After vainly searching for a considerable time for a trace or sight of Blackbeard, the baffled Bonnet gave up the pursuit and turned his mind to other objects.

The first thing he did was to change the name of his vessel; if he could not be revenged, he would not sail in the _Revenge_.

Casting about in his mind for a good name, he decided to call her the _Royal James_.

Having no intention of respecting his oaths or of keeping his promises, he thought that, as he was going to be disloyal, he might as well be as disloyal as he could, and so he gave his ship the name assumed by the son of James the Second, who was a pretender to the throne, and was then in France plotting against the English government.
The next thing he did was to change his own name, for he thought this would make matters better for him if he should be captured after entering upon his new criminal career.

So he called himself Captain Thomas, by which name he was afterwards known.
When these preliminaries had been arranged, he gathered his crew together and announced that instead of going to St.Thomas to get a commission as a privateer, he had determined to keep on in his old manner of life, and that he wished them to understand that not only was he a pirate captain, but that they were a pirate crew.