Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-04-05
Captain Kidd, the Pirate His Adventures
and the Close of His Career.

and the Close Of His Career.
Kidd, an experienced sailor, having been
commissioned by the Earl of Bellamont an
Irish peer, and then Governor of New FORK,
to drive the buccaneers, then so plenty, from
the sea, agreed to the proposition and set
about it with alscrity. Macaulay, in his fifth
volume, thus relates the rest:
The press for sailors to man the royal navy
was at that time so hot that Kidd could not
obtain his full complement of hands in the
Thames. He crossed the Atlantic, visited
New York, and there found volunteers in
abundance. At length, in February, 1897,
he sailed from the Hudson with crew Of
more than l5O men, and in July reached
the Coast of Madagascar.
1t is possible that Kidd may at first have
meant to act in accordance with his instruc-
tions. But on the subject of piracy he held
the notions which we're then common in the
North American Colonies, and most of his
crew were Of the same mind. He found him
self in sea which was constantly traversed
by rich and defenseless merchant ships, and
he had to determine whether be would
plunder those ships or protect them. The
gain which might be made by plundering
them was immense, and might be snatched
without the dangers of q battle or the delays
of q trial -..
1nS Ienatus VI pTOltCtluR t06 lawful LTa1e
were likely to be comparatively small. Such
as they were, they would be got only by first
fighting with desperate ruffans who would
rather be killed than taken, and by then in
stitutiug proceeding and obtaining iudc-
rnent in Court of Admiralty. The risk of
being called TO severe reckoning might not
unnatufally seem small to one who had seen
many old buccaneers living in credit and
| comfort at New York and Boston.
| Kidd cnon fhraxu oR tho cbaraokar ofa n
privateer and became a pirate. He estab-
lished friendly communications and ex-
changed arms and ammunition with the
most notorious of those rovers whom his
commission authorized him to destroy, aud
made war on those peaceful traders whom
be was sent to defend. He began by robbing
Mussulmsns and speedily proceeded from
| Mussumans TO Armenians, aud from Arme-
mans to Portuguese. The Adventure Galley
took such quantities of cotton and silk,
| sugar and coffee, cinnamon and pepper, that
the very foremast-men received from GlO0
| to f200 each, and that the captains share of
| the spoil would have enabled him to live at
home as an opuleDt gentleman.
With the rapacity, Kidd had the cruelty
| of his odious calling. He burned houses, he
| massacred peasantry. His prisoners were
tied up and beaten with naked cutlasses in
order to extort information about their con-
| cesled boards. One of his crew, whom he
had called dog, was provoked into excls M
! ing, in an agony of remorse, eyes, am a
| dog, but it is you that have made me So 4
| Kidd, in fury, struck the man dead
| News then travelled very slowly from the
Eastern Seas to England. But in August
| 1885, it was known in England that the Id
| venture Galley, from which SO much had been
| hoped, was the terror of the merchants of
| Surat and of the villagers of the coast of
Mslabar. II was thought probably that Kidd
would carry his booty to some colony. Or
ders were, therefore, sent from Whitehall to
the Governors ofthe trapsmsrine possessions
of the Crown, directing them to be on the
watch for him.
He, meanwhile, having burned his ship,
ard dismissed most of his men-who easily
| found berths in the sloOps of other pirates
returned to New York with the means, as he
flattered himself, OF making his peace and of
! living in splendor. He had fabricated long
romance, to which Bellamont naturally un-
willing TO believe that he had been duped,
and had been the means of duping others,
was at first disposed to listen with favor.
But the truth soon came out. The Governor
did his duty firmly, and Kidd was placed in
close confinement till orders arrived from
the Admiralty that he should he sent to
England.