Kidd will give a very
good idea of the estimation in which this romantic being has been, and
still is, held in various parts of the country, and, of all the
legitimate legends about him, there is not one which recounts his
piratical deeds upon our coast. The reason for this will be seen when we
consider, in the next chapter, the life and character of the real
Captain Kidd.

Chapter XXXII

The Real Captain Kidd

William Kidd, or Robert Kidd, as he is sometimes called, was a sailor in
the merchant service who had a wife and family in New York. He was a
very respectable man and had a good reputation as a seaman, and about
1690, when there was war between England and France, Kidd was given the
command of a privateer, and having had two or three engagements with
French vessels he showed himself to be a brave fighter and a prudent
commander.

Some years later he sailed to England, and, while there, he received an
appointment of a peculiar character. It was at the time when the King of
England was doing his best to put down the pirates of the American
coast, and Sir George Bellomont, the recently appointed Governor of New
York, recommended Captain Kidd as a very suitable man to command a ship
to be sent out to suppress piracy. When Kidd agreed to take the position
of chief of marine police, he was not employed by the Crown, but by a
small company of gentlemen of capital, who formed themselves into a sort
of trust company, or society for the prevention of cruelty to
merchantmen, and the object of their association was not only to put
down pirates, but to put some money in their own pockets as well.

Kidd was furnished with two commissions, one appointing him a privateer
with authority to capture French vessels, and the other empowering him
to seize and destroy all pirate ships. Kidd was ordered in his mission
to keep a strict account of all booty captured, in order that it might
be fairly divided among those who were stockholders in the enterprise,
one-tenth of the total proceeds being reserved for the King.

Kidd sailed from England in the _Adventure_, a large ship with thirty
guns and eighty men, and on his way to America he captured a French ship
which he carried to New York. Here he arranged to make his crew a great
deal larger than had been thought necessary in England, and, by offering
a fair share of the property he might confiscate on piratical or French
ships, he induced a great many able seamen to ente