ffices in lower Virginia. Lieutenant Maynard, in the boats that
Colonel Parker had already fitted out to go against the pirates, set
sail upon the seventeenth of the month for Ocracoke. Five days later
the battle was fought.

* * * * *

Blackbeard's sloop was lying inside of Ocracoke Inlet among the shoals
and sand bars when he first heard of Governor Spottiswood's
proclamation.

There had been a storm, and a good many vessels had run into the inlet
for shelter. Blackbeard knew nearly all of the captains of these
vessels, and it was from them that he first heard of the proclamation.

He had gone aboard one of the vessels--a coaster from Boston. The wind
was still blowing pretty hard from the southeast. There were maybe a
dozen vessels lying within the inlet at that time, and the captain of
one of them was paying the Boston skipper a visit when Blackbeard came
aboard. The two captains had been talking together. They instantly
ceased when the pirate came down into the cabin, but he had heard
enough of their conversation to catch its drift. "Why d'ye stop?" he
said. "I heard what you said. Well, what then? D'ye think I mind it at
all? Spottiswood is going to send his bullies down here after me.
That's what you were saying. Well, what then? You don't think I'm
afraid of his bullies, do you?"

"Why, no, Captain, I didn't say you was afraid," said the visiting
captain.

"And what right has he got to send down here against me in North
Carolina, I should like to ask you?"

"He's got none at all," said the Boston captain, soothingly. "Won't
you take a taste of Hollands, Captain?"

"He's no more right to come blustering down here into Governor Eden's
province than I have to come aboard of your schooner here, Tom Burley,
and to carry off two or three kegs of this prime Hollands for my own
drinking."

Captain Burley--the Boston man--laughed a loud, forced laugh. "Why,
Captain," he said, "as for two or three kegs of Hollands, you won't
find that aboard. But if you'd like to have a keg of it for your own
drinking, I'll send it to you and be glad enough to do so for old
acquaintance' sake."

"But I tell you what 'tis, Captain," said the visiting skipper to
Blackbeard, "they're determined and set against you this time. I tell
you, Captain, Governor Spottiswood hath issued a hot proclamation
against you, and 't hath been read out in all the churches. I myself
saw it posted in Yorktown upon th