The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1865-07-19
The Pirate Hoard.


thousand piratical chiefs that haunted seas, in
colonial periods the scoundres par excellence, were
/ Kidd and Blackboard They are the historical, or
traditional planters of hidden treasures and there is
not a river from the Hudson to the Altamaha, which
the simple faith of the inhabitants does not assert them
to have penetrated for this purpose In woods among
4 rocks and on little sand Dunes or isets of the sea
they are believed to have buried their iilgotten gold
-secretng their booddyed spos by night and making
the place awfuIly tabooed by bloody sacrifices. The
pirate law gave the treasure to the last survivor 1t is
supposed that he rarely inherited.
No doubt there good ground for the vulgar
faith. The pirates, know did bury their treasures,
in this way, in unfrequented places. The spos gath
cred from captured vessel we're rarely risked at
sea, when good opportunity was afforded at the end
Of the cruise for secretng it along shore This was
always the case, where gold, silver and jewels were
the fruits of their enterprise. Merchandise on the
contrary, had to find market. This not wanting.
Many Of our moral cities, such New York, Boston,
Charleston, and Savannah, furnished customers for
| these famous free-traders. Sometimes, even, they
walked the streets with mpunity. Nay, the colonial
governors in certain cases not only winked at their
offences, but shared largely of the spoil They were
not dainty about the morality of blackmail
| Well Kidd and Blackboard finally succumbed to the
| sword of the law. The latter fell in terrible fight
with lieutenant Maynard of the British navy, and his
head, instead Of looking through gallows,
elevated to the honors of bOwsprit stuck on that Of
the British cruiser and vOyagng, with all its terrors
3
old North State His followers, slain made captive
/ to be hung after, were all disposed of. Where was
the survivor to find and claim his buried treasures
Among yonder isets, lying along the shores OF South
Carolina between the waters of the Pedee and Ashley
the pirates had often found easy and snug harborage
On one more of these, separated from the main
only by slender Of the sea- they had buried their
| ill-gotten gains. They had buried them with wild
orgies bucherng their unsuspectng prisoners over
The spoil and covering the gold and the sacrifice in
the same tomb together. The supersttons OF this
period particuarlv of the pirates themselves assumed
that the victim on such occasions haunted and pro-
tected the treasure. At all events, the ceremonial
was of sort to increase the respect for these places
of deposit and protect the treasure measurablv from
the hands of cupidity.
The death Of Blackbeard--the captivity and final
execution of most all of his companions, would seem
to have left these places of deposit safe from any
search But the Faes rarely abandon their treasures
1t happened that Blackbeards were not all on
board of his vessels at the time of their fight with
Maynard. The famous girl of Pamc0 survived!
And who, asks the ignorant reader, was this girl of
Pamlico? Thereby hangs a tale"
The girl of PamlicO Nancy Hutton, was the four
teeuth wife Of blackboard. Our pirate a sultan
in his way, and his cruiser was only floating harem.
iie got rid of his wives to suppose, after
convenient fashion Of his own. But the girl Of Pam
leo stuck to him the longest and, from the banks of
the river on the route of the British cruiser to the
town of Bath she had the melancholy satisfaction,
from safe covert, of seeing the black and bloody
mage of her consort staring right and left without
recCsnising her who had shared his cabin for thirteen
mohthS' She terrible virago and the savage
pirate had leaned in degree to tremble li,nFc
at her ierocity Famed TO the teeth and hqIS never
man, shc had stood by his side iRg n foot and |
shrinking, mover bicnching neversarlessi os tbp hoe
using t,ad-sword and carbe nneb foG tbo iii or
artd rufiian Of the Gro. 90 nuc" ioF 'ie Girl o'
Pamlico
But tbcro r-,s et another survivor of the pirate
vessel ~, was one Mathew Hornsby captain OF
naripcs to Blackboard who lay perdu sick in OBJ
sCure hOve of the town of Bath, when Maynard and
blackboard grapped in the last at"! fight Of The ater
These two then all that remained OF those who
were in possession of the secret Of the pirate hoard
-~:sl burfed among the SletS OF Carolina. And
both Of them had to be quiet for long time after the
capture of Blackbeard-the waters about them being
still very much troubled the British cruisers being |
now thick along the coast and governor and council
new both-Of North Carolina, being little more !
stidous on the subject of black mail than their godly
predecessors.
But after season Of becoming patience our girl |
OF lamlicO and captain of marines in condition
to bestr themselves Very bold and brave, and not
very scrupulous was the buxom Nancy Hutton. She
had the treasure buried and not unwilling to
appropriate it wholly to herself But she was ignorant
of the route by which TO approach it from the land,
and was not in her power command the exclusive
approach by sea. Either way it necessary to unite
her fortunes with those Of some other persona man,
and mariner, if possble-upon whom she could rely;
and auspicous to her object, there Mathew Horns
by So lately sick to DEATH he had begun to recover,
and his recovery to be speeded by proper nursing
So She sought him out-she knew all the haunts of the
pirates when shore, and there but little difficulty
in the successful search She came to bim in his fee
blcness and lonelncss-slle watched beside hm-made
his gruel-comorted him with pleasant attentions,
and with the sort of society for which he best
clincs to the priesthood; may add that in this
dition, he will look lovingly even upon saint. How
much mere upon sinner, who brings him like succor
Hornsby very grateful you may be sure, for such
the part of his masters wife Nancy
Hutton had been comely wOman-else, indeed, she
had never found favor with Blackboard. She still
comely, though somewhat portly, and with rather too
decided appetite for strong waters. Between such
parties disposed, widows wooings are irresistible
HOmsby made happy by Nancys soups and grucls
began look wistfulIy on Nancy herself and Nancy
disposed herself artully possible the better to
provoke his wfuI looks. Need you ask what followed?
She became his wife, the less reluctant, he, may be
permitted to suppose she too possessed the secret of
he hidden treasure and might possibly be regarded as
he proper heir to the departed pirate. Marriage gave
lim perfect claim as the heir of Blackboard The
performed after Indifferent fashion,
" goodly priest of nondescript church, who got
erriby drunk after the ceremony. lie woke in the
morning to find himself the only occupant of the hove
It Bath, where the knot tied. The happy couple
disappeared from the town that very night.
They had taken due precautions, and made all proper
preparations before they submitted the painful
nony They struck at once for the INTERIOR taking
,ourse south by west How they Jared along the road
lay by day. for they on foot it is needfu to
cport. They found cabins at convenient distances,
tie hog and hominy at small cost and gradually worked
heir way into South Carolina.
But this progress thus far, not effected without
bad weather They were not harmonious
pilgrims The course Of true love is said to run
the same thing is much properlyso
where there but little love- or rather no love ALL
Iot love- but necessity had brought them together
Certainly love never blessed them with fair winds on
heir present voyage Mathew Hornsby, like most
her pirates, had taste for strong waters; and men
10 not marry women usually because of consonancy
L tastes. Unhappily, Nancys taste for the same !