Treasure seekers of gold bullion are more interested in Blackbeard’s undiscovered treasure than in families. The buried hoard is so fascinating. Can it be found? This haunting mystery plays a particular role in our past and present. Finding the gold dominates.
Treasure seekers have pursued many spots along North Carolina’s sounds and rivers in search of the pirate’s buried hoard.
Tradition says that it was the gruesome custom of pirates to bury the murdered body of one of their bands with the stolen gold, that his restless spirit might “walk” as the guardian of the spot. And weird tales are still told of treasure seekers who seek the hidden riches of Capt. Teach and his band on islands and tangled swamps along eastern waterways.
Hardly a river that flows into our eastern sounds but claims to have once borne on its bosom the dreaded Adventure, Blackbeard’s pirate craft; hardly a settlement along those streams but retains traditions of the days when the black flag of that dreaded ship could be seen streaming in the breeze as the swift sails sped the pirates by, on murder and plunder bent.
Up Little River that flows by George Durant’s home down to the broad waters of Albemarle Sound, Teach, and his drunken crew would come, seeking refuge after some bold marauding expedition, in the hidden arms of the Pasquotank River and frighten nearby settlers.
On all these waters, “Teach’s Light” is still said to shed a ghostly gleam on dark winter nights, and where its rays are seen to rest, there, so the gullible believe, his red-gold still hides, deep down in the waters or buried along the shore.
A few miles down the Pasquotank from Elizabeth City, North Carolina, there stands near the river shore a quaint old building known as “The Old Brick House,” which is said to have been one of Blackbeard’s many widely scattered haunts. A small circular slab of granite, possibly an old mill wheel, is sunken at the foot of the steps and bears the date 1709 and the initials “E.T.”
Source: In Ancient Albemarle by Catherine Albertson.
