The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-05-24
THE 0YSTERMEN IN HIGH LUCK.
Spanish Pieces Of Eight" Flemish and Dutch
Coins Brought from the Bottom Of the
Sound by Oyster Tonss.
Intense Excitement Among the Natives
and the NumismatiStS.

| or "Kydd,n as the name Is correctly spelled.
| Those who have heard of him have heard
OF him in connection with terrible deeds
OF pillage, blood and outrage. Kydd, las
he sailed, as he sailed" was Lon
| don COckney, born far as the records tell,
about the year 164s, when Europe, from Gibraltar
to Moscow, was In dire travail. He was sailor of
the seas from youth, and at an early age had COM
mand OF one of those DID, heavily popped East India
menthat Turner, In his fiery sketches, made immor-
tai. His skill in seamanshp brought his before
the English nation bold, daring and successful
navigator, and at that time william, Prince Of
Orange, who sat on the throne OF England with his
inherent Dutch thrift ana desire to make little
money through the agency OF his Privy Council
organized an association, OF which he was one of
the principal shareholders, to put down piracy,
which was then as much OF a profession politics
is now, in the Indian, African and the coasts OF
Cuba and jamaica
Looking around for man to put down this
almost universal system OF piracy as 1t then ex-
listed, fame pointed to William Kydd as the only
man. lie was believed to fear neither man nor
devil, ana well he afterward justified his fame In
those days-1695-New York city held rank as a
port OF entry with Perth Amboy and Elizabeth,
NJ They were three towns with about the same
amount Of commerce credited to them on the books
| OF the moneyed world. A certain Colonel Richard
Livingston, well beloved of His Majesty William Ill.,
| ancestor OF the "frst family" of New York, had
his residence on this island, and suggested to him
| that William Kydd was the only man to crush the
hornets who ravaged English ships on the waters
| OF the Eastern and Western worlds. And behold |
on the 10th Of April, 1896, commission Is issued to
''The trusty and well beloved Captain Kydd, COM
mander of the Adventure Galley''-a vessel OF
thirty guns, highpooped and cumbersome as q
hon nfh haas t,n
venture sailed from Plymouth, England, in the
latter part of April 1890, and what she did after
ward, definitely and In DETAIL is mostly lost to man.
kind; But enough is known to us to-day to certify
that In New Amsterdam he recruited his vessel to
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MEN,
From thence he sailed into space wide Indian
manhood, plundering here and butchering there,
accumulating treasures from Spanish gaeons,
Portuguese fellow corsairs and English freebooters,
as well as merchant vessels of all nations and all
flags. All was fish that came to his net, friend or
foe alike.
Kydd ploughed the Mozambique Channel for
thousand miles, between the Island of Madagascar
and the eastern shore OF Africa and hunted the
selves. He visited the Hndoo and Mussuiman set
Elements on the Maabar coast and filled his vessel
with gold, disdaining ivory and cinnamon; and he
PAMELA and the Spanish Main. All things, even to
q lreebooter's existence, must have an end. Kydd
had for his crew most desperate set OF
scoundrels, to whom the name Of mercy was jest
and Is, soon Kyda at heart was humane fellow,
ana ulu not care 10 Sleu DlO0u unnecessarily, but
his officers urged him on. 1t is calculated that In
his short of pirate, which lasted nearly Ave
years he had forclby taken treasures amounting to
twenty millions OF dollars OF the present day. There
enormous quantities IN the vessels Of that
KIDD lad made AG an enemy in NV the person
OF N the va Earl Of beamomt VINO rn was Goyen NOR
and It six For six
| years Beamont waited for his foe. The pirate had
q brute ON his vessel, a boatswan named
/ there was a bitter alteration and Kydd In hot
blood, lifted water bucket and smotc the life out
venture galley was captured, and Kydd, with the
assistance of the Earl of BellamOnt, was hung in
chains, at Execution Dock in his own native city Of
| London, in the year 170l.
Kydd tradition says, was In the habit OF deposit
ing the bulk of his accumulated treasures near tho
| city of New York. There is hardly inlet a
hamlet on the shores Of Long Island Sound, Kill
Won Ku Hudson River or Staten IslandSound that
| buried q portion OF his hard dollars pieces Of
| "eghtn on returning from his numerous voyages
| The treasure actually recovered by the Earl Of Bel
| lamont from Kydd's vessel amounted to 1888 ounces
of gold SAT ounces OF silver and several bags Of pre-
cous stones and silver and gold ornaments amount
s2,oooooo
Yesterday the news was flashed all over the land
/ by telegraph that considerable sum OF
i KYDDS MONEY
had been found midway in Staten Island Sound, be-
tween the estuary of that stream, which Is at New
ark Bay, and the point where 1t debouchcs into the
Rartan Bay and River. Staten Island Sound Is
navgabe for vessels of the largest draught with
the exception OF place at the upper end, where
there sand bar. The depth OF water is from twelve
! to eighteen feet, and the stream, which averages
q quarter Of mile In width, is nanked by salt
meadows on the north shore of Staten Island and
! on the Jersey shore for the entire length OF the
/ stream, distance of twenty-one miles. The Phia-
| dephia propellers and other steamboats, from New
| York city, Perth Amboy Keyport and other places,
! pass this way.
fishermen who own them being engaged in dredg-
ing for young oysters, which are transplanted and
bedded In Princes Bay and in the virginia lnlets
boats have places for mast and single sail, and are
generally about sixteen feet in length and painted
Of green Color In each boat may be found an
oyster tongs of iron, with sharp teeth for clawng
the oysters from
| THEIR MUDDY Bed
The 0ystermen in their boats as a general thing
wear pair Of ragged trowsers and red shirt, and
when at work "dredgingr for oysters are compelled
to lean the boats and work like as If they
churnng butter, rapidly moving to any fro the two
slender wooden shafts.
At point below Eizabcthport, some few miles
In the Sound, there Is q narrow stream, known to
the old inhabitants as 'Morss' Creek,n which runs
slugglshly into the SOUND, Between, this creek
Curtis the Supposed treasure Of the pirate Kydd
was discovered. The first portion was found some
days since by an oyster fisherman named Van Pelt,
found by three BROTHERS, oyster fishermen, OF the
Of pSOn Van ps and his father nUnsT
oyster Some arre silver wn Coins Tnsy with fhe
rfSer's brine and worn on the Waters edge,
form while in the bed of the sound The coins We're
small oysters and bore every appearance OF
i having lain there for hundreds OF years.
From close observation under a powerful magni-
tying glass there is not any coin at present cicu-
lated In civilized countries similar to those found at
the mouth Of Morss' Creek.
There is violent eud existing between the faml-
lies ofvan Pelt and Dixon, who seem to contest the
oyster fishery in the sound. People IN the neigh
borhood believe that the Dixon family have found
great deal OF money which they have not accounted
for and the specimens which they show are not all
conclusive Of their fair dealing with curiosity seek
crs. But there is one thing certain, and that IL,
that the coins shed up by the two families of Van
Pelt and Dixon are genuine, as none OF them are
much less than two hundred years old The coins
range In date from 1884 TO 1851 and arc principally
| OF Spanish, Flemish and East Indian coinage, prob
ably the plumber Of half dozen nations. II was In
this little inlet that kydd generally concealed his
vessel when he was DESTROYS Of visiting New York
| city secretly
Hence It Is probable that there IL vast amount