r the Carpenter and his mate
with severall others does design to run away with the Pinnace. This I
do swear by the old Testament to the best of my knowledge and what I
have heard of the Seamen that all the above written is true.

BENJAMIN FRANKS.

Bombay the 20th October 1697.
Sworn before me:

[Footnote 2: One of the Cape Verde Islands; Santiago is a larger
island of the same group, farther south.]

[Footnote 3: The Cape of Good Hope.]

[Footnote 4: Capt. Thomas Warren, R.N.]

[Footnote 5: Capt. Edward Acton, R.N.]

[Footnote 6: Tullear, near St. Augustine's Bay, on the southwest coast
of Madagascar.]

[Footnote 7: Supercargo.]

[Footnote 8: See document no. 63, note 11.]

[Footnote 9: Mohelli, another of the Comoro group.]

[Footnote 10: "Matta in the Red Sea," says William Jinkins of Bow, in
his deposition in _Commons Journal_, XIII. 24.]

[Footnote 11: Chick-peas.]

[Footnote 12: The straits of Bab-el-Mandeb.]

[Footnote 13: Mocha; see document no. 63, note 16a. Carwar is on the
west coast of Hindustan, some 350 miles south of Bombay.]

[Footnote 14: See document no. 33, note 15.]

[Footnote 15: Probably Diu, in northwest India.]

_72. The President and Council of the Leeward Islands to Secretary
Vernon. May 18, 1699._[1]

[Footnote 1: Public Record Office, C.O. 152:3, no. 21. This letter
conveyed to the British government its first knowledge of the return
of Captain Kidd to the western hemisphere. The Leeward Islands--Antigua,
Montserrat, Nevis, St. Christopher, the most important being
Nevis--constituted at this time one government, though with
subordinate administration in the several islands. The governor having
died, the council, of which William Burt was president, was acting as
governor till a new governor should arrive. Burt and the other signers
of this letter were all of Nevis. James Vernon, to whom the letter is
addressed, was secretary of state; he was the father of Admiral
Vernon, for whom Mount Vernon was named.]

_Right Honourable Sir_

Your Letter of the 23d of November last[2] in relacion to that
notorious Pirate Captain Kidd came safe to our hands, and shall take
particular care to put the same in execucion, and in order thereto
have sent copies thereof to the Lieutenant or Deputy Governor of each
respective Island under this Government; since which wee have had this
following account of the said Kidd (vizt.) That he lately came from
Mallagascoe in a large Gennouese