Show belmo ELMO SCOTT WATSON D isis western newspaper union his hi cifes tongue made him a pirate THE early part of the eighteenth IN century there lived on the island of 0 barbados a retired british army officer named maj bonnet bonfie t A man of good birth education and some wealth lie he was highly respected by hla his neighbors and there apparently was no do reason whatever for ills hla action when in the spring ot of 1717 he decided to become ft a pirate but history that industrious gossip says there wits was a reason and that reason was dame bonnet she so it Is said had a tongue which would have made Xan xanthippe xantippe tippe stand silent in awe so between piracy and petulance the major chose piracy ue ile purchased a swift schooner which he named the revenge and set forth upon what was supposed to he be a trading voyage A few days out from port he hoisted the black flag and announced to his crew that they were to be pirates from the carolinas Caroll nas to massachusetts chu the new pirate leader murdered and robbed find and he Is one of the few pirates who Is known to have forced hla his captives to walk the plank on one occasion he be fell in with the pirate blackboard blackbeard who noticed that bonnet was only an amateur pirate and humiliated him by depriving him of his command and matins making him a clerk soon afterwards while blackboard blackbeard was absent bonnet went to gov E eden den of north carolina surrendered and received a pardon then he announced that he was going to get a commission as a privateer and ravage the french and spanish shipping in the west indies he got a crew by going to the island where blackboard beard had marooned some ot of ills men took them off and told them that he was going to seek out blackboard blackbeard and have revenge ne ile failed to find the famous pirate so he sailed away to the north on tills this cruise he changed the name of his vessel to the royal james a doubtful compliment to the young pretender and himself took thenamae the name of captain thomas after looting a number of vessels off the middle atlantic coast bonnet again arned turned south only to find that the carolinas were aroused against him A prominent citizen of south carolina named william rhett led an expedit expedition lon in two ships against agal the pirate leader and after one of the bloodiest battles batties ever fought between pirates and the forces of the law rhett captured bonnet and took him to charles town to be tried bonnet made the most abject cowardly plea for arlen ty cy but he was found guilty and sentenced to be han hanged ed he managed to escape from prison but was again captured on sullivans island by chett Us he died in execution dock no NOT v 24 1718 |