While Kidd was fraternizing with pirates and turning the _Quedagh
Merchant’s_ cargo into gold at Madagascar, the solemn and serious
gentlemen of the British Admiralty heard with pained disappointment
how their trusty and well-beloved mariner was behaving himself in
the distant seas. They saw gloomily that another experiment in the
suppression of piracy had fizzled out, and that the private ship of
war was not an approved instrument of police work. That method having
been quite the opposite of successful, they ponderously planned another
which, in the event--though we will not be concerned to follow it--was
to prove if anything still less effective.
Their plan might as well be set in their own peculiar language, and
showing that oddity of punctuation which made a state paper of this
sort three enormous, mountainous sentences:
“By the king, a proclamation.
William R.
Whereas we being informed, by the frequent complaints of our good
subjects trading to the East Indies, of several wicked practises
committed on those seas, as well upon our own subjects as those
of our allies, have therefore thought fit (for the security of the
trade of those countries, by an utter extirpation of the pirates in
all parts eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, as well beyond Cape
Comorin as on this side of it, unless they shall forthwith surrender
themselves, as in hereinafter directed) to send out a squadron of
men-of-war, under the command of Captain Thomas Warren.
Now we, to the intent that such who have been guilty of any acts of
piracy in those seas, may have notice of our most gracious intention,
of extending our royal mercy to such of them as shall surrender
themselves, and to cause the severest punishment according to law to
be inflicted upon those who shall continue obstinate, have thought
fit, by the advice of our privy council, to issue this proclamation;
hereby requiring and commanding all persons who have been guilty of
any act of piracy, or any ways aiding or assisting therein, in any
place eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, to surrender themselves
within the several respective times hereinafter limited, unto the said
Captain Thomas Warren, and the commander-in-chief of the squadron for
the time being, and to Israel Hayes, Peter Dellanoye, and Christopher
Pollard, esquires, commissioners appointed by us for the said
expedition, or to any three of them, or, in case of death, to the
major part of the survivors of them.
And we do hereby declare, that we have been graciously pleased to
impower the said Captain Thomas Warren, and the commander-in-chief of
the said squadron for the time being, Israel Hayes, Peter Dellanoye,
and Christopher Pollard, esquires, commissioners aforesaid, or any
three of them, or in case of death, to the major part of the survivors
of them, to give assurance of our most gracious pardon unto all
such pirates in the East Indies, viz., all eastward of the Cape of
Good Hope, who shall surrender themselves for piracies or robberies
committed by them upon sea or land; except, nevertheless, such as
they shall commit in any place whatsoever after notice of our grace
and favor hereby declared; and also excepting all such piracies and
robberies as shall be committed from the Cape of Good Hope eastward,
to the longitude or meridian of Socatora, after the last day of April,
1699, and in any place from the longitude or meridian of Socatora
eastward, to the longitude or meridian of Cape Comorin, after the
last day of June, 1699, and in any place whatsoever eastward of Cape
Comorin after the last day of July, 1699; and also excepting Henry
Every, alias Bridgman, and William Kidd.
Given at our court at Kensington, the 8th day of December, 1698, in
the 10th year of our reign. God save the King.”
Such was the confession of the impotency of the British authority to
clear the seas of the East Indies.
William Kidd, it is to be noticed, is no longer the trusty and
well-beloved; he is quite in the outermost dark, coupled with Henry
Avery, or Every, for whom no royal mercy was to exert its gentle
and benign qualities. It would seem fair enough considering the
well-beloved’s flippant attitude toward the king’s commission.
The proclamation is an exact document of specific effect. There is
nothing ambiguous in its terms. This definiteness became extremely
important to some of Kidd’s crew when they stood in the somber shadow
of the gallows.
The meat of the matter was that all East Indian pirates who before
April, June or July, 1699, according to certain geographical
boundaries, should give themselves up to four particular persons,
Warren, Hayes, Dellanoye and Pollard, were to be admonished and
forgiven,--all, that is, except Avery and Kidd.
With a bale of printed proclamations Captain Warren and the three
gentlemen commissioners departed for the Indies. It does look rather an
absurd mission from our point of view. Authority thus said in effect to
the outlaw folk: We can’t catch you so we will forgive you. Laughter
loud and long rose from piraty throats from Madagascar to the Gulf of
Aden when Captain Warren passed hither and thither, tacking up the
pretty sheets of paper. It was the ultimate good joke on government.
Yet not all the lawless ones grinned and went on plundering. It would
seem that the jolly Culliford, he of the _Resolution_ and the artful
mixer of Bomboo, saw his chance to mend his ways and put himself in the
hands of the commissioners. By a sort of coincidence he who had lain at
Madagascar with Kidd, with Kidd later groaned in the cells of Newgate,
though he probably effected his discharge by virtue of the proclamation.
Just where and when the proclamation came to the notice of Kidd’s
company is uncertain; that it did, however, will shortly appear.