Nassau is a town on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas. It was founded in 1670 as Charles Town and used as a base for privateers against the Spanish until it was destroyed in a raid in 1684. It was rebuilt as Nassau in 1695 in honour of King William III. It was attacked by the French and Spanish in 1703, 1704 and 1706. From 1703 to 1718 there was no legitimate governor in the colony. It became a centre of pirate activity from 1713-18, known as ‘the Pirate Republic’, dominated by Benjamin Hornigold and Henry Jennings and numbering as many as 1000 men at its high point. Among its itinerant inhabitants, known as the Flying Gang, were Blackbeard, Charles Vane, Jack Rackham, and Black Sam Bellamy. ‘The Pirate Republic’ fell apart after the issuing of the kings pardon in September 1717 and the arrival of the new governor, Woodes Rogers, in July 1718.