As soon as the sloops were near enough, Blackbeard, without waiting for any preliminary exercises, such as a demand for surrender or any nonsense of that sort, let drive at the intruders with eight heavily loaded cannon.
Now the curtain had been rung up, and the play began, and a very lively play it was.

The guns of the Virginians blazed away at the pirate ship, and they would have sent out boats to board her had not Blackbeard forestalled them.

Boarding was always a favorite method of fighting with the pirates.

They did not often carry heavy cannon, and even when they did, they had but little fancy for battles at long distances.

What they liked was to meet foes face to face and cut them down on their own decks.