The Pirates Own Book (20 page)

When I visited the pirate in the Moorish castle where he was confined,
he was sitting in his cold, narrow, and miserable cell, upon a pallet of
straw, eating his coarse meal from a tin plate. I thought him more an
object of pity than vengeance; he looked so worn with disease, so
crushed with suffering, yet so affable, frank, and kind in his address;
for he happened to be in a communicative mood, a thing that was by no
means common with him. He spoke of his long confinement, till I thought
the tears were about to start from his eyes, and alluded to his
approaching trial with satisfaction; but his predominant characteristic,
ferocity, appeared in his small piercing black eyes before I left him,
as he alluded to his keeper, the Provost, in such a way that made me
suspect his desire for blood was not yet extinguished. When he appeared
in court on his trial, his demeanor was quite altered; he seemed to me
to have suddenly risen out of the wretch he was in his cell, to all the
qualities I had heard of him; he stood erect and unembarrassed; he spoke
with a strong voice, attended closely to the proceedings, occasionally
examined the witnesses, and at the conclusion protested against the
justice of his trial. He sometimes spoke to the guards around him, and
sometimes affected an air of carelessness of his awful situation, which,
however, did not sit easy upon him. Even here the leading trait of his
mind broke forth; for when the interpreter commenced his office, the
language which he made use of being pedantic and affected, Soto
interrupted him thus, while a scowl sat upon his brow that terrified the
man of words: "I don't understand you, man; speak Spanish like others,
and I'll listen to you." When the dirk that belonged to Mr. Robertson,
the trunk and clothes taken from Mr. Gibson, and the pocket book
containing the ill-fated captain's handwriting were placed before him,
and proved to have been found in his room, and when the maid servant of
the tavern proved that she found the dirk under his pillow every morning
on arranging his bed; and when he was confronted with his own black
slave, between two wax lights, the countenance of the villain appeared
in its true nature, not depressed nor sorrowful, but vivid and
ferocious; and when the patient and dignified governor, Sir George Don,
passed the just sentence of the law upon him, he looked daggers at his
heart, and assumed a horrid silence, more eloquent than words.

The criminal persisted up to the day before his execution in asserting
his innocence, and inveighing against the injustice of his trial, but
the certainty of his fate, and the awful voice of religion, at length
subdued him. He made an unreserved confession of his guilt, and became
truly penitent; gave up to the keeper the blade of a razor which he had
secreted between the soles of his shoes for the acknowledged purpose of
adding suicide to his crimes, and seemed to wish for the moment that was
to send him before his Creator.

I witnessed his execution, and I believe there never was a more contrite
man than he appeared to be; yet there were no drivelling fears upon
him—he walked firmly at the tail of the fatal cart, gazing sometimes at
his coffin, sometimes at the crucifix which he held in his hand. The
symbol of divinity he frequently pressed to his lips, repeated the
prayers spoken in his ear by the attendant clergyman, and seemed
regardless of every thing but the world to come. The gallows was erected
beside the water, and fronting the neutral ground. He mounted the cart
as firmly as he had walked behind it, and held up his face to Heaven and
the beating rain, calm, resigned, but unshaken; and finding the halter
too high for his neck, he boldly stepped upon his coffin, and placed his
head in the noose, then watching the first turn of the wheels, he
murmured "
adios todos
,"
[1]
and leaned
forward to facilitate his fall.

The black slave of the pirate stood upon the battery trembling before
his dying master to behold the awful termination of a series of events,
the recital of which to his African countrymen, when he shall return to
his home, will give them no doubt, a dreadful picture of European
civilization. The black boy was acquitted at Cadiz, but the men who had
fled to the Carraccas, as well as those arrested after the wreck, were
convicted, executed, their limbs severed, and hung on tenter hooks, as a
warning to all pirates.

The easy access to the harbor of New-York, the number of hiding-places
about its waters, and the laxity of its newly organized government,
about the year 1695, made it a great rendezvous of pirates, where they
might dispose of their booty and concert new depredations. As they
brought home with them wealthy lading of all kinds, the luxuries of the
tropics, and the sumptuous spoils of the Spanish provinces, and disposed
of them with the proverbial carelessness of freebooters, they were
welcome visitors to the thrifty traders of New-York. Crews of these
desperadoes, therefore, the runagates of every country and every clime,
might be seen swaggering in open day about the streets, elbowing its
quiet inhabitants, trafficking their rich outlandish plunder at half or
quarter price to the wary merchant; and then squandering their
prize-money in taverns, drinking, gambling, singing, carousing and
astounding the neighborhood with midnight brawl and revelry. At length
these excesses rose to such a height as to become a scandal to the
provinces, and to call loudly for the interposition of government.
Measures were accordingly taken to put a stop to this widely extended
evil, and to drive the pirates out of the colonies.

Among the distinguished individuals who lurked about the colonies, was
Captain Robert Kidd,
[2]
who in
the beginning of King William's war, commanded a privateer in the West
Indies, and by his several adventurous actions, acquired the reputation
of a brave man, as well as an experienced seaman. But he had now become
notorious, as a nondescript animal of the ocean. He was somewhat of a
trader, something more of a smuggler, but mostly a pirate. He had traded
many years among the pirates, in a little rakish vessel, that could run
into all kinds of water. He knew all their haunts and lurking places,
and was always hooking about on mysterious voyages.

Upon the good old maxim of "setting a rogue to catch a rogue," Capt.
Kidd was recommended by the Lord Bellamont, then governor of Barbadoes,
as well as by several other persons, to the government here, as a person
very fit to be entrusted to the command of a government ship, and to be
employed in cruising upon the pirates, as knowing those seas perfectly
well, and being acquainted with all their lurking places; but what
reasons governed the politics of those times, I cannot tell, but this
proposal met with no encouragement here, though it is certain it would
have been of great consequence to the subject, our merchants suffering
incredible damages by those robbers.

Upon this neglect, the lord Bellamont and some others, who knew what
great captures had been made by the pirates, and what a prodigious
wealth must be in their possession, were tempted to fit out a ship at
their own private charge, and to give the command of her to Captain
Kidd; and to give the thing a greater reputation, as well as to keep
their seamen under better command, they procured the king's commission
for the said Capt. Kidd, of which the following is an exact copy:

William Rex
,

"WILLIAM THE THIRD, by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland,
France and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. To our trusty and well
beloved Capt. ROBERT KIDD, commander of the ship the Adventure galley,
or to any other, the commander of the same for the time being,
Greeting
: Whereas we are informed, that Capt. Thomas Too, John
Ireland, Capt. Thomas Wake, and Capt. William Maze or Mace, and other
subjects, natives or inhabitants of New-York, and elsewhere, in our
plantations in America, have associated themselves with divers others,
wicked and ill-disposed persons, and do, against the law of nations,
commit many and great piracies, robberies and depredations on the seas
upon the parts of America, and in other parts, to the great hindrance
and discouragement of trade and navigation, and to the great danger and
hurt of our loving subjects, our allies, and all others, navigating the
seas upon their lawful occasions. Now KNOW YE, that we being desirous to
prevent the aforesaid mischiefs, and as much as in us lies, to bring the
said pirates, free-booters and sea-rovers to justice, have thought fit,
and do hereby give and grant to the said Robert Kidd, (to whom our
commissioners for exercising the office of Lord High Admiral of England,
have granted a commission as a private man-of-war, bearing date the 11th
day of December, 1695,) and unto the commander of the said ship for the
time being, and unto the officers, mariners, and others which shall be
under your command, full power and authority to apprehend, seize, and
take into your custody as well the said Capt. Thomas Too, John Ireland,
Capt. Thomas Wake, and Capt. Wm. Maze or Mace, as all such pirates,
free-booters, and sea-rovers, being either our subjects, or of other
nations associated with them, which you shall meet with upon the seas or
coasts of America, or upon any other seas or coasts, with all their
ships and vessels, and all such merchandizes, money, goods, and wares as
shall be found on board, or with them, in case they shall willingly
yield themselves; but if they will not yield without fighting, then you
are by force to compel them to yield. And we also require you to bring,
or cause to be brought, such pirates, free-booters, or sea-rovers, as
you shall seize, to a legal trial, to the end they may be proceeded
against according to the law in such cases. And we do hereby command
all our officers, ministers, and other our loving subjects whatsoever,
to be aiding and assisting to you in the premises. And we do hereby
enjoin you to keep an exact journal of your proceedings in execution of
the premises, and set down the names of such pirates, and of their
officers and company, and the names of such ships and vessels as you
shall by virtue of these presents take and seize, and the quantities of
arms, ammunition, provision, and lading of such ships, and the true
value of the same, as near as you judge. And we do hereby strictly
charge and command you, as you will answer the contrary at your peril,
that you do not, in any manner, offend or molest our friends or allies,
their ships or subjects, by colour or pretence of these presents, or the
authority thereby granted.
In witness whereof
, we have caused our
great seal of England to be affixed to these presents. Given at our
court in Kensington, the 26th day of January, 1695, in the 7th year of
our reign."

Capt. Kidd had also another commission, which was called a commission of
reprisals; for it being then war time, this commission was to justify
him in the taking of French merchant ships, in case he should meet with
any; but as this commission is nothing to our present purpose, we shall
not burthen the reader with it.

Previous to sailing, Capt. Kidd buried his bible on the sea-shore, in
Plymouth Sound; its divine precepts being so at variance with his wicked
course of life, that he did not choose to keep a book which condemned
him in his lawless career.

With these two commissions he sailed out of Plymouth in May, 1696, in
the Adventure galley, of 30 guns, and 80 men; the place he first
designed for was New-York; in his voyage thither, he took a French
banker, but this was no act of piracy, he having a commission for that
purpose, as we have just observed.

When he arrived at New-York, he put up articles for engaging more hands,
it being necessary to his ship's crew, since he proposed to deal with a
desperate enemy. The terms he offered, were, that every man should have
a share of what was taken, reserving for himself and owners forty
shares. Upon which encouragement he soon increased his company to 155
men.

With this company he sailed first for Madeira, where he took in wine and
some other necessaries; from thence he proceeded to Bonavista, one of
the Cape de Verd Islands, to furnish the ship with salt, and from thence
went immediately to St. Jago, another of the Cape de Verd Islands, in
order to stock himself with provisions. When all this was done, he bent
his course to Madagascar, the known rendezvous of pirates. In his way he
fell in with Capt. Warren, commodore of three men of war; he acquainted
him with his design, kept them company two or three days, and then
leaving them, made the best of his way for Madagascar, where he arrived
in February, 1696, just nine months from his departure from Plymouth.

It happened that at this time the pirate ships were most of them out in
search of prey; so that according to the best intelligence Capt. Kidd
could get, there was not one of them at that time about the island;
wherefore, having spent some time in watering his ship and taking in
more provisions, he thought of trying his fortune on the coast of
Malabar, where he arrived in the month of June following, four months
from his reaching Madagascar. Hereabouts he made an unsuccessful cruise,
touching sometimes at the island of Mohila, and sometimes at that of
Johanna, between Malabar and Madagascar. His provisions were every day
wasting, and his ship began to want repair; wherefore, when he was at
Johanna, he found means of borrowing a sum of money from some Frenchmen
who had lost their ship, but saved their effects, and with this he
purchased materials for putting his ship in good repair.

It does not appear all this while that he had the least design of
turning pirate; for near Mohila and Johanna both, he met with several
Indian ships richly laden, to which he did not offer the least violence,
though he was strong enough to have done what he pleased with them; and
the first outrage or depredation I find he committed upon mankind, was
after his repairing his ship, and leaving Johanna; he touched at a place
called Mabbee, upon the Red Sea, where he took some Guinea corn from the
natives, by force. After this, he sailed to Bab's Key, a place upon a
little island at the entrance of the Red Sea. Here it was that he first
began to open himself to his ship's company, and let them understand
that he intended to change his measures; for, happening to talk of the
Mocha fleet, which was to sail that way, he said, "
We have been
unsuccessful hitherto; but courage, my boys, we'll make our fortunes out
of this fleet
"; and finding that none of them appeared averse to it, he
ordered a boat out, well manned, to go upon the coast to make
discoveries, commanding them to take a prisoner and bring him to him, or
get intelligence any way they could. The boat returned in a few days,
bringing him word, that they saw fourteen or fifteen ships ready to
sail, some with English, some with Dutch, and some with Moorish colors.