The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1870-11-12
Captain Kidd.

Among the self-made men of olden
times few were more conspicuous than
Captain William Kidd, who was born in
this country about the middle of the sew
enteenth century, though he went to
England to die, the climate here not
agreeing with him.
of Williams early life but little is
known. lie is believed to have followed
the sea from his youth, and the pertc-
nacity with which he followed mer-
chant vessel in his subsequent career
serves to strengthen that belief From
u simple sailor he arose to be ship mas
ter, and was known as one of the bold
est and most successful that sailed out of
the harbor of New York. He finally
obtainid commission as captain of a
privateer to cruise against the pirates
that were prcying on British commerce.
His vessel was the "Adventure Galley"
of thirty guns, in which he sailed from
Plymouth, England, in April, 1906.
He cruised off the American coast,
frequently entering New York for the
purpose of procuring enlistments. That
he even then contemplated turning pirate
has been urged by some of his biogra-
pliers because he became intimate with
New York City officials, closely studying
their mode Of operations, and was on fa>
miliar terms with Democratic ward poll
ticians. At the City Hall, ON Wall street,
in the Custom House, and wherever else
stealing was going on, there might Cap
tain Kidd be found, considering their
ways that he might become wise.
With his crew increased to one hun
dred and fifty men through the enlist
ment of New York ''repeaters," Captain
Kidd set sal for the East Indies and the
cast coast of Africa
He didn't have any particular luck in
hunting pirates. 1t was too much like
''sct thief to catch a thief" He began
to think it was much more profitable to
be pirate than to chase one. He envied
them their free and easy life, dreamed of
at last spending the decline of life in
some Luxurious but sequestered isle of
the sea, unmolested by the tax-gathcrer.
III only read such books as "Laftte, the
Pirate" "The Buccaneers of the Gulf"
and 1.-The Red Avenger of the 81 anish
Man," while his favorite song was s'Thc
Pirates Bride"
AT length he proposed to his crew that
the skull and cross boues be run up to
the peak, and ne found them nothing
averse to the proposition. In fact, their
education in New York city politics had
rendered them eager for any enterprise
that promised plunder So Kidd and
his fellow kidds became pirates, aud the
privateer "Adventure Galley" became a
pirate ship. They had little celcbra>
tion over the event, the Captain reading
a farewell address Oh resigning his posi-
tion as Captain of His Majes:y's priva-
teer, and then delivering an inaugural
speech on his accession to his new COM
mand. The men wept bitterly over his
farewell, but cheered his inaugural most
Justify.
They carried on both a wholesale and
retail business in piracy for some time,
frequently introducing among captured
passengers and crews that neat thing in
equilibrium entitled walking the plank :"
Captain Kidd, who had keen seuse of
the ludicrous, used to stand at the gang.
way and hand each person a Boston crack
er as he was about to walk off, with the
facetious remark, -'snow go and drink" !"
The humor of the proceeding consisted
| in the disparity between what they were
offered to eat and what they got TO
drink
Captain Kidd buried large portion
of his treasure at the east end
Of Long Island, where it can be found
now up to this day very little Of it hav-
ing been discovered. He did this be-
cause he finally had to retire to New
Jersey, and he wanted his deposits con-
venient.
After pursuing his piracies for some
time he boldly appeared in Boston, alleg-
ing that he could clear himself Of any
charges of piracy under the provisions
of the new license law. But the Gov
ernor of Massachusetts,, who appears to
have had no sympathy with a young man
struggling to make his way in the world,
had him arrested and sent to England for
trial. Unable to convict him of piracy,
they convicted him of killing one Of his
crew with a bucket-the iron bound
bucket-and was hanged
Thus we have in Captain Kidd an in
stance of young man beginning life as
a common sailor, and by his own genius
and his own efforts rising to a higher
position. his gallows being about twenty
FIVE feet in hight
Captain Kidd was noted for his atten-
ton to dress, and never wearing anything
but Kidd>gloves. 1t has been claimed
that Kidd was not always his name on
account of the song:
"My name is Captain Kidd as sailed, las sailed
that being an intimation that his name
was something else when he wasn't sail
ing. The "repeaters" of New York re-
GREETED greatly that Kidd wasn't hung in
that city SO they might give him big
funeral.
A bank check just received at the New
York Sub. Treasury has strange history.
1t was originally issued to one Quarter
master, and made payable to another
serving among the Indians. The latter
paid it away to a contractor, who in
turn passed it to certain cattle drovers
from Texas. Many months afterward,
among the enclosures to report received
at military headquarters from an officer
who had been on peace mission to GER