John Hagedorn

But Mr. Maynard replied thus, "'I cannot spare my boat, but I will come aboard of you as soon as I can, with my sloop.'

Upon this Blackbeard took a glass of liquor and drank to him with these words, "'Damnation seize my soul if I give you quarters or take any from you.'

in answer to which Mr. Maynard told him that he expected no quarters from him, nor should he give him any.

By this time Blackbeard's sloop fleeted, as Mr. Maynard's sloops were rowing towards him, which being not above a foot high in the waist, and consequently the men all exposed as they came near together, there being hitherto little or no execution done on either side, the pirate fired a broadside charged with all manner of small shot, a fatal stroke to them.

The sloop the lieutenant was in, having twenty men killed and wounded, and the other sloop nine.

This could not be helped, for there being no wind, they were obliged to keep to their oars, otherwise the pirate would have got away from him, which it seems the lieutenant was resolute to prevent.

After this unlucky blow, Blackbeard's sloop fell broadside to the shore.

Mr. Maynard's other sloop, which was called the Ranger, fell astern, being for the present disabled.

So the lieutenant, finding his own sloop had way, and would soon be on board of the teach, he ordered all his men down, for fear of another broadside, which must have been their destruction, and the loss of their expedition.

Mr. Maynard was the only person that kept the deck, except the man at the helm, whom he directed to lie down snug, and the men in the hold were ordered to get their pistols and their swords ready for close fighting, and to come up at his command, in order to which two ladders were placed in the hatchway for the more expedition.

When the Lieutenant Sloop boarded the other, Captain Teach's men threw in several new-fashioned sorts of grenades, actually case-bottles filled with powder, and small shot, slugs, and pieces of leather-iron, with a quick match in the mouth of it, which, being lighted with outside, presently runs into the bottle to the powder, and as it is instantly thrown on board, generally does great execution, besides putting all the crew into a confusion."

but by good providence they had not that effect here.

The men being in the hold, and Blackbeard seeing few or no hands aboard, told his men that they were all knocked in the head, except three or four, and therefore, says he, let's jump on board and cut them to pieces.

Whereupon, under the smoke of one of the bottles just mentioned, Blackbeard enters with fourteen men over the bows of Maynard's sloop, and were not seen by him till the air cleared.

However, he just then gave a signal to his men, who all rose in an instant, and attacked the pirates with as much bravery as ever was done upon such an occasion.

Blackbeard and the lieutenant fired the first pistol at each other, by which the pirate received a wound, and then engaged with swords till the lieutenant's sword unluckily broke.

and stepping back to cock a pistol, Blackbeard, with his cutlass, was striking at that instant that one of Maynard's men gave him a terrible wound in the neck and throat by which the lieutenant came off with a small cut over his fingers.

They were now closely and warmly engaged, the lieutenant and twelve men, against Blackbeard and fourteen, till the sea was tinctured with blood round the vessel.

Blackbeard received a shot into his body from the pistol that Lieutenant Maynard discharged, yet he stood his ground and fought with great fury till he received five and twenty wounds, and five of them by shot.

At length, as he was cocking another pistol, having fired several before, he fell down dead, by which time eight more out of the fourteen dropped, and all the rest, much wounded, jumped overboard and called out for quarters, which was granted, though it was only prolonging their lives for a few days.