_William Kidd becomes a Pirate._
Ravages of the Pirates.--The King’s Interview with Earl
Bellomont.--William Kidd, the New-York Merchant.--His
Commission.--Sailing of the Adventure.--Recruiting in
New York.--Circuitous Trip to Madagascar.--Perils and
Sufferings.--Madagascar the Pirates’ Home.--Murmurings of the
Crew.--Kidd reluctantly turns Pirate.--His Repulses, and his
Captures.
In the year 1695, the King of England, William III., summoned before
him the Earl of Bellomont, who had been governor of Barbadoes, and whom
he had recently appointed governor of New York, and said to him:
“The buccaneers have so increased in the East and West Indies, and
all along the American coast, that they defiantly sail under their
own flag. They penetrate the rivers; land in numbers sufficient to
capture cities, robbing palaces and cathedrals, and extorting enormous
ransom. Their suppression is vital to commerce. They have possessed
themselves of magnificent retreats, in Madagascar and other islands of
the Indian Ocean. They have established their seraglios, and are living
in fabulous splendor and luxury. Piratic expeditions are fitted out
from the colonies of New England and Virginia; and even the Quakers
of Pennsylvania afford a market for their robberies. These successful
freebooters are making their homes in the Carolinas, in Rhode Island,
and along the south shore of Long Island, where they and their children
take positions among the most respectable in the community.
“The buccaneers are so audacious that they seek no concealment. Their
ships are laden with the spoil of all nations. The richest prizes
which can now be taken on the high seas are the heavily laden ships of
the buccaneers. I have resolved, with the aid of others, to fit out
a private expedition against them. We have formed a company for that
purpose. By attacking the pirates we shall accomplish a double object.
We shall in the first place check their devastating operations, and we
shall also fill our purses with the proceeds of the abundant spoil with
which their ships are laden.”
This second consideration was doubtless the leading one in the
movement. The king was in great need of money. His nobles were
impoverished by extravagance. They were ready to resort to any measures
to replenish their exhausted treasuries. This royal company was
therefore organized, not as a national movement, sustained by national
law, but as a _piratic_ expedition against the _pirates_. The reclaimed
treasure was not to be restored to its owners, nor to be placed in the
treasury of the kingdom, but to be divided among the captors as their
legitimate spoil. And still the king was to give the commission in his
kingly name.
The king informed the Earl of Bellomont that he was about to invest him
with the government of New York, and wished him to suggest the name of
some suitable person, who was familiar with the North American coast
and the West Indian seas, to whom he could intrust the command of the
frigate they were then fitting out. It so chanced that an illustrious
Englishman, Mr. Robert Livingston, the first of that name who had
emigrated to the New World, was then in London. The earl consulted with
him. He was informed that just the man he needed had accompanied him
from New York to London, leaving his family behind. He was a merchant,
by the name of William Kidd, a man of tried courage and integrity.
In the last war with the French, Captain Kidd had commanded a
privateersman, and had gained signal honor in many engagements. He had
sailed over all the seas frequented by the buccaneers, and was familiar
with their haunts. The commission which the king gave to Captain Kidd
is a curious document. It is here given abridged of its excessive
verbiage:
“William the Third, by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland,
France, and Ireland, to our true and well-beloved Captain William Kidd,
commander of the ship Adventure. Whereas divers wicked persons commit
many and great piracies, robberies, and depredations on the seas, upon
the coasts of America and other parts, to the hindrance of trade and
the danger of our subjects, we have thought fit to give to the said
William Kidd full authority to seize all such pirates as you may find
on the seas, whether our subjects or the subjects of other nations,
with their ships, and all merchandise or money which shall be found on
board, if they willingly yield themselves. But if they will not yield
without fighting, then you are, by force, to compel them to yield. We
do also require you to bring, or cause to be brought, such pirates,
freebooters, or sea rovers, as you shall seize, to a legal trial, to
the end they may be proceeded against according to the law in such
cases.
“We enjoin you to keep an exact journal of your proceedings, giving the
names of the ships you may capture, the names of their officers and
crew, and the value of their cargoes, and stores. And we command you,
at your peril, that you do not molest our friends or allies under any
pretence of authority hereby granted. Given the 26th of January, 1695.”
Captain Kidd at the same time received another document, which
was called a commission of reprisals. This authorized him, as a
privateersman, to take any French merchant ships he might chance to
meet; for there was then war between France and England.
A ship was purchased, for thirty thousand dollars, called the
Adventure. Of this sum, Captain Kidd and Mr. Livingston furnished three
thousand each. The remainder was contributed by the Earls Bellomont
and Romney, Lord Chancellor Somers, the Lord High Admiral, the Duke
of Shrewsbury, and Sir Henry Harrison. The king, rather ingloriously,
paid nothing. He purchased his share in the enterprise by the royal
patronage.
It seems that Captain Kidd was a man of high reputation at that time.
It was a large amount of property to be intrusted to his hands; for
the vessel and its outfit must have cost at least fifty thousand
dollars. Mr. Livingston became Kidd’s security that he would faithfully
discharge his duties and account for all his captures. It is said that
Kidd was not pleased with this arrangement, as he was very unwilling
that Mr. Livingston should be his bondsman. He probably, even then,
felt that it might prove an obstacle in his future course. The
operations of the human mind are often inexplicable. He might wish to
_steal_ the ship and turn _pirate_ on his own account. And he could not
_honorably_ do this while his friend was his bondsman. Such pressure
was put upon him that he was constrained to yield.
Armed with the royal commission, and in command of the Adventure,
Captain Kidd sailed from Plymouth, England, in May, 1696. The frigate
had an armament of thirty guns, and a crew of eighty men. He was
ordered to render his accounts to the Earl of Bellomont in New York.
He sailed up the Narrows, into New York harbor, in July. His wife and
children were in his home there. In crossing the Atlantic, Captain
Kidd came across a French merchantman, which he captured. The prize
was valued at but seventeen hundred dollars. This was considered a
legitimate act of war.
Captain Kidd knew full well that the enemy he was to encounter would
fight with the utmost desperation, and that he might meet a fleet of
piratic ships, or a single ship, more powerful in men and armament than
his own. He therefore sent out recruiting officers through the streets
of New York, to enlist volunteers. The terms he offered were that every
man should have an equal share of every prize that was taken, after
reserving for himself and the owners forty shares. With these offers he
soon increased his crew to one hundred and fifty-five men.
Sailing from the harbor of New York, he made first for Madeira, to lay
in a stock of wine. Then he directed his course to the Cape de Verd
Islands, for a supply of salt and provisions. Having obtained these, he
spread his canvas for a long voyage around the Cape of Good Hope, to
the Island of Madagascar, on the eastern coast of Africa. This island
had become renowned as one of the most important rendezvouses of the
pirates.
Madagascar is larger than Great Britain. The pirates, by aid of their
firearms, their desperate courage, and their superior intelligence, had
gained possession of a considerable portion of the island. The natives
were an inefficient race, copper-colored, with long, black hair. The
pirates had treated them with such enormous cruelty, that the savages
fled before them as if they had been demons.
In this retreat, so far distant from the abodes of civilization,
the buccaneers had reared forts, and built mansions which they had
converted into harems. From their voyages they returned here enriched
with the plundered commerce of the world, to revel in all sensual
indulgence. They made slaves of their prisoners; married, in their
rude way any number they pleased of the most beautiful of the native
females; “so that every one,” writes one of their number, “had as great
a seraglio as the Grand Seignior at Constantinople. At length they
began to separate from each other, each living with his own wives,
slaves, and dependants, like independent princes. As power and plenty
naturally beget contention, they sometimes quarrelled, and attacked
each other at the head of their several armies. In these civil wars
many of them were killed.”
These reckless men used their power like tyrants. They grew wanton in
cruelty. Nothing was more common than, upon the slightest displeasure,
to cause one of their dependants to be tied to a tree and shot through
the heart. The natives combined for their extermination. The plan would
have succeeded but for betrayal by a woman. They trembled in view of
their narrow escape, and combined for mutual defence.
These ruffians assumed all the airs of the ancient baronial nobility.
Their dwellings were citadels. They generally chose for their residence
some dense forest, near running water. The house was surrounded by
a rampart and a ditch. The rampart was so high that it could not be
climbed without scaling-ladders. The dwelling was so concealed, in the
dense tropical forest, that it could not be seen until you were very
near it. The only approach was so narrow that two could not pass it
abreast. It was contrived in so intricate a manner that, to all not
perfectly familiar with it, it was a perfect labyrinth, with cross
paths where one might wander for hours, lost in the maze.
All along these narrow paths, large and very sharp thorns, which grew
in that country, were planted in the ground, so as to pierce the feet
of the unshod natives. If any should attempt to approach the house by
night, they would certainly be pierced and torn by those cruel thorns.
It was a long voyage to Madagascar. Before he reached the island nine
months had elapsed since leaving Plymouth. Captain Kidd had expended
all his money, and his provisions were nearly exhausted. Not a single
prize had they captured by the way. This ill luck caused a general
feeling of murmuring and contention on board. The most amiable are in
danger of losing their amiability in hours of disaster. Rude seamen,
but one remove from pirates, in such seasons of disappointment and
chagrin become almost demons in moroseness.
One morning the whole ship’s crew were thrown into a state of the most
joyous excitement by the sight of three ships in the distant horizon.
They had no doubt that it was some buccaneer, with two prizes,
heavily laden with the treasures of the Orient. Suddenly all became
very good-natured. Eagerly they prepared for action. They had no fear
that the pirate, with his prizes, could escape their swift-sailing
frigate. The supposed pirate was apparently conscious that escape was
impossible; for he bore down boldly upon them.
Terrible was the disappointment. Captain Kidd, gazing upon the
approaching vessels through his glass, exclaimed, with an oath, “They
are three English war-ships.”
Captain Warren was in command of the men-of-war. Meeting thus in
mid-ocean, the two captains interchanged civilities, visited each
other, and kept company for two or three days. It was in the month
of February, 1666, that Captain Kidd, coasting along the shores of
Madagascar, approached the harbor upon the island frequented by the
pirates. Here he expected to find treasure in abundance. He had very
decidedly exceeded his orders in leaving the waters of America for the
distant shores of Africa and Asia. Triumphant success, which he was
sanguine of achieving, might cause the disobedience of instructions not
only to be forgiven but applauded. Failure would be to him disgrace and
irretrievable ruin.
Again Captain Kidd and his crew were doomed to disappointment. It so
happened that they arrived at the island at a time when every vessel
was out on a piratic cruise. There was not a single vessel there. All
were growing desperate. Captain Kidd had but very little money left,
and nearly all his provisions were consumed. As hastily as possible he
replenished his water-casks, and taking in a few more stores, weighed
anchor, and voyaged thirteen hundred miles farther east to Malabar, as
the whole western coast of Hindostan was then called, from Cape Comorin
to Bombay.
He came within sight of these shores in June, four months after his
arrival at Madagascar. For some time he cruised up and down this
coast unavailingly. Not a single sail was to be seen on the boundless
expanse of ocean. There was universal discontent and murmurings on
board the Adventure. The situation of the ship’s company was indeed
deplorable. One-half of the globe was between them and their homes.
Their provisions were nearly all gone, and they had no means with which
to purchase more. It was clear that unless Providence should interpose
in their favor, they must either steal or starve.
And Providence did, for a time, singularly interpose. As they were one
day sailing by a small island, called Joanna, they saw the wreck of
a ship on shore. Captain Kidd took a boat and was rowed to the land,
where he found that it was a French vessel. The crew had escaped,
having saved quite a quantity of gold. The ship and cargo were a total
loss. The Frenchman, so the narrative goes, _loaned_ this gold to
Captain Kidd. Perhaps he did. It is more probable that it was a forced
loan. Captain Kidd had, as we have mentioned, a double commission,
one against the pirates, and the other a regular commission as a
privateersman against the French. Had he captured the ship before
the wreck it would have been his lawful prize. It is hardly probable
that he had any scruples of conscience in seizing the doubloons when
transferred to the shore.
With this gold he sailed to one of the ports on the Malabar coast,
where he purchased food sufficient for a few weeks only. There was,
at that time, in Asia, one of the most powerful nations on the globe,
called the Mongols. The emperor, who was almost divinely worshipped,
was titled the Great Mogul. His gorgeous palaces were reared in the
city of Samarcand, in the province of Bokhara. This magnificent city,
thirty miles in circumference, glittered with palaces and mosques
of gorgeous architecture, constructed of white marble. The empire
was founded by the world-renowned Gengis Khan, and extended by the
equally celebrated Tamerlane. The sails of Mongol commerce whitened
all the East-Indian seas. Piracy then so abounded that this commerce
was generally carried on in fleets under convoy. Upon this cruise of
disappointment and anxiety, Captain Kidd passed several of the ships
of the Great Mogul. He looked upon them with a wistful eye. They were
merchantmen. With his force he could easily capture them. There could
be no doubt that they contained treasure of great value.
There was loud murmuring among the crew. They could not understand
those scruples of conscience which would allow them to plunder a few
shipwrecked Frenchmen, and yet would turn aside from the rich argosies
of the East.
But Captain Kidd, a respectable New-York merchant, held in high esteem
by the community, and who had been sent on this expedition expressly to
capture and punish the pirates, was not then prepared to raise himself
the black flag, and thus join the robbers of the seas.
The struggle, in his mind, was probably very severe. He was daily
growing more desperate. Starvation stared him in the face. His crew was
growing mutinous. He had reason to fear that they would rise, throw him
overboard or land him upon some island, and then, raising the black
flag of the pirate, scour the seas on their own account, and join the
riotous band defiantly established at Madagascar.
He had no doubt that the powerful company, who had sent him on this
cruise, would overlook any irregularities in plundering wrong vessels,
and would make no troublesome inquiries into his mode of operations, if
he would only bring them home an abundance of gold. On the other hand,
should he fail, he would be dismissed from their service in disgrace,
an utterly ruined man.
He had learned that the Great Mogul was about to send from the Red
Sea, through the Straits of Babelmandel, a richly freighted fleet of
merchantmen, under convoy, bound to China. The Straits are but about
fifteen miles wide. Consequently there could be no difficulty in
intercepting the fleet.
Captain Kidd had probably, in his silent thoughts, decided to turn
freebooter. Though as yet he had divulged his secret to no one, and had
committed no overt act, he had passed the Rubicon, and was in heart a
pirate. The change was at once perceptible. He ran his ship in toward
the shore, and coasted along until he came in sight of a village of the
natives, where herds were seen in the fields, and harvests were waving,
and the boughs of the groves were laden with the golden fruit of the
tropics. Doubtless he would have been glad to purchase these stores.
But he had no money. He had reached that point in his career at which
he must either steal or starve.
He sent several armed boats to the land, and robbed the unresisting
natives without stint. He was not a man to pursue half measures. Having
well revictualled his ship, he turned her bows toward the entrance to
the Red Sea. Summoning his crew before him, he informed them of the
change in his plans.
“We have been unsuccessful hitherto, my boys,” he said; “but take
courage. Fortune is now about to smile upon us. The fleet of the Great
Mogul, freighted with the richest treasures, is soon to come out of the
Red Sea. From the capture of those heavily laden ships we will all grow
rich.”
This speech was greeted with shouts of applause by the desperate men
whom he had picked up in the streets of London and New York. He sent
out a swift-sailing boat well manned to enter the Red Sea, and run
along its eastern coast on a voyage of discovery. The boat returned
after an absence of a few days, with the rather alarming intelligence
that they had counted a squadron of fifteen large ships just ready
to sail. While some of them bore the flag of the Great Mogul, at the
mast-head of others floated the banners of England and of Holland.
England was in alliance with Holland, and on the most friendly terms
with the Great Mogul. In the commission given to Captain Kidd by the
king it was written:
“We command you at your peril, that you do not molest our friends or
allies, under any pretence of authority hereby granted.”
Captain Kidd must have pondered the question deeply and anxiously
before he could have made up his mind to become an utter outlaw, by
attacking a fleet composed of ships belonging not only to England’s
friend, and to England’s ally, but also containing England’s ships.
Neither did he yet know how strong the convoy by which the fleet was
guarded.
He, however, while weighing these thoughts in his anxious mind, sailed
to and fro before the mouth of the Strait, keeping a vigilant watch at
the mast-head. After the lapse of four days the squadron hove in sight,
far away on the northern horizon. As the vessels approached, Captain
Kidd carefully scrutinized them through his glass. His experienced eye
soon perceived that the fleet was convoyed by two men-of-war, the one
English, the other Dutch. This added to his embarrassment, and greatly
increased his peril in case he should attempt an assault.
The fleet was much scattered; for, strong in its guard, no danger was
apprehended. Kidd’s vessel was concealed from the general view behind
a headland. His ship was a swift sailer, and he had an immense amount
of canvas, which he could almost instantaneously spread to the breeze.
There was a large, bulky Mongol ship, laden to the gunwales, slowly
ploughing its way through the waves, approaching the point where the
pirate lay concealed. The guard ships were at the distance of several
miles.
Captain Kidd darted out upon the galleon like an eagle upon its prey.
He probably hoped to capture it, plunder it, and make his escape before
the war-vessels could come to its rescue. He opened fire upon the ship.
But the convoy, instantly taking the alarm, pressed all sail, and bore
rapidly down upon him, opening a vigorous fire from their heavy guns.
Kidd could not think of contending with them. His chance was gone. He
sheered off, and soon his cloud of swelling canvas disappeared beyond
the southern horizon. The armed frigates could not pursue him. They
were compelled to remain behind to protect the slowly sailing fleet.
Captain Kidd, imbittered by constant failure, was now a disappointed,
chagrined, exasperated, desperate man. He was ready for any
enterprise, however atrocious, which would bring him money. He ran back
to the coast of Malabar. Cruising along, he soon came in sight of a
native vessel. Kidd captured it without a struggle. It was called the
Maiden, belonged to some merchants of Aden, but was commanded by an
Englishman by the name of Parker. The mate, Antonio, was a Portuguese,
familiar with the language of the country.
There was nothing of value on board. Kidd, having resolutely embarked
on a piratic cruise, impressed the captain, Parker, as pilot in those
unknown waters. The mate he retained as an interpreter. Vexed in
finding no gold, and believing that the crew had concealed it, he
treated them with the utmost cruelty to extort a confession of where
they had hid the coin. They were hoisted up by the arms and beaten with
terrible severity. But all was in vain. No amount of torture could
bring to light gold which did not exist.
The pirate, having robbed the poor men of a bale of pepper and a bale
of coffee, with a few pieces of Arabian gold, contemptuously turned
them adrift, bleeding and almost helpless in their exhaustion. After
continuing his cruise for some time without any success, Kidd ran into
a small port, on the Malabar coast, called Carawar. There were several
English merchants residing in that place. The tidings had already
reached them of the capture of the Aden vessel, the impressment of the
English captain and the Portuguese mate, and the cruel treatment of the
crew.
As soon as Captain Kidd entered the port, it was suspected that he was
the pirate. Two English gentlemen, Mr. Harvey and Mr. Mason, came on
board, and charged him with the crime, asking him what he had done with
his two captives, Captain Parker and the Portuguese mate. Kidd assumed
an air of injured innocence, denied that he had any knowledge of the
event, showed them his commission from the King of England as the head
of a company of the most illustrious nobles to pursue and punish the
pirates. Triumphantly he submitted the question if it were reasonable
to suppose that a man who enjoyed the confidence of the king and his
nobles, and was intrusted by them to lead an enterprise so essential to
the national honor, should himself turn pirate.
The gentlemen were silenced, but not convinced. All this time Parker
and Antonio the Portuguese were concealed in a private place in the
hold. There he kept them carefully guarded eight days, until he again
set sail. Just after he had left the port, a Portuguese man-of-war
entered. The English merchants communicated to the commander their
suspicions. He immediately put to sea in search of the Adventure,
resolved, should he overtake her, carefully to examine the hold, hoping
to find the captives on board, or at least some evidence of their
having been there.
The two ships met. Kidd was by no means disposed to have his vessel
searched. A fierce battle ensued which lasted for six hours. Neither
vessel was disposed to come to close quarters until the other was
disabled. Kidd at length, finding the Portuguese ship too strong for
him, spread all his sails and escaped. With his vast amount of canvas
he could run away from almost any foe. Ten of his men were wounded in
this conflict, but none killed.
Again these desperate men found it necessary to run into the land for
provisions. They entered a small port called Porco. Here they filled
their water-casks, and “bought,” Kidd says, a sufficient number of hogs
of the natives to victual the company. As it is known that Kidd had
no money, it is probable that the swine were obtained by that kind of
moral suasion which is found in the muzzle of a pistol and the edge of
a sabre.
This suspicion is confirmed by the fact that the natives, in their
exasperation, killed one of his men. The retaliation was characteristic
of the crew and the times. Captain Kidd brought his guns to bear upon
the village. With broadside after broadside he laid their huts in
ruins. The torch was applied, and in an hour the peaceful village was
converted into mouldering ashes.
One of the natives was caught. They bound him to a tree, and then a
whole boat’s company, one after another, discharged each a bullet into
his heart. Having achieved this exploit, which they probably thought
chivalric, but which others may deem fiendish, Captain Kidd again
spread his sails for a piratic cruise.
The first vessel he came across was a large Mongol ship richly
freighted. Kidd gave chase, unfurling the French flag. The captain was
a Dutchman, by the name of Mitchel. Seeing that he was pursued under
French colors, he immediately ran up the banner of France. Captain Kidd
at once spread to the breeze the flag of England. He was very exultant.
He could lay aside the odious character of a pirate, and seize the ship
in the less disgraceful capacity of a privateersman. He exclaimed with
an oath, “I have caught you. You are a free prize to England.”
A cannon-ball was thrown across the bows of the ship, and she was
ordered to heave to. The ship was hailed in the French language, and
some one replied in the same tongue. They were then ordered to send
their boat on board. The boat came bearing the captain of the ship, who
was a Dutchman, by the name of Mitchel, and a French gentleman by the
name of Le Roy.
Kidd received them in his cabin, and upon inquiry ascertained that the
ship and cargo belonged to Mongol merchants; that they had intrusted
the command to a Dutch captain, as was not unfrequently the case in
those days, and that the French gentleman was merely a passenger
accidently on board, passing from one port to another.
These tidings, to use a sailor’s phrase, “struck him all aback.”
Holland, as we have mentioned, was England’s ally. The Great Mogul was
England’s friend. Kidd must release the ship, or confess himself a
pirate and an outlaw, and run the imminent risk of being hanged should
he ever return to England. For a moment he seemed lost in thought,
bewildered. Then his wicked mind, now rapidly descending into the abyss
of sin and shame, rested in a decisive resolve.