_Hanniball_, Captain William Hill Commander, which ship was a Merchant
ship mounted with thirty two Gunns and Navigated with seventy Men, and
went upon the Coast of Guinea, where the Captain put his Men to very
short allowance so that severall of them, vizt. Henry Webber, 3d Mate,
who afterwards Comanded the said ship, and severall others, took the
ship from him and went to Brasile, where the Deponent and some others
left the ship. After that the Deponent had lived at Brasile about one
yeare, a French Vessell which had lost her top mast arrived there
under the Comand of Mounsieur de Ley, on Board of which Vessell the
deponent embarqued himselfe for the Coast of India, the said De Ley
being bound to Bengall, in the Voyage whereto they touched at the
Island of Johannah, an Island [whose] inhabitants are Arabians, which
was in the Month of May or June 1698: and riding there at Anchor with
the said ship, came a ship of fourty Gunns called the _Resolution_ by
the Men on Board, But understood her right name was the _Moco_,[2]
from Madagaskar, Navigated with about 130 or 140 Men under the Comand
of Captain Robert Culliford. De Ley weighed one Anchor and cut the
other Cable, but Culliford chasing him took him and brought the
deponent on Board them, being the only Englishman on board De Ley, and
examined him concerning Deleys Loading, with many threats. after they
plundered the ship and found there 2000 l. in money, besides Wine and
Cloath, which they took, and because the Deponent was an Englishman
they would not let him go on board De Ley again but kept him. After
which the said Culliford sayled with the said ship upon the Coast of
India: and about the middle of August came up with a Pyrate, who came
out of America some where near Rhroad Island under the Comand of
Richard Chivers, had 80 or 90 men and twelve Gunns, who kept Company
and Consorted with Culliford. And about the End of September last they
met off of Suratt with a turkey ship belonging to Suratt, which
Chivers crew boarded: and the Quartermaster and some of Cullifords
crew went on Board: she was laden with Pieces 8, Gold and Dollers, was
reputed to the vallue of one Hundred and twenty or thirty thousand
pounds. there were some shots made and several turks were killed and
wounded and two or three of Chivers Company: they put the men on
shoare on the Coast of India, sunck their own ship and took the turkey
ship and then shared the money, about 700 or 800 l. a man in each
ship, and gave the Deponent who pumped for them on occasion and was
ready at call 250 l., not deeming him as one of them but in the nature
of a prisoner, and told him if that he would go out with them their
next Voyage, he should be all one as the rest. thence the said
Culliford and Chivers sayled to Madagascoe, Port St. Marys, a large
Island about three or four Hundred Leagues in Length inhabited by a
numerous people being Negroes.
THEO. TURNER.
Juratus coram me,
N. BLAKISTON.
[Footnote 2: The _Mocha_ had been a frigate belonging to the East
India Company. Piratical members of the crew, especially James Gillam,
had murdered the captain and had seized the ship.]
_75. Memorial of Duncan Campbell. June 19, 1699._[1]
[Footnote 1: Public Record Office, C.O. 5:860, no. 64 IV.; a copy
certified by Bellomont, and endorsed, "Copy of a Memorial of Mr.
Campbell who had been sent by the Earl of Bellomont to Captain Kidd,
about what Kidd had said to him.... Referred to in the Earl of
Bellomont's Letter of the 26th July 1699. Received [_i.e._, by the
Board of Trade] September 26th, Read 26th, 1699." This memorial is
printed, with slight inaccuracies, in the _Commons Journal_, XIII.
21-22, and thence reprinted in Sir Cornelius N. Dalton's _The Real
Captain Kidd_, pp. 315-321 (a book of slight value as a vindication of
Kidd, but reprinting useful documents); but the _Commons Journal_ is
in few American libraries, and the document is essential to the story
of Kidd, and therefore is printed here. Duncan Campbell, a Scot like
Kidd, had been a bookseller in Boston, and was now postmaster there.
John Dunton describes him (1686) as "a brisk young Fellow, that
dresses All-a-mode, and sets himself off to the best Advantage; and
yet thrives apace. I am told (and for his sake I wish it may be true)
that a Young Lady of a Great Fortune has married him." _Letters from
New England_, p. 80.]
BOSTON, June the 19th, 1699.
The Memorial of Duncan Campbell, of Boston, humbly presented to his
Excellency the Earle of Bellomont.
I, the said Duncan Campbell, being at Rhode-Island on Saturday the
17th of June currant, that morning I went in a Sloop from said Island,
in Company with Mr. James Emott of New-Yorke,[2] and two other men
belonging to said Sloop, towards Block-Island, and, about three
leagues from that Island, I mett a Sloop commanded by Captain Kidd,
and haveing on board about Sixteen men besides; after hailing of which
Sloop and being informed that the said Kidd was Commander thereof, he
said Kidd desired me to come on board the same; which I accordingly
did, and after some discourse passed, said Kidd desired me to do him
the favour as to make what Speed I could for Boston and acquaint your
Excellency that the said Kidd had brought a Ship, about five or six
hundred Tuns, from Madagascar, which, some considerable time since, he
met with in [_blank_] and commanded her there to bring to; and that
thereupon the Pilott, being a French man, came on board the said Kidds
Ship, and told him, said Kidd, he was welcome, and that the said Ship
(to which said Pilott belonged) was a lawfull Prize to him the said
Kidd, she sailing under a French Pass: Whereupon he, the said Kidd,
and Company, took the said Ship, and afterwards, understanding that
the same belonged to the Moors, he, said Kidd, would have delivered
her up again, but his men violently fell upon him, and thrust him into
his Cabbin, saying the said Ship was a fair Prize, and then carryed
her into Madigascar and rifled her of what they pleased, but before
they got into Madigascar, the Gally under Command of him, said Kidd,
became so leaky that she would scarce keep above water, whereupon the
Company belonging thereto, haveing taken out of her her Guns and some
other Things and put them on board the Prize, sett the said Gally on
fire. The said Captain Kidd further told me that, when he and his
Company were arrived at Madagascar, several of his Company moved him
to go and take a Ship called the _Moco_ Frigat, that lay ready fitted
at a place not far distant from them, in the possession of certain
Privateers, and to go in the same for the red-Sea. But that he the
said Kidd said that if they would join with him he would attempt the
taking of the said Ship, (supposeing her a lawful Prize, being
formerly belonging to the King of England), but would not afterwards
go with them on the said design to the red-Sea. Whereupon ninety of
his the said Kidd's men deserted him, went and tooke the said Ship,
and sailed with the same on the aforesaid design, as he, said Kidd,
was informed; obliging one Captain Culliver, the then Commander of
her, to go along with them.
[Footnote 2: An attorney in New York, and vestryman of Trinity
Church.]
And the said Kidd further told me That, his men having left him and
his design frustrated, he thought it his best way to preserve the said
Ship then in his possession, and the goods on board her, for his
Imployers or the proper Owners thereof: And accordingly, with the few
men he had then left, which would not joine with the other Ninety in
their aforesaid design (being about Twenty in Number) and with a few
other men that he procured at Madagascar to assist him in navigating
said Ship, he intended to have brought the same to Boston, according
to his Orders; but touching in his way at the Island of St. Thomas's
and other places in the West-Indies, he there heard that great
Complaints were preferred against him, and he proclaimed a Pirate,
which occasioned him to saile to a place called Mona, near
Hispaniola;[3] from whence he sent to Curaso,[4] and bought there the
Sloop on which he is now on board, and tooke into her out of the said
ship to the Value of about eight or ten thousand pounds in goods,
gold, and Plate, for which Gold and Plate he traded at Madagascar, and
was produced by the sale of sundry goods and Stores that he tooke out
of the _Adventure Gally_, formerly commanded by him, and hath left the
Ship taken by his Company, and carryed to Madagascar as aforesaid, at
or near Mona abovesaid, in the Custody of about six men of his owne
Company and Eighteen others that he got from Curaso (the Merchant of
whom he bought the said Sloop being intrusted therewith), unto which
he hath promised to returne again in three months, the said Kidd
resolveing to come into Boston or New-Yorke to deliver up unto your
Excellency what goods and Treasure he hath on board, and to pray your
Excellency's assistance to enable him to bring the said Ship, left by
him at Mona aforesaid, from thence, the said Ship being disabled from
comeing, for want of furniture.[5]
[Footnote 3: Mona is a small island lying in the passage between Santo
Domingo and Puerto Rico.]
[Footnote 4: Curacao, Dutch West Indies.]
[Footnote 5: Masts, spars, sails, and rigging.]
But the said Captain Kidd further informed me, That by reason of what
his Men had heard in the West-Indies, as aforesaid, of their being
proclaimed Pirates, they would not consent to his coming into any Port
without some Assurance from your Excellency That they should not be
imprisoned or molested. And the said Captain Kidd did several times
protest solemnly that he had not done anything since his going out in
the said Gally contrary to his Commission and Orders, more than what
he was necessitated unto by being overpowered by his Men, that
deserted him, as aforesaid, who evil intreated him several times for
his not consenting to, or joineing with them in, their actions. And
all the men on board the Sloop now with him did in like manner
solemnly protest their innocence, and declared that they had used
their utmost endeavours in preserving the aforesaid Ship and goods for
the Owners or Imployers. Said Kidd also said, that if your Lordship
should see Cause so to direct, he would carry the said Ship for
England, there to render an Account of his Proceedings.
Which beforegoing contains the particulars of what Captain Kidd and
his Men related to
Your Lordship's most humble Servant,
DUNCAN CAMPBELL.
_76. Narrative of William Kidd. July 7, 1699._[1]
[Footnote 1: Public Record Office, C.O. 5:860, no. 64 XXV. Printed in
_Commons Journal_, XIII. 31-32, and by Dalton, but the same remark
applies to this document (and to documents nos. 77, 79, and 82) as to
no. 75; they are essential to an understanding of the story. A
"protest" by Kidd, July 7, of similar purport, has just been published
in _Portland MSS._, IX. 403.]
A Narrative of the Voyage of Captain William Kidd, Commander of the
_Adventure Gally_, from London to the East Indies.
That the Journal of the said Captain Kidd being violently taken from
him in the Port of St. Marie's in Madagascar, and his life many times
being threatned to be taken away from him by 97 of his men that
deserted him there, he cannot give that exact Account he otherwise
could have done, but as far as his memory will serve is as followeth;
viz.
That the said _Adventure Gally_ was launched in Castle's Yard at
Deptford[2] about the 4th day of December 1695, and about the latter
end of February the said Gally came to the buoy in the Nore, and about
the first Day of March following, his men were pressed from him for
the Fleet, which caused him to stay there 19 Days,[3] and then sailed
for the Downs, and arrived there about the 8th or 10th Day of April
1696; and sailed thence for Plymouth, and on the 23d Day of the said
month of April he sailed from Plymouth on his intended Voyage, and
some time in the month of May met with a small French Vessel with Salt
and Fishing Tackle on board, bound for Newfoundland, which he took and
made Prize of and carried the same into New-York, about the 4th day of
July, where she was condemned as lawful Prize, the produce whereof
purchased Provisions for the said Gally for her further intended
Voyage.
[Footnote 2: Three miles down the Thames from London Bridge. The Nore
was a sandbank at the mouth of the river; the Downs is the roadstead
off Deal.]
[Footnote 3: "At the Buoy in the Nore Captain Steward, commander of
the _Duchess_, took away all my ship's crew; but Admiral Russell [one
of Kidd's owners], upon my application to him at Sittingbourne, caused
my men to be restored to me." Kidd's protest; Hist. MSS. Comm.,
_Manuscripts of the Duke of Portland_, VIII. 80. England and France
were at war from 1689 to the peace of Ryswyk, Sept. 20, 1697 (War of
the Grand Alliance, King William's War). In such times the royal navy
always relied, for its supply of men, upon impressment, especially of
merchant seamen. See J.R. Hutchinson, _The Press-Gang Afloat and
Ashore_ (London, 1913).]
That, about the 6th day of September 1696 the said Captain Kidd sailed
for the Maderas in Company with one Joyner, Master of a Briganteen
belonging to Bermudas, and arrived there about the 8th day of October
following; and thence to Bonavista,[4] where they arrived about the
19th of said month, and took in some Salt and stayed three or four
days, and sailed thence to St. Jago,[4] and arrived there the 24th of
the said month, where he took in some Water and staied about 8 or 9
Days, and thence sailed for the Cape of Good Hope, and in the Latitude
of 32, on the 12th day of December 1696 met with four English Men of
War, whereof Captain Warren was Commodore, and sailed a week in their
Company, and then parted and sailed to Telere, a Port in the Island of
Madagascar, and being there about the 29th day of January, came in a
Sloop belonging to Barbadoes, loaded with Rhum, Sugar, Powder and
Shot, one ---- French Master, and Mr. Hatton and Mr. John Batt
Merchants, and the said Hatton came on board the said Gally and was
suddenly taken ill there and dyed in the Cabin: and about the latter
end of February sayled for the Island of Johanna, the said Sloop
keeping Company, and arrived there about the 18th day of March, where
he found Four East India Merchantmen, outward bound, and watered there
all together, and stayd about four days, And from thence about the 22d
of March sayled for Mehila, an Island Ten Leagues distant from
Johanna, where he arrived the next morning, and there careened the
said Gally, and about fifty men died there in a weekes time.
[Footnote 4: See doc. no. 71, note 2.]
That on the 25th day of April 1697 set saile for the Coast of India,
and came upon the Coast of Mallabar in the beginning of the month of
September, and went into Carrwarr upon that Coast about the middle of
the same month and watered there, and the Gentlemen of the English
Factory gave the Narrator an Account that the Portugese were fitting
out two men of War to take him, and advised him to set out to Sea, and
to take care of himselfe from them, and immediately he set sail
thereupon ... about the 22d of the said month of September, and the
next morning about break of day saw the said two Men of War standing
for the said Gally, and spoke with him, and asked him Whence he was,
who replyed, from London, and they returned answer, from Goa, and so
parted, wishing each other a good Voyage, and making still along the
Coast, the Commodore of the said Men of War kept dogging the said
Gally all Night, waiting an Opportunity to board the same, and in the
morning, without speaking a word, fired 6 great Guns at the Gally,
some whereof went through her, and wounded four of his Men, and
thereupon he fired upon him again, and the Fight continued all day,
and the Narrator had eleven men wounded: The other Portuguese Men of
War lay some distance off, and could not come up with the Gally, being
calm, else would have likewise assaulted the same. The said Fight was
sharp, and the said Portuguese left the said Gally with such
Satisfaction that the Narrator believes no Portuguese will ever attack
the Kings Colours again, in that part of the World especially, and
afterwards continued upon the said Coast, cruising upon the Cape of
Cameroone[5] for Pyrates that frequent that Coast, till the beginning
of the month of November 1697 when he met with Captain How in the
_Loyal Captaine_, an English Ship belonging to Maddarass,[6] bound to
Surat, whom he examined and, finding his Pass good, designed freely to
let her pass about her affairs; but having two Dutchmen on board, they
told the Narrator's men that they had divers Greeks and Armenians on
board, who had divers precious Stones and other rich Goods on board,
which caused his men to be very mutinous, and got up their Armes, and
swore they would take the Ship, and two-thirds of his Men voted for
the same. The narrator told them The small Armes belonged to the
Gally, and that he was not come to take any Englishmen or lawful
Traders, and that if they attempted any such thing they should never
come on board the Gally again, nor have the Boat, or Small-Armes, for
he had no Commission to take any but the King's Enemies, and Pirates,
and that he would attack them with the Gally and drive them into
Bombay; the other being a Merchantman and having no Guns, might easily
have done it with a few hands, and with all the arguments and menaces
he could use could scarce restraine them from their unlawful Designe,
but at last prevailed, and with much ado got him cleare, and let him
go about his business. All which Captain How will attest, if living.
[Footnote 5: Cape Comorin, the southern point of Hindustan.]
[Footnote 6: _I.e._, Madras.]
And that about the 18th or 19th day of the said month of November met
with a Moors Ship of about 200 Tuns,[7] coming from Suratt, bound to
the Coast of Mallabar, loaded with two horses, Sugar and Cotton, to
trade there, having about 40 Moors on board, with a Dutch Pylot,
Boatswain and Gunner, which said Ship the Narrator hailed, and
commanded on board, and with him came 8 or 9 Moors and the said three
Dutchmen, who declared it was a Moors Ship, and demanding their Pass
from Suratt, which they shewed, and the same was a French Pass, which
he believes was shewed by a Mistake, for the Pylot swore Sacrament[8]
she was a Prize, and staid on board the Gally and would not return
again on board the Moors Ship, but went in the Gally to the Port of
St. Maries.
[Footnote 7: The _Rouparelle_; her French pass (from the director of
Surat for the French East India Company) showing a Mohammedan captain,
Dutch pilot, and Dutch boatswain, is in _Commons Journal_, XIII. 21.
It was one of the two passes whose absence at Kidd's trial was fatal
to his case.]
[Footnote 8: "The Dutch-man seeing that, swore his countries oath,
'sacremente'." Bradford, _History of Plymouth Plantation_ (ed. 1908),
p. 35.]
And that about the First Day of February following, upon the same
Coast, under French Colours with a Designe to decoy, met with a
Bengall Merchantman belonging to Surrat of the burthen of 4 or 500
Tuns, 10 guns, and he commanded the Master on board, and a Frenchman,
Inhabitant of Suratt and belonging to the French Factory there, and
Gunner of said Ship, came on board as Master, and when he came on
board the Narrator caused the English Colours to be hoisted, and the
said Master was surprized and said, You are all English; and asking,
Which was the Captain, whom when he saw, said, Here is a good Prize,
and delivered him the French Pass.[9] And that with the said two
Prizes sailed for the Port of St. Maries, in Madagascar; and sailing
thither the said Gally was so leaky that they feared she would have
sunk every hour, and it required eight men, every two Glasses[10] to
keep her free, and was forced to woold[11] her round with Cables to
keep her together, and with much ado carried her into the said Port of
St. Maries, where they arrived about the First Day of April 1698, and
about the 6th day of May the lesser Prize was haled into the Careening
Island or Key, the other not being arrived, and ransacked and sunk by
the mutinous men, who threatened the Narrator and the men that would
not join with them, to burn and sink the other, that they might not go
home and tell the news.
[Footnote 9: The French pass of this ship, the _Cara Merchant_ or
_Quedah Merchant_ (Kedah, in the Malay Peninsula) is in the _Commons
Journal_, XIII. 21, signed by Francois Martin, the founder of
Pondicherry and of the French empire in India. It is dated Jan. 14,
1698, at Hugli (Chandernagore). It names Armenians as commanders and
owner, though the evidence given at Kidd's trials in London (Hargrave,
_State Trials_, V. 287-338) constantly states an Englishman named
Wright to have been commander. It should be remembered, in respect to
these two captures, of vessels ostensibly French, in November, 1697,
and February, 1698, that though the peace of Ryswyk was signed Sept.
20, 1697, the news of its signing did not reach the Indian Ocean till
April, 1698; and by its terms (art. X.) captures made "beyond the
Line" (Equator) within six months from the signing of the treaty were
not illegal.]
[Footnote 10: _I.e._, an hour by the sand-glass.]
[Footnote 11: Wind.]
And that when he arrived in the said Port there was a Pyrate Ship,
called the _Moca_ Frigat,[12] at an Anchor, Robert Culliford Commander
thereof, who with his men left the same at his coming in, and ran into
the Woods, And the Narrator proposed to his Men to take the same,
having sufficient power and authority so to do,[13] but the mutinous
Crew told him, if he offered the same, they would rather fire two Guns
into him than one into the other, and thereupon 97 deserted, and went
into the _Moca_ Frigat, and sent into the Woods for the said Pyrates
and brought the said Culliford and his men on board again; and all the
time she staid in the said Port, which was for the Space of 4 or 5
Dayes, the said Deserters, sometimes in great numbers, came on board
the said Gally and _Adventure Prize_,[14] and carried away great guns,
Powder, Shot, small Armes, Sailes, Anchors, Cables, Chirurgeons Chest,
and what else they pleased, and threatned several times to murder the
Narrator (as he was informed, and advised to take care of himselfe)
which they designed in the Night to effect but was prevented by his
locking himself in his Cabin at night, and securing himselfe with
barrocading the same with bales of Goods, and having about 40 small
Armes, besides Pistols, ready charged, kept them out. Their wickedness
was so great, after they had plundered and ransacked sufficiently,
went four miles off to one Edward Welche's house,[15] where his the
Narrator's Chest was lodged, and broke it open, and took out 10 Ounces
of Gold, forty Pounds 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.
[Footnote 12: See doc. no. 74, note 2.]
[Footnote 13: One of the witnesses at Kidd's trial, a member of his
crew, gives a very different account of the latter's attitude toward
Culliford. It may be quoted, as a specimen of Kidd's unstudied
conversational style. "On the Quarter-deck they made a Tub of Bomboo,
as they call it, (it is made of Water, and Limes, and Sugar) and there
they drank to one another; and, says Capt. Kidd, Before I would do you
any Damage, I had rather my Soul should broil in Hell-fire; and wished
Damnation to himself several times, if he did. And he took the Cup,
and wished that might be his last, if he did not do them all the Good
he could." _State Trials_ (Hargrave), V. 306, 335.]
[Footnote 14: _I.e._, the _Quedah Merchant_.]
[Footnote 15: Edward Welch was a New Englander, who had come out to
Madagascar as a boy, and had a house fortified with six guns near St.
Mary's, where he ruled over a company of negroes. _Cal. S.P. Col._,
1699, p. 289.]
That about the 15th of June, the _Moca_ Frigat went away, being manned
with about 130 Men and forty Guns, bound out to take all Nations. Then
it was that the Narrator was left only with 13 Men, so that the Moors
he had to pump and keep the _Adventure Gally_ above Water being
carried away, she sunk in the harbour, and the Narrator with the said
thirteen men went on board of the _Adventure-Prize_, where he was
forced to stay five months for a fair Wind. In the meantime some
Passengers presented, that were bound for these Parts, which he tooke
on board to help to bring the said _Adventure-Prize_ home.
That about the beginning of April 1699 the Narrator arrived at
Anguilla in the West-Indies and sent his Boat on Shore, where his men
had the News That he and his People were proclaimed Pirates, which put
them into such a Consternation that they sought all Opportunitys to
run the Ship on shore upon some reef or Shoal, fearing the Narrator
should carry them into some English Port.
From Anguilla they came to St. Thomas, where his Brother-in-law Samuel
Bradley[16] was put on shore, being sick, and five more went away and
deserted him, where he heard the same News, that the Narrator and his
Company were proclaimed Pirates, which incensed the People more and
more. From St. Thomas set saile for Moona, an Island between
Hispaniola and Porto Rico, where they met with a Sloop called the _St.
Anthony_, bound for Montego[17] from Curaso, Mr. William Bolton[18]
Merchant and Samuel Wood Master. The men on board then swore they
would bring the Ship no further. The Narrator then sent the said Sloop
_St. Anthony_ for Curaso for Canvas to make Sails for the Prize, she
being not able to proceed, and she returned in 10 Dayes, and after the
Canvas came he could not persuade the men to carry her for
New-England, but Six of them went and carried their Chests and things
on board of two Dutch Sloops, bound for Curaso, and would not so much
as heele the Vessel or do any-thing; the remainder of the men not
being able to bring the _Adventure-Prize_ to Boston, the Narrator
secured her in a good safe Harbour in some Part of Hispaniola, and
left her in the Possession of Mr. Henry Boulton of Antego, Merchant,
the Master, three of the old men, and 15 or 16 of the men that
belonged to the said Sloop _St. Anthony_ and a Briganteen belonging to
one Burt of Curaso.
[Footnote 16: Kidd's wife's brother; see doc. no. 78, note 1, and
_N.Y. Col. Docs._, IV. 128, 144, 179. General McCrady, _History of
South Carolina_, I. 262-263, mentions two affidavits in an old
manuscript book in Charleston, by two sailors of the _Adventure's_
company, who declare that Bradley took no part with the piratical
crew, but constantly protested against their course, and therefore was
put ashore sick on a rock near Antigua.]
[Footnote 17: The manuscript (a copy) says Montego, which is in
Jamaica, but the name should be Antigua. The _Antonio_ belonged partly
to Abraham Redwood of Antigua, afterward of Newport.]
[Footnote 18: Henry Bolton; see doc. no. 86. Samuel Wood's examination
is in _Commons Journal_, XIII. 26.]