By 1718 Blackbeard had exhausted his welcome with the governor
of North Carolina, Charles Eden, whom he had previously bribed for
protection. With increasing pressure being placed by Eden, and
having been kicked out of Nassau by Royal Governor Woodes Rogers,
Blackbeard needed a more remote hideout, so he started to move
across the watershed into the Tennessee River valley.
However Blackbeard’s stay in the region was brief because Robert
Maynard, captain of the English war ship HMS Pearl, was hot on his
coat tail. Legend has it that Blackbeard stored loot in the area,
and that he had a hideout on Skull Island. There was a brief but
bloody encounter on Patton Island with Robert Maynard, where it is
thought that Blackbeard left behind a key to the location of his
loot before fleeing back to more familiar territory...
