The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-06-02
CAPTAIN KIDD.
TAe Standard.

The name of Captain Kidd is as fla miliar as the hero of a nursery rhyme, but how few there are who know his story. He. was a pirate who r0amed the sec, scuttling ships, murdering seamsn, plundering cargoes and bury ing treasures, who was captured as a pirate, tried as a pirate, hanged as a pirate, and who righteously stands as the type of all that was at once most dreadful, most mysterious and most romantic in piracy. This, in brief, Is his commonly accepted biography. And yet Captain Kidd was neither tried nor hanged for piracy, and there is grave reason to doubt that he was pirate.
 In the latter part of the seventeenth century William Kidd, Scotchman by birth, was captain of packet ship plying regularly between New York and London. He was 6 man of eom- fortable means, and one of the most respected inhabitants of New York. In 1892, after marrying the widow of & sea captain who had left consider able estate, he took up his residence in Hanover square, where he remained until the land in the vicinity of Mas sau and Liberty streets was laid of into building lots, when he purchased a lot there and built & mansion upon it, in which he lived at the time of his voyage that was destined to make him so unhappily famous.
 At this period New York was 8 market for piratical plumber. Her merchants, under cover of legitimate commerce trstiicked along the African coast with the pirates of the Indian ocean; and so profitable was this traf- fic that efforts to suppress 1t aroused intense feeling here and ultimately be- came an absorbing topic of political debate. In 1895 Robert Livingston, of Albany, was passenger with Kidd, and during the voyage to London the captain and his wealthy subject ire- quently discussed the subject, Later in the voyage their discussions took a practical turn, aud it was agreed that they should organize cruise under the kings commission against the ln- dian sea pirates, their compensation, in lieu of government pay, to be a share of the plumber captured from the pirates The plan was proposed by Livingston.
 On their arrival in London the earl of Bellamont was interested in the scheme, and Lord Chancellor Somers, the earl of Romney, the duke of Shrewsbury, the earl of Oxford and even the king became partners In the enterprise. A written agreement was made in which Captain Kidd should be commissioned to act as private man of war; that he should take one hundred seamen and go in search of pirates, bringing his prizes to Boston i; that the crew should ship "no prize, no pay;" that the earl of Bellamont should pay four fifths of the expense of fitting out the vessel, Kidd and Livingston to pay the other and that of the prizes taken one- fourth were to go to the crew, and the other three- fourths to be divided into five parts, one of which was to belong to Liv- ingston and Kidd and the remainder to Bellamont and his associates. In case no prizes were taken Bellamont was to receive 5000 pounds, in con- sideration of which the ship was to vest in Livingston and Kidd; but if Kidd delivered 100000 pounds worth of prizes to Bellamont the ship was to belong to Livingston and Kidd without other compensation.
 It was not until the winter of 1896 that the expedition was fitted out. When all was in readiness Kidd re- signed his packet ship to the owners and went aboard the Adventure" gal ley with about seventy men. He sailed for New York, expecting to capture some prizes on his way, but in that both he and his crew were greatly disappointed. In the follow ing summer, having recruited his men from New York, he sailed for Mada- garcar. The remainder of his story is told by the late David T. Valentine, one of the historians of New York, in an old manual of the city now out of print:
 "Whether from want of direct com munication, which might enable him to find the pirate ships or the deposi- taries of their spells; or whether the pirates had received notice of his ap- proach and had avoided him, it seems he was unable to effect the object of his expedition. There is also the al. ternative reason, which is that com- monly ascribed to his conduct, that he found piracy more profitable than war with the pirates; and therefore adopt ed, from mercenary motives, the pro- fession of those he was sent to subdue. But, judging from probabilities, we infer thai his own story may have been the correct one, and that his law less crew, disappointed in prize money from captured pirates, forced him to q