing and 

 destroying the merchant ships of one nation, is a good prepara- 

 tory and training school, in which an apt scholar, like Tench, is 

 soon prepared for the business of waging merciless war on the 

 commerce of the world. 



Black Beard soon had a piratical fleet well manned and power- 

 fully armed, which, for a short time, was a terror to all honest 

 men who frequented the West India Islands or the neighboring 

 shores of the main land. His audacity and power are indicated 

 by the fact that the city of Charleston was once coerced into 

 furnishing him with a valuable supply of medical stores, by the 

 assurance that if his demands were refused, he would burn the 

 vessels and kill the prisoners then in his possession which he had 

 captured, and send the heads of the latter to the Governor of 

 South Carolina. He was finally hunted down and killed in a 

 bloody hand to hand fight among the inlets of North Carolina. 



It is difficult at the present day to realize the extent and char- 

 acter of the peril from, pirates to which a century and a-half ago 

 persons were subjected who sailed in the waters Avhich penetrate 

 or surround the Bahamas. The black flag with its death's head 

 and cross-bones, is a thing of the past. A marine police, mount- 

 ed upon powerful and fast sailing steamers, and armed with 



