States.]

_73. Examination of Edward Buckmaster. June 6, 1699._[1]

[Footnote 1: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MSS., A. 272, fol.
48; also in the Public Record Office, C.O. 5:1042, no. 40 XI. Edward
Buckmaster, "one of Shelley's men", was committed June 7, and broke
prison Aug. 25. _Cal. St. P. Col._, 1699, pp. 278, 401. A year later,
though he was supposed to be still alive, a rascally chaplain of the
fort at New York married his wife to Capt. Adam Baldridge of document
no. 68, obtaining a marriage license for "Adam Ball" and adding
"-dridge" afterward. _N.Y. Col. Doc._, IV. 333, 413, 766.]

Taken this 6 June 1699.

The Answer of Edward Buckmaster to severall questions put to him by
the Honorable John Nanfan, Esqr., Lieutenant Governor of this
province,[2] the said Buckmaster being sworne to answer all such
Questions as should be demanded of him.

[Footnote 2: Capt. John Nanfan, a cousin of Bellomont's wife, was
lieutenant-governor of New York under him, and administered the
province during Bellomont's absence in Massachusetts.]

Impr[imi]s. That the first land they made after they parted from this
port in the _Adventure Galley_, Capt. William Kidd Commander, was the
Island of Maderas, from whence they went directly to Madagascar, where
they staid about A month to victual and careen. That there were no
vessels at Madagascar when they came there. That they sailed from
thence to a small Island called Johanna, lying in the Latitude of 12
degrees south, and from thence to Mahela, Lying in the Latitude of 11
degrees south; that they staid at the said Johanna and Mahela two
Months where the Natives supplyed them with provisions. That there
were four East India ships belonging to the Company at the Island
Johanna at the same time they were there, the one called the _East
India Merchant_ the second the _Maderasse_, the third was a fly boat,
and the fourth he knows not the name of.

_Item._ That from thence they sailed along the shore of Magellona[3]
in the redd sea but saw no vessels till they came into the Latitude of
12 degrees north. That there they Met with several ships, some with
English, some with Dutch, and some with Moors Colours, with whom they
sailed in Company for Twenty five dayes but were not on board any of
them. That the name of the one was the _Scepter_,[4] which ship fired
a Gunn or Two At Capt. Kidds Galley.

[Footnote 3: Somaliland, probably.]

[Footnote 4: An English frigate. The event