This is the only time Bonnet is known to have practised this pirate custom, and it suggests he had by then abandoned his unorthodox practice of paying regular wages to his crew. Twelve days out of Delaware Bay, Bonnet entered the estuary of the Cape Fear River and anchored near the mouth of a small waterway, now known as Bonnet's Creek. The Royal James had begun to leak badly and was in need of careening. Shortly afterwards, a small shallop entered the river and was captured. Bonnet had the shallop broken up to help repair the Royal James. The work of careening was done, in whole or in part, by the prisoners Bonnet had captured. Bonnet threatened at least one man with marooning if he did not work with the slaves to repair the Royal James. Bonnet remained in the Cape Fear River for the next 45 days. According to Bonnet's boatswain, Ignatius Pell, the pirates intended to wait out the hurricane season there. Battle of Cape Fear River By the end of August, news had reached Charles Town that Bonnet's vessels were moored in the Cape Fear River. Robert Johnson, governor of South Carolina, authorised Colonel William Rhett to lead a naval expedition against the pirates, even though the Cape Fear River was in North Carolina's jurisdiction. After a false start due to the appearance of another pirate ship near Charles Town, Rhett arrived at the mouth of the Cape Fear River on 26 September with two eight-gun sloops, the Henry and the Sea Nymph, and a force of 130 militia men. Bonnet initially mistook Rhett's squadron for merchantmen and sent three canoes to capture them. Rhett's flagship Henry had run aground in the river mouth, enabling Bonnet's canoe crews to approach, recognize the heavily armed and crewed sloops as hostile and return uninjured to warn Bonnet. The sun had set by the time the rising tide lifted the Henry off the river bottom. The 46 pirates were scattered among the three sloops. During the night, Bonnet brought all of them aboard the Royal James and planned to fight his way out to sea in the morning rather than risk the Cape Fear River's narrow channels in the dark. Bonnet also wrote a letter to Governor Johnson, threatening to burn all the ships in Charles Town Harbour. At daybreak, on 27 September 1718, Bonnet set sail toward Rhett's force,