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Chapter II
English Colonial History
Captain Kidd, The New York Pirate
Kidd was a Scotchman by birth, had followed the sea from his youth, had been captain of a privateer in the West Indies, and was at that time captain of a packet plying between New York and London. He was in the prime of life, and had several years previously married a respectable lady in New York, with whom he had since lived, in his own house, in Liberty Street, where he was regarded a wealthy and honorable seaman. It is said that the first rich carpet on Manhattan was in Kidd''s parlor, though he is not believed to have been greatly dishonest until the last three years of his life. As he was an experienced and resolute commander, with extensive knowledge of the lurking places of the pirates, and of many of the pirates themselves, he was considered (forgetting the force of his old habits) the fittest person to take charge of the expedition. It is now easily discovered that two fatal mistakes were made in planning this expedition. First, the vessel should have been a regular man-of-war, under the direction of the general government, in which the captain had no capital, and from which no one expected a profit. On the other hand, though commissioned by the king, and expected to promote the public good, it was the property of a private corporation, and expected to bring large pecuniary returns. The prizes captured were to be taken into Boston Harbor, and delivered to Lord Bellamont. The parties agreed that if no prizes were captured, the £5,000 advanced by Bellamont should be refunded, and the title of the vessel be vested thereafter in Livingston and Kidd. But as soon as Kidd delivered to Bellamont prize goods to the amount of £100,000, then the ship was to belong to Livingston and Kidd. Bellamont and those he represented were to receive four-fifths of the net proceeds, the remaining fifth belonging to Livingston and Kidd. The second mistake was in the contract made with the crew. Kidd agreed to furnish about one hundred men, who were to receive one-fourth the value of all captures, but who were to be enlisted with the distinct stipulation, "no prize, no pay. " While it was certain that these terms would secure a crew, it was also certain that few besides the most daring and foolhardy would be induced to embark. The result was that his crew was made up of the most suspicious class, many of whom had probably been pirates themselves, and hence open to the most violent temptations when afloat on a foreign sea.
A commission bearing the great seal of England was issued December 11, 1696, and the following April Kidd set sail for New York in the "Adventure Galley," a fine ship with sixty sailors, which had been fitted out for the expedition. Here he visited his wife, and cruised for some time around the coast, capturing a French privateer, for which he received the thanks of the Assembly of New York, and two hundred and fifty pounds as a complimentary reward for his fidelity. While here he continued to recruit his force until it exceeded one hundred and sixty men, after which he sailed for the East Indies and the eastern coast of Africa. Up to this point his fame continued unsullied, and by what process the change in his career was produced is not certainly known. He afterwards protested that, failing in the pursuit of the pirates, his crew became mutinous and forced him, contrary to his will, into his career of infamy. It is more probable that, finding himself in possession of a strong ship completely armed, with a large and well-selected crew obsequious to his wishes, the temptation to prey upon the weak instead of encountering the strong overcame him, and he thus became one of the most intrepid and successful pirates that ever hoisted the black flag on the seas. Upon the commerce clustering along the coasts of Malabar and Madagascar, he conducted a career of outrage and plunder, by which in a short time he amassed countless treasure, and inflicted such destruction as to render his name a terror on the seas, and a theme for every future historian. Satisfied finally with his accumulations, he resolved to return.
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