I have been asked "Why there were so many pirates operating in the late 17th- and early 18th-centuries along the VA/Carolina coasts"? and why the "government" did not do anything about it??? In short, the money was here and the law was not. Gold, silver and valuable cargo were shipped daily in big merchant vessels only lightly armed. Those went from the Caribbean areas and, to a lesser degree from our own shipping centers on the East Coast. We had no national government, no Navy, and no forces other than those supplied by the British - we were English men and women, and we looked across the ocean for protection. So, while the colonial governors and proprietors could request military help, it was slow in being authorized and slower in coming by reason of 5 to 10 weeks being required for the transoceanic passage, one way. Thus, this land being SO remote from the rest of the world and having a thousand coves and inlets in which to find haven, the pirates operated almost with impunity. The maps of the Carolina coasts still show "Teach's Channel" and "Teachs Cove"; Teach was Blackbeard. Notice, too, that ONLY the merchants and the richest of us gave a hoot, since pirates stole only those items that the wealthy coveted; a colonial farmer was not interested in having a sword run through him in any fight to prevent a loss of money or silk by the rich. Interestingly, the Governor was aroused to great effort by very irate merchants, ship owners and wealthy shippers, and in late 1719 (November, as I recall) Teach and his crew were killed and/or captured in Albermarle Sound(?) or nearby. To the cheers of the people, it is said, his head swung from the bowsprit of one of several small Colonial fighting ships as those sailed back into James River off James City, Surry and IofW. Anybody out there an expert in pirates?; speak up, if you are, since I am not. Paul

Paul and All: In the book "The Secret Diary of William Byrd", he mentions the pirates operating along the Carolina coast and the arrival of the ship bearing Teaches' head.. The "diary" is a very interesting book which I happend to find in our local communtiy college library.. It is very enlightening on the government and everyday life of the period around 1700 in Jamestown and the Colony of Va.. G. Lee Hearl Authentic Appalachian Storyteller Abingdon, Va.