Blackbeard’s head was cut from his body, and hung at the end of the bowsprit of Maynard’s sloop. With this revolting trophy he sailed into Newbern to obtain relief for his wounded men. In examining the papers found on board the pirate’s vessel, the correspondence was discovered between Governor Eden and his secretary with the pirate. There were also several merchants in New York who were in friendly communication with him. These papers would doubtless have been destroyed had it not been for the desperate resolve which the pirate had formed. Blackbeard had but little hope of escaping. He therefore posted one of the most demoniac of the pirates, with a match, in the powder-room. Assuring him that if they were taken they would assuredly be hanged, and that it was far better to die by their own action, in an instant, than to perish upon the scaffold, he instructed him that should the ship be boarded and captured, he was to apply the match and blow them all up together. It chanced that there were two prisoners in the ship’s hold. They seized the pirate, and prevented him from executing his design. It was this same Blackbeard, to whom we have already alluded, who one day, when flushed with drink, said to his boon companions: “Come, let us make a hell of our own, and see who can stand it longest.” One night, when drinking, in his cabin, with two or three companions, he secretly drew out a small pair of pistols, blew out the candle, and, crossing his hands, discharged them at random into the midst of the company. One of the bullets struck an officer on the knee, and crippled him for life. The other bullet fortunately harmed no one. Being asked why he did this, he replied: “If I did not now and then kill some of you, you would forget who I am.” The following entries were found in his logbook, written with his own hand, under different dates: “Rum all out; our company somewhat sober. “Confusion among us; rogues a-plotting. “Great talk of separation. “Took a vessel with a great deal of liquor on board; so kept the company hot.” It is evident that these godless wretches passed joyless and miserable lives. Experience verifies the declaration of the Bible that “the way of the transgressor is hard.” The ship and stores captured by Lieutenant Maynard were in value estimated at but twelve thousand five hundred dollars. Though this wretched pirate had squandered his plunder with great prodigality, it was generally supposed that he had valuable treasure secreted. In the carousal of the night before his capture, one of the men asked if, in case anything should happen to him in the engagement, his wife knew where he had buried his money. He replied, “The devil and I alone knew where it is. The one of us two who lives the longest will have the whole.”