316 ISLES OF 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 privatecr. 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 which 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 
