Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-10-06
PIRATE GOLD.
THE TRUE STORY OF THE NOTORIOUS CAP
TAIN KIDD AT LAST.

TAIN KIDD AT LAST.
New York Times.
Search for hidden treasure, whether de-
posted by nature or buried by misers or
free-booters, has always been one of the
most fascinating occupations of the bulk
of mankind Something in the very
name of concealed gold so appeals to their
greed as to mar, if not destroy for the
time, all their GOODNESS ofjudgment. The
burial of Captain Kidd's actual, or inn
agined, treasure exemplifies his peculiar
ity. Men have been hunting for its pc
riodically on the banks of the Hudson
and the shores of long Island Sound for a
century and half. Just now, a num-
Der of visionaries seem to be confident
that they have discovered the place, near
ly opposite Peekskill, where great deal
of the pirates gold lies in a sunken ship
in the river, to be recoved by those en-
terprising souls. William Kidd was not
as has been sometimes thought, English
by birth. He was an American, proba-
bly, a New Yorker, and appears to have
followed the sea from his youth About
1895, when he was, presumably, some
40 years o d, he was accounted one ofthe
most skillful ship-masters sailing from
this port Piratical inroads had at that
time grown to be so frequent and serious
upon British commerce that company
was formed, in which William III. and
several prominent noblemen were sharers
to equip an armed vessel for their sup
preston as we'll as for profit, to be derived
from recaptures. At the suggestion of
Colonel Richard Livingston, Kidd, who
had had some experience as Captain of
a priva+eer against the French, received
a commission signed by the King as COM
mander of the Adventure Galley, carry
ing thirty guns. Sailing from Plymouth,
Eng, in the Spring of 1896, he cruised
for some months off our shores, occasion
ally coming into this port. He here re-
cruited his force to $50 men, and then
sailed for the East Indies and then sailed
for the East Indies and the African coast.
During the voyage he determined to turn
pirate himself, and, finding his officers
and crew willing to join him, began plum
dering whatever ships he found off Mala-
bar and Madagascar. He returned hither
in 1898 with great deal of booty; buried
portion of it on GARDENERS Island, and
then went to Boston, where he appeared
with characteristic audacity in the streets.
believing that he could, under his COM
mission, clear himself of any charge of
piracy that might be brought against
him. The enormity of his outrages had
reached England, and caused the Earl
of Bellamont, then Governor of Massa-
chusetts and New York, and one of the
shareholders in the Adventure Galley en-
terprise, to have Kidd apprehended and
conveyed to London. AS it was very
hard fo prove him a pirate. he was ar
raigned for killing one of his crew, John
Moore, by striking him with bucket
during a quarrel, and, after an obviously
unfair trial, he was condemned and
the treasures he had left about 500
ounces of gold, 900 ounces Of silver, and
several bags of silver ornaments-were Sc
cured by Bellostin; but in the vulgar be-
lief these formed an insignificant portion
of his plunder, which imaginary persons
have been seeking ever since.