New-York tribune., 1901-11-14
A BOSTON TREASURE ISLAND.
THE EARBoR OF THAT CITY LIKELY TO
LOSE SOME PART OF ITS ORNAMENTS

The Tribune published yesterday portion OF 4
letter from Captain William Kidd. alias captain
Robert Kidd. The letter said that the writer hao
buried treasure amounting to from e15ooo to 9Zooe
on one of the islands IN Boston Earbor, its name
not mentioned. about a certain distance not ihen-
toned. up the hill. and about four feet deep
This seems to be the doom of the islands III bos-
ton Harbor. They will have to be raked oH TO d
depth four feet. at time TIL the treasure
is found Indeed. ii will be advisable to go deeper
than four feet for much dirt is likely to have
accumulated on the surfaces Of the islands In Bos-
ton Harbor in the last two hundred years 1t is
not likely that the Boston people can be restrained
from thus defacing their beautiful harbor. now
that this is out, but their real friends and
we'll yp,shers should try to dissuade them that is
the purpose this artcle) for they will not find any
thing
The letter is in Providence. suspicious CIT
cumstance and which gives ground Tor the oe
lief that il is merely trick to 1nJure boston
oroi,s+ rhief town the Providence people have
maintained an i'll concealed grudge ever since Roger
Williams was banished from the Colony OF Massa-
chusetts Bay. The Providence people never stop
70 reflect how much they really owe to the people
of the Colony of Massachusetts, Bay, for II Roger
Williams had not been banished he would not have
founded the Providence Plantations. and the Provi-
dence people would all be living in Massachusetts
to-day and they ought TO think of that They seem
to have devised this letter Cleverly. It is dated
.i7oo-'o1" and that means some time in January
nr February of the year which would now be called
f7o1 It was on May % OF that year that Kidd was
hanged.
Bue there is no great trick in writing letters from
Captain Kidd. The present writer once wrote one
hirnsef-a better one than this. too-dpDed 1t In
coffee to make it look old. sealed il with the bottom
Of a saItcellar and scorched it with a candle 10
represent the effect of the suphurous flames which
guarded IT. Neither is ii any great trick TO dig
Tor Captain Kids II is buried all along
the coae, from South Carolina to Maine and there
is so much of II in Rhode Island that 1t forms
practically an unbroken line of treasure along the
old South County from the Pawcatuck to Pint
Judy pint across the islands and TO Westpore
Harbor But Il is another thing TO find ii. The
present writer present the south coast of
Rhode Island on one Of the few occasions when
any OF it was ever found. having also assisted in
buryiug il q few hours before.
The probab bility is that William Kidd was never a
pirate at all. or least than half the
mariners Of that day pirates 1t never was
proved that he one. and never could be proved.
even to the satisfaction OF the unfair court which
tried him and he was hanged not for piracy, but
for the murder Of Moore. member of his
crew who Kidd said. in mutiny when he killed
him and probably he
Captain William Kidd (whose prejudiced chroni-
cIers could not even get his name right. and called
him RoberO was a New-York man. and when the
story saws that a New-York man was pirate and
buried his treasure bank paying no interest. IN
Roston Harbor there is something wrong with the