APPENDIX.

NORTH CAROLINA, 98.

Ar a Council, held at the house of Frederick Jones, Esq. May 27th, 1719: Present, the honorable Charles Eden, Esq. governor, captain general and admiral; Thomas Pollock, William Reed, Ira Foster, Frederick Jones, and Richard Sanderson, Esquires, lords proprietors' deputies.

In pursuance of an order of council, dated April 4th, 1719, Tobias Knight, esq. secretary of this province, and a member of the council, attended this board, to make answer to the several depositions, and other evidences, mentioned in the aforesaid order; which said depositions and evidences were read, in the following words: Copies of several depositions, and other evidences, given before the court of admiralty, constituted by commission under the great seal, for hearing and determining cases of piracy, for the colony of Virginia, the 12th March, for the trial of James Blake, alias Jemmy, and other pirates, late of the crew of Edward Teache. Hezekiah Hand, late master of the sloop Adventure, commanded by Edward Teache, being sworn and examined, deposed, that he was on board the said sloop Adventure, at the taking of two French ships, in the month of August last past, and that all the prisoners at the bar were on board the said sloop, and bore arms under Teache at

the time of the said piracy; that Teache plundered one of the ships of some cocoa, and brought the other in with him to North Carolina, having first put her crew on board the ship first mentioned; that, soon after Teache arrived at Ocracock inlet, he went in a pirogue, with some of the prisoners, by names James Blake, Richard Stiles, James White and Thomas Gates, to Mr. Tobias Knight, secretary of North Carolina, carrying with him a present of chocolate, loaf sugar and sweetmeats, being a part of what was taken on board the French ships above mentioned, and that, upon Teache's return from Mr. Knight's, he, the deponent, saw divers goods brought in the pirogue, which Teache said he bought in the country, but the deponent afterwards hearing that one William Bell had been robbed, and understanding, as well by common report as by discourse with the said Bell, of what kind of goods he had been robbed, the deponent knew them to be the same which Teache had brought on board his stoop, but durst not discover to the said Bell who had robbed him. The four prisoners being asked whether they knew of the robbery of Bell's pirogue, acknowledged, that, some time in September, they went from Ocracock, in a pirogue, with Edward Teache, to the house of Tobias Knight, secretary of North Carolina, and carried in the said pirogue three or four kegs of sweetmeats, some loaf sugar, a bag of chocolate, and some boxes, the contents of which they did not know; that they got to the said Knight's house about twelve or one o'clock in the night, and carried up the kegs and boxes aforesaid, which were all left there, except one keg of sweetmeats, which was carried back in the pirogue; that the said Knight

was then at home, and the said Teache staid with him until about an hour before the break of day, and then departed; that, about three miles from the said Knight's house, at a place called Chester's landing, they saw a pirogue lying near the shore, upon which Teache ordered them to row up towards her, saying he would go ashore, to Chester's house, but when he came up with the said pirogue, (in which were a white man, a boy and an Indian,) Teache asked them for a dram, and immediately jumped aboard of the pirogue, and after some dispute, plundered her, carrying away with him some money, one cask of pipes, a cask of rum or brandy, some linen, and other things, and then the said Teache commanded the said prisoners to row away for Ocracock inlet, instead of going ashore at Chester's, as he first gave out he intended.

William Bell, of the precinct of Currituck, being sworn and examined, deposeth, that being on board his pirogue, at the landing of John Chester, on Panchicough river, in North Carolina, on the night of the 15th September last, a large pirogue passed by, stand ing up the river, that a little before break of day, the pirogue returned, and came on board the deponent; that a white man, who, he since understands, was Edward Teache, entered the deponent's pirogue, and asked him if he had any thing to drink, to which the deponent answered, it was so dark he could not well see to draw any, whereupon, the said Teache called for his sword, which was handed him from his own pirogue, and commanded the deponent to put his hands behind him, in order to be tied, swearing, damnation seize him, he would kill the deponent if he did not tell him truly where the money was; that

the deponent asked him who he was and whence he came, to which the said Teache replied, he came from hell, where he would carry him presently; that the said deponent laid hold of the said Teache and struggled with him, upon which he called to his men to come on board to his assistance, and they came and laid hold of the deponent, his son and an Indian he had with him; that then the said Teache demanded his pistols, and the deponent telling him they were locked up in his chest, he was going to break it open; but the deponent intreated him not do so, saying he would unlock it, but though he permitted the deponent to open the chest, he would not suffer him to put his hands therein, but took his pistols out himself; that the said Teache having got the deponent's pirogue out into the middle of the river, rifled her, took away £66 10 in cash, one piece of crape, containing fiftyeight yards, a box of pipes, half a barrel of brandy, and several other goods, the particulars are mentioned in an account the deponent now delivered into court; that, particularly, the deponent was robbed of a silver cup, of a remarkable fashion, being made to screw in the middle, the upper part resembling a chalice the lower a tumbler, which cup, the deponent is informed, has been found on board Teache's sloop; that when the said Teache and his crew had taken what they thought fit from the deponent, they tossed his sails and oars overboard, and then rowed down the river; that the said Teache, in beating the deponent, broke his sword about a quarter of a yard from the point, which broken piece of the sword the deponent found in the pirogue, and now produces in court; and this depo. nent verily believes Teache had intelligence of his

having money, otherwise he would have passed by in returning from, as he did in going to, Mr. Knight's, without concerning himself with the pirogue: and the deponent further saith, that within two hours after he had been thus robbed, he went to complain to the governor of North Carolina, who sent him to Mr. Knight's, then chief justice, upon which the said Knight gave him the warrant of hue and cry, which he now produces in court, and that, notwithstanding the deponent did particularly describe the pirogue, and the men by whom he had been robbed, and did repeat, as near as he could, the language the white man used to the deponent, and declared that the other four were negroes, or white men disguised as such, and that the said pirogue had passed by the same night towards his house, or Bath town, yet the said Tobias Knight did not discover to the deponent that any such pirogue had been at his house, or that he knew of Teache's being in the country. There was produced a letter from the before named Tobias Knight, directed to captain Edward Teache, on board the sloop Adventure, which letter was proved to have been found among Teache's papers, after his death, and by comparison of the hand with other papers, appears to be the writing of the said Tobias Knight, which said letter was read, and is as follows:

November 17, 1717.

MY FRIEND: If this finds you yet in harbour, I would have you make the best of your way up, as soon as possible your affairs will let you. I have something more to say to you than, at present I can write; the bearer will tell you the end of our Indian