But Bonnet would not listen to one word of surrender.  Rather than give up the fight he declared he would set fire to the powder magazine of the Royal James and blow himself, his ship, and his men high up into the air.  Although he had not a sailor’s skill, he possessed a soldier’s soul, and in spite of his being a dastardly and cruel pirate he was a brave man.  But Bonnet was only one, and his crew numbered dozens, and notwithstanding his furiously dissenting voice it was determined to surrender, and when Mr. Rhett sailed up to the Royal James, intending to board her if the pirates still showed resistance, he found them ready to submit to terms and to yield themselves his prisoners.

Thus ended the great sea-fight between the private gentlemen, and thus ended Stede Bonnet’s career.  He and his men were taken to Charles Town, where most of the pirate crew were tried and executed.  The green-hand pirate, who had wrought more devastation along the American coast than many a skilled sea-robber, was held in custody to await his trial, and it seems very strange that there should have been a public sentiment in Charles Town which induced the officials to treat this pirate with a certain degree of respect simply from the fact that his station in life had been that of a gentleman.  He was a much more black-hearted scoundrel than any of his men, but they were executed as soon as possible while his trial was postponed and he was allowed privileges which would never have been accorded a common pirate.  In consequence of this leniency he escaped and had to be retaken by Mr. Rhett.  It was so long before he was tried that sympathy for his misfortunes arose among some of the tender-hearted citizens of Charles Town whose houses he would have pillaged and whose families he would have murdered if the exigencies of piracy had rendered such action desirable.

Finding that other people were trying to save his life, Bonnet came down from his high horse and tried to save it himself by writing piteous letters to the Governor, begging for mercy.  But the Governor of South Carolina had no notion of sparing a pirate who had deliberately put himself under the protection of the law in order that he might better pursue his lawless and wicked career, and the green hand, with the black heart, was finally hung on the same spot where his companions had been executed.

Chapter XXVII

A Six Weeks’ Pirate

About the time of Stede Bonnet’s terminal adventures a very unpretentious pirate made his appearance in the waters of New York.  This was a man named Richard Worley, who set himself up in piracy in a very small way, but who, by a strict attention to business, soon achieved a remarkable success.  He started out as a scourge upon the commerce of the Atlantic Ocean with only an open boat and eight men.  In this small craft he went down the coast of New Jersey taking everything he could from fishing boats and small trading vessels until he reached Delaware Bay, and here he made a bold stroke and captured a good-sized sloop.