The Real Captain Kidd

painfully instructive. After his return to Newgate, he seems to have had no more to do with either of them

provoke the poor wretch[196] to follow his advice, swore to him that those lords and their friends, were restless in soliciting to have him hanged, and therefore it was reasonable for him to do their business." "God," he adds, "disappointed all these cursed designs. Perhaps the unhappy creature knew himself

d he had sworn in his examinations before the Admiralty and also in the House of Commons, that he had never seen Somers or Shrewsbury, or heard more of them, than that Bellamont had told him they were two of the owners of the Adventure Galley; that Bellamont had introduced him to Orford and that Colonel Hewson had carried him to Romney in his coach which was all that he knew of them. He had been recalled and pressed to make some further disclosure with regard to these great personages, and asked categorically if he knew anything i

from them confessions of their guilt. If Kidd had yielded to this cruel pressure, he would have left this world with a lie upon his lips, as it is to be feared many poor creatures did before and after h

of his calling as confessor to the doomed the somewhat incongruous functions discharged in these latter days by enterprising press interviewers of celebrities in whose personal peculiarities and proclivities the reading public may b

oted to the texts and heads of the discourses delivered by the Ordinary to the prisoners, on the two preceding Sundays when they had had the privilege of listening to him. These, admirable as they may be, it is unnecessary to reproduce in the present narrative. From the remainder of this account it appears that Lorrain on the day after their trial visited the prisoners, and "did pray with them and admonish them to self examination and repentance," that during his whole attendance on them, which was "every day, both forenoon and afternoon" until the day of execution,[201] he "pressed upon them the acts of faith and repentance, exhorting them to confess their crimes." "I at last," he says, "prevailed on them to uncover and own

in the Charity, Captain Sims commander, and continued there two years. At the end of which he took his passage on board Captain Slade to the Madeiras, where he stayed but three weeks and then returned[203] to New York; and some time after having bury'd his wife there, he was not able any longer to keep house; but apply'd himself to carrying and fetching wood from place to place in a boat of his own, about 20 tons. Then he left off this employment and engaged himself with Captain Kidd and afterwards with Captain Culliford, not knowing but that it was very lawful (as he said he was told) to plunder the enemies of Christianity. But now he being shew'd that those were the greatest enemies to Christ and his religion, who did such unaccountable things, as he and his companions did, contrary to the laws

ercys or judgments, or of his wonderful works which had so often been set before him. That he" (like Mullins) "never remembered to have returned Him thanks for the many great deliverances he had received from him, or call'd[205] himself to account for what he had done. But now he owns

llow countryman had possibly given the poor old man a wee drappie of which he must have stood sorely in need, after all these exhausting religious exercises and his confinement for over a year in Newgate), "which had so discompos'd his mind that it was now in a very ill frame, and very unfit for the great work now or never to be perform'd by him. I prayed for him, and so did other worthy divines that were present, to whom as well as to myself the Captain appeared to be much out of order, and not so concerned or affected as he ought to have been.[207] 'Tis true he spoke some words expressing his confidence in God's mercys through Christ, and likewise declared that he died in Charity with all the world. But still I suspected his sincerity" (Why?) "because he was more reflective upon others than upon himself" (as he might well be) "and would still endeavour to lay his faults upon his crew and others, going about to excuse and justify himself much about the same manner, as he did upon his t

the great mercy of God in giving him unexpectedly this further respite, that so he might improve the few moments left now so mercifully allowed him in perfecting his Faith and Repentance. Now I found him in much better temper than before. But as I was unwilling, and the station also very incommodious and improper for me to offer anything to him by way of question, that might have perhaps discomposed his spirit, so I contented myself to press him to embrace (before it was too late) the Mercy of God now again offered him upon the easy conditions of Sted

pping by the officers of the Admiralty and others, carrying the Silver Oar before them according to the usual custom:" that Kidd's "behaviour in Newgate after condemnation was not so serious and devout as became a person under his circumstances, but whether it proceeded from an heroick temper i

00 for his ransom,[212] and further said that all his sailors knew he always had a great love and respect for him; adding that if any one concerned in his tryal had acted contrary to the dictates of his or their own conscience he heartily forgave them, and desired that God would do the like." "He expressed abundance of sorrow for leaving his wife and children without having the opportunity of taking leave of them, they being inhabitants in New York. So that the thoughts of his wife's sorrow at the sad tidings of his shameful death was more occasion of grief to him than that of his own sad misfortunes." "He desired all seamen in general, more especially Captains in particular to take warning by his dismal unhappiness and shameful death and that they would avoid the means and occasions th

is clear from it that whether or not he had been given a drop of whiskey on h

ns: but neither of these circumstances in itself seems quite a satisfactory justification for hanging him. He had no doubt joined Culliford, unquestionably by far the most guilty of all the seamen implicated, but for whose presence at Madagascar, when the Adventure Galley arrived there, Kidd in all probability would have been able to bring his prizes home before the hue and cry had been raised against him. But Culliford, though indicted for several

s[216] and others, His Majesty's subjects, and the dishonour of the King and his Kingdom:" and that "by procuring and passing it," he had been guilty of a notorious breach of his duty. In his reply he was forced to admit that Newton had been named in the grant, "by and in trust for him," and was apparently unable to give any excuse whatever for this discreditable deception. He pleaded that the grant "did not in any way tend to the obstruction or discouragement of trade or navigation, or to the loss or prejudice of His Majesty's subjects, nor to the dishonour of His Majesty or His Kingdom." He denied (and the denial implied what

s narrative, the depositions of his men, and Bellamont's correspondence, and that he was not cognizant[219] of all the proceedings at Kidd's trial, the keeping back of the French passes by the Admiralty officials: the failure of Kidd's counsel to put in an appearance on the critical day when he was tried for piracy; the break-down of the most material parts of the King's evidence; and the manner in which the trials had been conducted throughout by the Lord Chief Baron. It is to be feared that he not only knew all this, but that his was the unseen master hand that had held the strings, which had been so skilfully and ruthlessly manipulated as to bring about Kidd's death so opportunely by the verdicts of London juries. If this be so, what is to be said of the Whig historians, who have dealt with Kidd's case? Is it possible to believe in the face of indisputably recorded facts, that Somers really was the immaculate politician of his day depicted for us by Macaulay, "whose integrity," we have been assured, "was ever certain to come forth bright and pure from the most[220] severe investigation"? In the foregoing pages an attempt has been made, it is believed for the first time, to allow the personages who took part in this melancholy business to speak for themselves, so far as the extant records permit. Hitherto by a conspiracy of silence, their voices have been hushed, and the facts of the c

ses, in order to extort from them information as to their concealed hoards, has already been explained. The men in question were not his prisoners. He allowed them to proceed peacefully on their voyage, and their ship was not taken from them. Kidd never went on board of her, much[223] less did he give directions to his crew to ill-use them. Questioned as to whether any gold had been taken from them, Palmer freely admitted that he did not see any. Asked further by Kidd, whether it was not the case that a parcel of rogues had gone on board and done the deed complained of, he virtually admitted that it was so by making no reply. In the matter of cruelty there is a marked difference between the reported doings of Kidd and of the pirates of whom the East India Company were repeatedly complaining. In these complaints mention is often made of the o

crous to call for comment. It is absolutely clear from the evidence of every witness of the occurrence that so far from Kidd having led Moore astray, Moore had v

2

ated to insert a circumstantial fable to the effect that Kidd was caught red-handed on the high seas in the midst of his criminal career. In the fifth volume of his "Lives of the Chancellors," pages 126 and 127, he tells the tale thus: "A noble vessel called the Adventure Galley was fitted out, and the command of her given to William Kidd, a naval officer, esteemed for honour as well

nd