CAPTAIN KIDD, A PIRATE WITH A

ROYAL COMMISSION.

CAPTAIN WILLIAM KIDD, the hero of, as it may be called, this political and nautical romance, was born in the town of Greenock, in Scotland, and bred up for a seaman's life. Having quitted his native country, he resided at New York, where he became owner of a small vessel, with which he traded among the pirates, and thus obtained a thorough knowledge of their haunts, and could give a better account of them than any other person whatever. He was a man not particularly remarkable for courage, but very avaricious. He could never resist the tempting influence of the rapid profits made by pirates, and to this was owing his connection with them. While in their company, he used to converse and act as they did; yet at other times he would make singular professions of honesty, and intimate how easy a matter it would be to extirpate sea robbers, and prevent their future depredations. His frequent remarks on this subject engaged the notice of several considerable planters in the state of New York, who, forming a more favourable opinion of him than his true character would warrant, procured him the patronage with which he was afterwards honoured. For a

series of years complaints had been made of the piracies committed in the West Indies, which had been greatly encouraged by some of the inhabitants of North America, on account of the advantage they derived from purchasing effects thus fraudulently obtained. This coming to the knowledge of King William III., he, in the year 1695, bestowed the government of New England and New York on his devoted follower, Richard Coote, Earl of Bellamont, an Irish noble of distinguished character and abilities, who immediately began to consider of the most effectual method to redress the evils complained of, and consulted with Colonel Levingston, a gentleman who had great property in New York, on the most feasible steps to obviate the evils so long complained of. At this juncture Captain Kidd, having made money at New York, was sailing pompously about in a sloop of his own. The colonel fixed on him as the very man needed, and mentioned him to Lord Bellamont as a bold and daring personage, fit to be employed against the pirates, especially as he was perfectly acquainted with the places they resorted to. The plan met with the fullest approbation of his lordship, who reported the affair to King William, and recommended it to the notice of the Board of Admiralty. Yet such were then the hurry and confusion of public affairs in that troubled reign, that, though the design was approved of, no steps were taken towards carrying it into execution. Accordingly, Colonel Levingston made application to Lord Bellamont, that as the affair would not well admit of delay, it was worthy of being undertaken by some private persons of rank and dis

tinction, and carried into execution at their own expense, notwithstanding State encouragement was denied it. His lordship acceded to the project, and, after some difficulties, the Lord Chancellor Somers, the Duke of Shrewsbury, the Earl of Romney, the Earl of Orford, and some other high persons, with Colonel Levingston and our gallant Captain Kidd himself, agreed to raise £6,000 for the expense of the voyage; and the colonel and the captain were to have a fifth of the profits of the whole undertaking. Matters being so far adjusted, a royal commission in the usual form was granted to Captain Kidd, to take and seize pirates, and bring them to justice; but though a second commission was added, there was, beyond the general direction not to molest the king's friends, and to bring ships taken to legal trial, no special clause or proviso to restrain his conduct, or regulate the mode of his proceeding. Kidd was known to Lord Bellamont, and another gentleman presented him to Lord Romney. With regard to the rest of the parties concerned, he was wholly unacquainted with them; and so ill was this affair conducted, that he had no private instructions how to act, but received his sailing orders from Lord Bellamont, the purport of which was, that he should act agreeably to the letter of his commission. Behold Kidd now a great man bearing the commission of the bellicose monarch of the Revolution, and with powers unbounded to crush all piracy and robbery on the sea.

A ship was purchased and equipped in the port of London; it received the name, which this affair made so known, of the Adventure Galley. In this vessel

Captain Kidd crossed the Atlantic, and then towards the close of the year 1695 sailed from New York and made prize of a French ship. Thence he went on to Madeira islands, to Bonavista, and St. Jago, and to Madagascar, acting fairly enough at first; but the sight of so many rich and defenceless merchant ships he met on his way was too strong for him. He could not resist the temptation, and lo! he, the authorised destroyer of pirates, turns pirate himself, and becomes a sea robber with a royal commission. He prowled at the entrance of the Red Sea, and, sailing to Calicut, he began a fearful career of crime by taking a ship of one hundred and fifty tons burthen, which he carried to Madagascar, and disposed of there. Having sold this prize he again put to sea, and at the expiration of five weeks fell upon and seized the Quedagh Merchant, a ship of four hundred tons burthen, the master of which was an Englishman, named Wright, who had two Dutch mates on board, and a French gunner; but the crew consisted of Moors, natives of Africa, and were about ninety in number. Kidd carried this ship to St. Mary's, near Madagascar, where he burnt the Adventure Galley, belonging to his owners, and divided the lading of the Quedagh Merchant with his crew, taking forty shares to himself. He and his crew then went on board the Quedagh Merchant, and sailed for the West Indies. It is uncertain whether the inhabitants of the West India islands knew that Kidd was a pirate; but he was refused refreshments at Anguilla and St. Thomas's, and therefore sailed to Mona, between Porto Rico and Hispaniola, where, through the

management of an Englishman, named Bolton, he obtained a supply of provisions from Curaçoa. He now bought a sloop of Bolton, in which he stowed great part of his ill-gotten effects, and left the Quedagh Merchant, with eighteen of the ship's company, in Bolton's care. While at St. Mary's, ninety men of Kidd's crew left him, and went on board the Mocca Merchant, an East India ship, which had just then commenced pirate. Kidd sailed in the sloop, and touched at several places, where he disposed of a great part of his cargo, and then steered for Boston, in New England. In the interim, Bolton sold the Quedagh Merchant to the Spaniards, and immediately sailed as a passenger in a ship for Boston, where he arrived a considerable time before Kidd, and gave to Lord Bellamont information of what had happened. Kidd, therefore, on his arrival, was seized by order of his lordship, when all he had to urge in his defence was, that he thought the Quedagh Merchant a lawful prize, as she was manned with Moors, though there was no kind of proof that this vessel had committed any act of piracy. Upon this, the Earl of Bellamont immediately despatched an account to England of the circumstances that had arisen, and requested that a ship might be sent for Kidd, who had committed several other notorious acts of piracy. News in those days travelled slowly, but one may conceive the excitement that arose in England when it became at length known that an adventure in which the Lord Chancellor and other high men of the State were shareholders, was being piratically carried on to the terror and ruin of the peaceful merchant ships afloat,