Although Kidd arrived at Madagascar in May of 1698 it was not until
the turn of the next year, and probably well into that year before he
set sail on his stolen ship for home. It must have taken him quite a
time to be rid of his merchandise and to pay off his men. After that,
short-handed as he was, he seems to have attempted no recorded piracy.
It is quite possible that while he still lay in the Mozambique Channel,
Warren and the three benign peace-bearing commissioners came around
the Cape and up the coast, and that before he left those waters he was
acquainted with the character of the royal proclamation. Or it may have
been that it was after his return to New York that Kidd first learned
that he was a marked man.
In June of 1699, after an absence of a little more than two years,
Captain Kidd arrived in Delaware Bay. But not in the _Adventure_ and
not in the _Quedagh Merchant_. He came in a little sloop, with a crew
of about thirty-five men on her articles, named the _St. Antonio_. What
had become of the _Quedagh Merchant_?
That ill-fortuned ship was snugly stowed and secreted away in a
solitary creek of the West Indies. There he had hidden her until such
time as he could return and bring her out; that means, until the storm
of which he must have felt the first blowings at the West Indies, if
not at Madagascar, had passed over. He brought back with him of the
old _Adventure’s_ personnel barely one-fourth, probably not more than
twenty-five or thirty men. One man, Hugh Parrot, who came in the _St.
Antonio_ we know from his own account was recruited in Madagascar and
replaced an original adventurer. So it must have been with others.
Hugh Parrot’s brief autobiography as he gave it to the court may be
glanced here as typical of the sea folk who homed in Madagascar. He
said he “sailed out of Plymouth in the year 1695 in a merchantman,
bound for Cork, in Ireland, there to take in provisions; thence to the
Island of Barbados; and in sight of the island of Barbados I was taken
by a French privateer, and carried to Martinico; and thence coming in
a transport ship I was brought to Barbados; there I shipped myself
in a vessel bound for Newfoundland, and thence to Madeiras; and then
I went to Madagascar, and there I staid some short time after, and
came in company with Captain Kidd; and then the commander and I had a
falling out, and so I went ashore at that island. And understanding
that Captain Kidd had a commission from the king, I came aboard Captain
Kidd’s ship.”
Romantic words--“I came aboard Captain Kidd’s ship.” How they quicken
the pulse of old, sober-sided fellows such as we are. Suppose we had
sauntered about old New York and had read his appeal for men to go off
to the Indies? Or been in Madagascar and had a “falling-out” with some
blockhead of an old merchant skipper, and seen Kidd and his bully boys
swagger by? Eh?
Delaware Bay did not detain Kidd long. He slipped the little _St.
Antonio_ out of there and put in at Oyster Bay, from which he now began
the most difficult job of his life,--to rehabilitate himself and yet
come out of it all a rich man.
He and the remnant of his crew flocked openly about the old town.
Governor Bellamont was off in Boston. And now Kidd began to get the
full blast of his unsought notoriety. He was told that the mother
country and the colonies, yea, even the seven seas were vibrant with
the name of Kidd; that, in the language of that day, he was everywhere
“published a pirate”, for whom there was no day of grace or pardon.
Quite in the spirit of New York pirates, ancient and modern, he
sought out an adroit lawyer, one Emmott, a man then at the head of
his profession, as the saying is, though that did not mean, any more
than it does now, that he shone by the purity of his principles, the
breadth of his learning, or the transparent propriety of his manners.
Pirates can’t use that kind of lawyer. Seriously, we do not reflect
on Mr. Emmott individually; we know nothing of his morals, and he
was indisputably a leader of his bar, appearing in the most important
litigation of his time. Whatever his character, he engaged himself to
assist the projects of Captain Kidd.
X
Boston was having a hot summer. The noble governor was taking the
air, such as there was, with his wig laid off for coolness, and his
decorated coat carelessly open. No doubt he gazed at the dusty road,
the blistered frame buildings and longed for the temperate downs of
Ireland and the fresh, green lawns of his ancestral mansion. How
afflicting that a noble earl should be subjected to heat and cold just
like a wretched porter!
The entrance of a negro servitor to announce a visitor did not refresh
the excellency. Just then the last man he wanted to see was he whose
name had been brought in. The governor and lawyer Emmott did not get
along together very well. It is not hard to understand the tribulation
of a ruler whose technical knowledge of the art of government was
probably weak, at the hands of a turbulent, sharp and well-informed
colonial attorney,--the intelligent, persistent and irritating
mouthpiece of the perpetual discontent of the colony.
Whether he would or no, it was Emmott who was without, soliciting
audience. He was ordered admitted. One simply can not turn the Emmotts
away, especially when one is a governor; somehow such fellows seem
to have an impish art of getting the gubernatorial attention whenever
their cheekiness suggests it to them.
Imagination may perhaps reconstruct the interesting interview.
Enters Lawyer Emmott, his bright eye appraising at once the mood of
the man in the seat of authority. But Emmott is not half-saucy now; in
this matter he is not backed by the sturdy burghers and supported by a
law whose exact application he thoroughly knows, while as thoroughly
knowing the glazed ignorance of his opponent. He is now after a private
fee in the service of a private client. His tune, therefore, is
somewhat different.
With a bow and a most respectful attitude the lawyer carefully unwraps
a package which he has brought with him. From this he seems to take a
ball of snow, which, with a most insinuating smile, he shakes with a
twist of his hand and which before the astonished Bellamont, cascades
over the back of a chair as a shawl of the rarest workmanship and
material.
“A present for Lady Bellamont,” says Emmott, with another obeisance.
What can be the fellow’s game now? Bellamont rose and walking across
the room, allowed the shimmering texture to ripple through his fingers.
“A present for Lady Bellamont--” It is a wonderful thing; Bellamont can
see that.
Emmott steps up as close as politeness permits and glancing about,
artfully whispers, “From Captain Kidd,” and throws his head back with a
wide smile like a doting parent playing the rôle of Santa Claus.
“Kidd!” cries the earl. “Kidd!”
Yes, the old partner of Bellamont, Livingston and Company had turned
up. All sorts of notions chase themselves through the governor’s brain
like hare and hounds, and chiefly he is afraid; he fears this notorious
colleague of his has shown up to be the ruin of them all. Why on earth
didn’t the fellow stay out in the East Indies. To Emmott this is as
plain as the ripple on a smooth pool of water.
He rubs his hands one over the knuckles of the other and looks all
sorts of meanings.
“An incredibly prosperous voyage,” he murmurs, “incredibly. A mere
trifle--the captain wishes to send Lady Bellamont something really
worth while.”
He almost sneers at the magnificent shawl.
The governor sits down and gazes out over the harbor. Now, it is
probable that if the notorious partner had shown up with nothing but a
story of hard luck, the governor would not have sat down in just the
way he does; but a partner coming back, even with a sooty reputation,
but stuffed with treasure, well, one must think the matter out. There
was one’s original investment in the old _Adventure_ to be protected,
one must remember.
Emmott continues:
“The captain feels deeply chagrined to find this unjust hue and cry
made about him. It is a great mistake. He can explain all; and he
suggests that the governor see that this irritating matter of the
piracy charge is disposed of so that they can proceed to an accounting
as all good partners should. Really, he has been absurdly fortunate in
his East Indian enterprise.”
They talk the thing over indecisively and without committal on either
side, and the outcome of it is that the governor decides that he will
see his errant and erstwhile partner in person. With this decision
Lawyer Emmott backs out of the room and hies back to New York. So far
so good.