The Cairo bulletin., 1912-08-08

| of pirate, not to be Captain MOD
| compared in villainy, exploits and
! wealth to dozens of captains who
are today forgotten. A doggerel song
("My Name Was Captain Kidd, as,
Salied") and the foolish belief that he
| buried vast treasures somewhere near
New York are the two things that
have made Kidd immortal.
In the latter part OF the seven
tenth century the American coasts
swarmed with pirates whe spoiled sea
commerce and blocked travel. King
| William III. OF England sent LORD
Bellomont to New York as governor
with orders to stamp out piracy
Bellomont liked the idea of comhin
ing duty with profit. So. with Robert
| Livingston and other rich, shfewo
New Workers., he formed company
to make money out of crushing the
pirates. A powerful warship was to
be- fitted out and sent against the
| freebooters. They and their plumber
were to be seized. and the profits OF
| the enterprise divided between the
company and the king.
! Next, Bellomont and Livingston
| looked about for the right sort of man
to captain their warship. Livingston
suggested fright worthy and honest
mariner" William Kidd by name.
Kidd was the son of Scotch clergy
man who Is said to have suffered mar
| tyrdom. The fright worthy and hon
est mariner" had for more than thirty
years followed the sea, fighting
| against England's French foes, thrash.
| ing pirates and In many ways prov
ing Of use to the colonies. At that
| time (16961 he had retired and was
! living quietly in New York.
Kidd was made a shareholder In
Bellomont's company, took command
Of the thirty-gun galley Adventure
and set forth on his pirate-chasing
| task. He bore with him commission
| from the king. made out to "our we'll
beloved and trusty William Kidd"
After an unimportant capture or two,
he vanished. For a time nothing was
heard, directly, from him. Then came
ugly rumors that shaped themselves
into facts.
1t seemed that tho swell beloved
and trusty William Kidd" was doing
things that tended to make him Meth
err trusted nor beloved, In short, he
and his crew, who had been sent to
destroy piracy, had themselves be-
come pirates and were holding up and
ronbing merchant ships. This news
aroused tremendous excitement. Pub
lie feeling ran dangerously high.
Many people even limited that Bello-
mont, Livingston and the rest had Sc
cretly formed piratical company and
were only waiting to gather the
spoils. Rellomont. thoroughly scared,
reported the bad tidings to the king,
who received them with horror-real
or assumed--and who, In 1893, or
dered every British port to be on the
lookout for Kids capture.
Meanwhile the ''well-beloved" Kidd,
cruising the Spanish Main, heard OF
the plan to arrest him. Leaving his
large ship near Hayti, he FASTENED
northward in sloop laden with s70,.
600 worth Of treasure and with crew
of forty. He touched at Oyster Bay,
L. T., sentsfor New York lawyer and
opened negotiations with Bellomont.
1t Ia supposed Bellomont sent word
that the captain had nothing to fear,
for Kidd landed and went on July /,
1899, to Boston to talk matters over.
There Bellsmont arrested him and
packed him off to England to stand
trial. Then the company sent to the
pirate sloop and seized the treasure.
As Kidd had started out to do such
great things the public grew to be
lieve that $4,000 could not represent
all HIS plumber and that he must have
buried part of the treasure There IL
no reason for thinking 80. Yet the
rumor has lived for over 200 years
Kidd, meantime, was placed on trial
in England. He denied that he had
ever consented to be pirate and said
his crew had bullied him into 1t. He
could not be convicted of piracy, even
by court which for some mysterious
reason rushed his trial through with
suspicious haste and lack of Justice.
But he was found guilty Of having
killed a mutinons sailor, named VIII.
lam Moon by hitting him over the
head with bucket For this crime
Kidd was condemned to death. He
was hanged on May "a, 1701, with
nine of his crew. at Execution Dock,
London.
To this day 1t cannot be definitely
known whether CaptainSKidd was a
harmless old man, threatened into I'm
willing piracy BY a mutinous crew. or
whether he was the blackguard &C.
complete Of a band OF financiers who
used him for their own ends and then
disowned him. The haste and injus.
tice OF his trial led some to think his
speedy execution was needed to hush
a pirate scandal that would have In.
volved some of the highest naYnaa IN