till quite a number. And once again, after a
lapse of many years, will the ancient worship be resumed on the shores
of that quiet stream.

To the pioneer settlers on Little River, then, belongs the honor of
starting the wheels of government at Hall's Creek, of erecting on Symons
Creek the second house of worship in the State, and of establishing on
that same tributary of Little River the first school in North Carolina.

CHAPTER VI

THE HAUNTS OF BLACKBEARD

The name of the famous pirate, Teach, or Blackbeard, as he was
familiarly known, plays a conspicuous part in the early history of North
Carolina, and survives in many local traditions on our coast.

Many spots along our sounds and rivers have been honey-combed by diggers
after the pirate's buried hoard. Tradition says that it was the gruesome
custom of those fierce sea robbers to bury the murdered body of one of
their own band beside the stolen gold, that his restless spirit might
"walk" as the guardian of the spot. And weird tales are still told of
treasure seekers who, searching the hidden riches of Teach and his band,
on lonely islands and in tangled swamps along our eastern waterways,
have been startled at their midnight task by strange sights and sounds,
weird shapes and balls of fire, which sent the rash intruder fleeing in
terror from the haunted spot.

Hardly a river that flows into our eastern sounds but claims to have
once borne on its bosom the dreaded "Adventure," Blackbeard's pirate
craft; hardly a settlement along those streams but retains traditions of
the days when the black flag of that dreaded ship could be seen
streaming in the breeze as the swift sails sped the pirates by, on
murder and on plunder bent. Up Little River that flows by George
Durant's home down to the broad waters of Albemarle Sound, Teach and his
drunken crew would come, seeking refuge after some bold marauding
expedition, in the hidden arms of that lovely stream. Up the beautiful
Pasquotank, into the quiet waters of Symons Creek and Newbegun Creek,
the dreaded bark would speed, and the settlers along those ancient
streams would quake and tremble at the sound of the loud carousing, the
curses and shouts that made hideous the night.

On all these waters "Teach's Light" is still said to shed a ghostly
gleam on dark, winter nights; and where its rays are seen to rest,
there, so the credulous believe, his red gold still hides, deep down in
the waters or buried along the