KIDD’S RETURN HOME
Had Kidd been fortunate enough on his first visit to Madagascar to find
his pirates there, it is possible but not very probable that his crew
might have done their best to kill or catch their fellow-countrymen,
who were preying on the Indian commerce. On the other hand, had he not
been so unfortunate as to find the pirates awaiting him there on his
way back to Boston, he would probably have been able to bring his two
prizes home safely within a reasonable time and have ended his voyage
to the satisfaction of his employers and with credit to himself. Even
as it was, had he been in command of a disciplined crew, as determined
as their captain was, faithfully to discharge the painful duties they
had undertaken, his finding the pirates at St. Marie’s would have given
him a fair chance of crowning his patient efforts with a success which
might have been handed down to posterity as a proof of the fortitude by
which a great Scotch sea captain had been able to surmount apparently
insuperable difficulties. But it would be hard to find in history, sacred
or profane, an unluckier man than Kidd. The _Adventure Galley_ came back
to Madagascar in a sinking condition, with her crew on the brink of
mutiny, worn out with repeated mishaps, having lost a large number of
their fellows by sickness, disgusted at the ill-luck and strait-laced
proceedings of their conscientious commander, in possession, it is true,
of a rich prize, but in some doubt, owing to his hesitation in retaining
her, whether, when they got to Boston, questions as to the legality of
the capture, to say nothing of their recent misconduct in rifling the
Portuguese ship, might not be raised, ending in their getting no pay
whatever for between two and three years’ heavy and perilous work,
and possibly in their being thrown into gaol by Bellamont for piracy.
Probably they would have mutinied long before, if they could have found
a capable leader with the necessary knowledge of navigation to take
Kidd’s place. As it was, when they found their fellow-countrymen at St.
Marie’s, living on the fat of the land on cargoes taken from the Moors,
under an adventurous and successful commander, Culliford, who had stolen
an East Indiaman from his employers, and was now reaping a rich harvest
from his villainy, it was no wonder that the greater part of Kidd’s men
at once decided to throw in their lot with him, rather than stand by
Kidd in an internecine struggle with their fellow-countrymen, in which
success was more than doubtful, and if attained would necessitate their
carrying their conquered compatriots in chains to an English port,
there to be handed over to the authorities with a view to their being
hung as pirates, for what was regarded by the majority of the seamen
on both sides as the very venial offence of plundering the enemies
of Christianity. The catastrophe which now befell was the inevitable
sequence of what had gone before, and what Kidd found awaiting him on his
arrival at Madagascar.
Let him tell the tale in his own simple words.[8]
“When the Narrator arrived at the said Port, there was a Pirate Ship,
called the _Moca Frigate_, at an anchor, Robert Culliford Commander
thereof, who with his men left the same at his coming and ran into the
woods. And the Narrator proposed to his men to take the same, having
sufficient power and authority so to do. But the mutinous crew told
him, ‘If he offered the same, they would rather fire ten guns into him
than one into the other,’ and thereupon ninety-seven men deserted, and
went into the _Moca Frigate_, and sent into the woods for the said
pirates, and brought the said Culliford and his men on board again, and
all the time he stayed in the said port the said deserters sometimes in
great numbers came on board the said _Galley_ and _Adventure Prize_,
and carried away great guns, Powder, Shot, small arms, sails, Anchors,
Cables, Surgeon’s chest, and what else they pleased; and threatened
several times to murder the Narrator, as he was informed and advised to
take care of himself, which they designed in the night to effect; but
was [_sic_] prevented by his locking himself in his cabin at night, and
securing himself by barricading the same with bales of goods and having
about forty small arms besides pistols, ready charged to keep them out.”
“Their wickedness was so great that after they had plundered and
ransacked sufficiently, they went five miles off to one Edward Welche’s
house, where his, the Narrator’s chest was lodged, and broke it open and
took out ten ounces of gold, 40 pound of plate, 370 pieces of eight, the
Narrator’s Journal, and a great many papers that belonged to him and the
People of New York that fitted them out.”
“About the fifteenth of June, the _Moca Frigate_ went away, being manned
with about 130 men and forty guns bound out to take all nations. It was
then that the Narrator was left only with 13 men, so that the Moors he
had to pump and keep the _Adventure Galley_ above water being carried
away, she sank in the harbour, and the Narrator with the said thirteen
men went on board the _Adventure Prize_.”
Let us try to put ourselves in Kidd’s place, when the bulk of his men
went over to the enemy. Forcibly deprived of his command at the moment
when he saw success within his grasp; deserted by nearly all his crew;
plundered of the greater part of the spoil he was taking home to his
employers; on board the sinking _Adventure Galley_; confined to his
stifling cabin with its barricaded approaches. What course can it be
suggested that he could have taken and have been held blameless by an
English court? What course ought any man to have taken in his place who
sought to do his duty by his owners?
It would have been a mercy to him and to his memory, if the mutineers
had then and there made an end of him. But to have done this, they must
have stormed his cabin, and they dared not try it. They knew his fighting
record. They had been with him in his encounter with the Portuguese
man-of-war. None knew better than they that he would sell his life
dearly. Let us hope, too, that some few of his crew stood by him in
this emergency, with “the forty loaded small arms, besides pistols.”
But although the pirates and mutineers could not make an end of him,
it was equally impossible for him to take the offensive against them.
If neither party could attack, the situation could only be relieved
by diplomacy. The ultimate solution has been handed down to us by the
doubtful testimony of one or two of those who were there. We are left to
conjecture the intermediate stages of the arrangement.
According to the evidence the _Adventure Galley_ was brought into the
port on the first of April, in company with its smaller prize. The
_Quedagh Merchant_ did not come in until some weeks afterwards. The _Moca
Frigate_, as already stated, went away on the fifteenth of June, leaving
Kidd and thirteen men behind. In the interval some kind of a compact
seems to have been come to, by which Kidd undertook not to molest the
pirates, and Culliford agreed to let Kidd keep the _Quedagh Merchant_
and a certain quantity of the goods on board of her. It is difficult
to see how Kidd in his then position could have made a better bargain
than this for the great men who were employing him. Judging from the
amount of specie and goods which he succeeded after all in bringing to
America, he appears to have done very well indeed for them. Possibly the
canny Scot, notwithstanding the theft of his chest, had more gold and
valuables concealed in his impenetrable cabin than the deserters dreamed
of. Possibly some of his late crew had consciences and were willing to
let him off cheaply. Whatever the details of the arrangement may have
been, it is unlikely that he could in any case have saved himself from
the charge brought against him at his trial, on which the judge laid
great stress, and which has clung to him ever since, that having been
sent out to catch the pirates, and bring them home with him, he had on
the first occasion on which he had met them, promised not to molest them,
an offence which it was alleged at his trial that he had aggravated by
drinking deeply from a tub of “bomboo” with their Captain Culliford.
The word “bomboo” has a fine piratical suggestiveness about it. It
sounds as if it were some weird concoction of strong liquors, which
carousing pirates in their unholy orgies were wont to consume by the
bucketfull. As a matter of fact, it was a very innocent beverage made
of water, limes, and sugar; and it was small blame to poor Kidd that on
emerging from his beleaguered cabin in that hot climate, he was glad
enough to take a long drink of it, when at length a truce had been
arranged. According to the King’s evidence at his trial, he solemnly
undertook over this draught of “bomboo” not to molest the pirates, and
presumably they also undertook not to molest him. The alternative very
possibly was his death from thirst in his stuffy cabin. Culliford’s men
outnumbered his by ten to one. The only evidence besides his own that we
have of this incident was that given at his trial by two of his crew, who
had deserted him and gone over to the enemy. Kidd not unnaturally was
very bitter against these two men,--Bradenham the surgeon and Palmer,
one of his seamen--as appears from the following quotations from the
verbatim report of his trial.
KIDD (_to Bradenham_). “Did you not come aboard my ship and rob the
surgeon’s chest?”
BRADENHAM. “No, I did not.”
KIDD. “Did I not come to you when you went away and met you on the deck,
and said, ‘Why do you take the chest away?’”
BRADENHAM. “No, I did not do it.”
KIDD. “You are a rogue.”
Again:
KIDD. “Mr. Bradenham, are you not promised your life to take away mine?”
Mr. Justice TURTON. “He is not bound to answer that question. He is very
fit to be made an evidence of the King. Perhaps there can be no other in
this case than such who are in his circumstances.”
In other words, those of the crew who had faithfully stood by their
captain, and helped him to bring his prize home to America in the
interests of their employers, one of whom was the King himself, could not
be relied on as witnesses. The only witnesses who could be trusted to
swear through thick and thin against Kidd, were two men who by their own
admission had deserted their colours and joined Culliford in open piracy
against the ships of all nations.
To quote again from the verbatim report:
KIDD. “I hope the King’s counsel will not put him in the way. It is hard
that a couple of rascals should take away the King’s subjects’ lives.
They are a couple of rogues and rascals.”
Again, when one of them conveniently feigned ignorance, and an answer
by the other had been suggested to him by one of the counsel for the
prosecution:
KIDD. “It is a fine trade that you must take away so many of the King’s
subjects’ lives, and know nothing at all of the matter.”
Again, speaking this time to the judge:
“It is a fine trade indeed that he must be instructed what to say. He
knows no more of these things than you do. The fellow used to sleep five
or six months together in the hold.”
Once more:
“He tells a thousand lies. The man contradicts himself a hundred times.”
KIDD (_speaking this time to Palmer_). “I would not go with such a
roguish crew as you were. Was I not threatened to be shot in my cabin
by such villains as you, if I would not go along with you? This was the
reason I could not come home. Did you not with the others set fire to
the boat to destroy my ship? My lord, they took what they pleased out of
the ship, and I was forced to stay by myself, and pick up here a man and
there a man to carry her home.”
That Kidd had no option but to stay on at Madagascar after Culliford had
left is obvious. The faithful thirteen who remained behind with him were
clearly an insufficient ship’s company to bring the _Quedagh Merchant_
with her freight safely to America. When he left her off the coast of
Hispaniola, nearly a year afterwards, denuded of the specie and goods
which he had taken from her to Boston, she carried besides her thirty
mounted guns, taken from the _Adventure Galley_, twenty more guns of her
own, stowed away in her hold, some two hundred bales of calicoes, silks,
and muslins, between eighty and ninety tons of refined sugar, forty
tons of saltpetre, and ten tons of iron “in short junks.” No reason,
other than stern necessity, can have induced him to prolong his stay at
Madagascar. He and his men must have wished to get home as soon as might
be. Had they been able to start at once, they might have been in time
to put an end to the suspicions of their honesty, which were already
accumulating in England owing to the protracted absence of news as to
their movements, and the complaint of the East India Company of the
seizure of the _Quedagh Merchant_.
Unfortunately Madagascar was one of the last places in the world in
which Kidd was likely to find the men required to bring his ship home.
The majority of such English-speaking men as were there were by no means
desirous of bringing themselves within the grasp of the law. In the
course of the next five months, to quote his own words, “he picked up
here a man and there a man,” and “some passengers presented that were
bound for these parts,” _i. e._, America. At last, still under-manned,
he started on his homeward voyage, and reached Anguilla in the West
Indies in April, 1699. By this time he had been condemned unheard by the
home authorities; and the hue and cry had been raised against him and
such of his crew as had remained faithful. The lords justices had sent
instructions to the governors of all the English colonies in America “to
apprehend him and his accomplices, whenever he or they should arrive
in any of the said plantations,” and “to secure his ship and all the
effects therein, it being their Excellencies’ intention that right be
done to those who have been injured and robbed by the said Kidd, and
that he and his associates be prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the
law.” Consequently when, in all innocence, he sent his boat on shore,
to quote again from his own artless narrative, “his men had the news
that he and his people were proclaimed pirates, which put them into such
consternation that they sought all opportunities to run the ship ashore
upon some reef or shoal, fearing the Narrator should carry them into some
English port.”
“From Anguilla,” he tells us, “they came to St. Thomas, where his
brother-in-law, Samuel Bradley, was put on shore being sick, and five
more” (out of his small crew) “went away and deserted him. There he heard
the same news, that he and his company were proclaimed pirates, which
incensed the people more and more.”
“From St. Thomas he set sail for Moona, an island between Hispaniola
and Porto Rico, where they met with a sloop, called the _St. Anthony_,
bound for Antigua from Curaso. The men on board then swore that they
would bring the ship no further.” By this time some commanders would
have hesitated. Not so Kidd. He held to his purpose to remain true to
his employers whatever the cost to himself might be. He tells us, and
his evidence is not contradicted, that he “then sent the said sloop,
_St. Anthony_, to Curaso for canvas to make sails for the prize, she
not being able to proceed, and she returned in ten days, and after the
canvas came he could not persuade the men to carry her to New England.
But six of them went and carried their chests and things on board of the
Dutch sloop, bound for Curaso, and would not so much as heel the vessel,
or do anything.” The remainder of the men not being able to bring the
_Adventure Prize_ to Boston “he secured her in a good safe harbour
in Hispaniola and left her in the possession of Mr. Henry Boulton of
Antigua, Merchant, with three of the old men and fifteen or sixteen of
the men that belonged to the said sloop _St. Anthony_ and a brigantine
belonging to Mr. Burt of Curaso.” He then “bought the said sloop, _St.
Anthony_, of Mr. Boulton for the owners’ account: and after he had given
directions to the said Boulton to be careful of the ship and lading, and
persuaded him to stay three months until he returned, he made the best of
his way to New York.”
Bellamont was not at New York, but at Boston. An old friend of Kidd’s,
Emmot by name, came on board the sloop from New York, and to him Kidd
told his simple tale, handed over to him the two invaluable French passes
to take to Bellamont, as evidence that the two prizes, in respect of
which he had been charged with piracy, had been lawfully taken under his
letters of marque. On the thirteenth of June, Emmot came to Bellamont
at Boston with these passes, and two days afterwards Bellamont sent Mr.
Duncan Campbell, the Postmaster of Boston, to invite Kidd to come into
the port of Boston. On the nineteenth Campbell returned, and gave in a
memorial,[9] still extant, of all that had passed between him and Kidd.
This memorial is of interest, as showing the effect produced on
Bellamont’s emissary by his first interview with Kidd. Had he been
prejudiced in Kidd’s favor, it is unlikely that he would have been
selected by Bellamont for the purpose of ascertaining whether Kidd was
guilty of piracy or not. On the same day he was sent back by Bellamont to
Kidd, with the following letter:
BOSTON, 19 June, 1699.
“CAPTAIN KIDD,--Mr. Emmot came to me last Tuesday night telling
me he came from you: but was shy of telling where he parted
with you. Nor did I press him to it. He told me you came by
Oyster Bay in Nassau Island and sent for him to New York. He
proposed to me that I would grant you a pardon. I answered that
I had never granted one yet, and that I had set myself a rule
never to grant a pardon to anybody without the King’s express
leave or command. He told me you declared and protested your
innocence and that if your men could be persuaded to follow
your example, you would make no manner of scruple of coming
into this port, or any other within His Majesty’s Dominions.
That you owned there were two ships taken, but that your men
did it violently and against your will, and had used you
barbarously, in imprisoning you and treating you ill the most
part of your voyage, and often attempting to murder you. Mr.
Emmot delivered to me the two French passes taken on board
the two ships your men rifled,[10] which passes I have in my
custody, and I am apt to believe they will be a good article to
justify you, if the late peace were not by the Treaty between
England and France to operate in that part of the world at the
time the hostility was committed, as I am almost confident it
was not to do. Mr. Emmot told me that you showed a great sense
of honour and justice in professing with many asseverations
your settled and serious design all along to do honour to
your Commission and never to do the least thing contrary to
your duty and allegiance to the King. And this I have to say
in your defence, that several persons in New York, who I can
bring to evidence it, did tell me that by several advices from
Madagascar and that part of the world, they were informed of
your men’s revolting from you in one place, and I am pretty
sure they said was Madagascar, and that others compelled you
much against your will to take and rifle two ships.
“I have advised with His Majesty’s Council, and shewed them
this letter, and they are of opinion that if you can be so
clear as you (or Mr. Emmot for you) have said, _that you may
safely come hither, and be equipped and fitted out to go and
fetch the other ship, and I make no manner of doubt but to
obtain the King’s pardon for you, and for those few men you
have left who I understand have been faithful to you, and
refused as well as you to dishonour the Commission you have
from England._
“_I assure you on my Word and Honour I will perform nicely
what I have promised_, though this I declare beforehand that
whatever goods and treasure you may bring hither, I will not
meddle with the least bit of them: but they shall be left with
such persons as the Council shall advise until I receive orders
from England how they shall be disposed of.”
Kidd’s reply to this letter was as follows:
“To the EARL OF BELLAMONT.
“FROM BLOCK ISLAND ON BOARD THE SLOOP ANTHONY
“24 JUNE, 1699.
“MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,
“I am honoured with your Lordship’s letter of the 19th instant
by Mr. Campbell, which came to my hands this day. For which I
return my most hearty thanks. I cannot but blame myself for
not writing to your Lordship before this time, knowing it was
my duty: but the clamours and false stories that have been
reported of me, made me fearful of visiting or coming into any
harbour, till I could hear from your Lordship.
“I note the contents of your Lordship’s letter, as to what Mr.
Emmot and Mr. Campbell informed your Lordship of my proceedings
I do affirm to be true, and a great deal more might be said of
the abuses of my men, and the hardships I have undergone to
preserve the ship and what goods my men had left. Ninety-five
men went away from me in one day and went on board the _Moca
Frigate_, Captain Robert Culliford, Commander, who went away
to the Red Sea; and committed several acts of piracy, as I
am informed; and am afraid (the men formerly belonging to
my _Galley_) that the report is gone home against me to the
East India Company, that I have been the actor. A sheet of
paper will not contain what may be said of the care I took to
preserve the owners’ interest, and to come home to clear my own
innocency. I do further declare and protest that I never did
in the least act contrary to the King’s Commission, nor to the
reputation of my honourable owners, and doubt not but that I
shall be able to make my innocence appear; or else I had no
need to come to these parts of the world; if it were not for
that and my owners’ interest. There are Five or Six Passengers
that came from Madagascar to assist me in bringing the ship
home, and about ten of my own men, that came with me would not
venture to go into Boston, till Mr. Campbell had engaged Body
for Body for them that they should not be molested while I
stayed at Boston, or till I return with the ship. I doubt not
but your Lordship will write to England in my favour and for
these few men who are left.
“I wish your Lordship would persuade Mr. Campbell to go home
to England with your Lordship’s letters, who will be able to
give account of our affairs and diligently follow the same
that there may be a speedy answer from England. I desired Mr.
Campbell to buy 1000 weight of Rigging for fitting of the ship
to bring her to Boston, that I may not be delayed when I come
there.
“Upon receiving of your Lordship’s letter, I am making the best
of my way to Boston. This with my humble duty to your Lordship
and Countess, is what offers from, my Lord, your Excellency’s
most humble and dutiful servant,
“WILLIAM KIDD.”
On the first of July he brought the sloop and the remnant of his crew
into the port of Boston, conscious of his integrity and relying on the
word and honour of Bellamont. It may well be doubted whether any man in
equally trying circumstances has ever been truer to his trust.
CHAPTER FOUR