after hailing of which
Sloop and being informed that the said Kidd was Commander thereof, he
said Kidd desired me to come on board the same; which I accordingly
did, and after some discourse passed, said Kidd desired me to do him
the favour as to make what Speed I could for Boston and acquaint your
Excellency that the said Kidd had brought a Ship, about five or six
hundred Tuns, from Madagascar, which, some considerable time since, he
met with in [_blank_] and commanded her there to bring to; and that
thereupon the Pilott, being a French man, came on board the said Kidds
Ship, and told him, said Kidd, he was welcome, and that the said Ship
(to which said Pilott belonged) was a lawfull Prize to him the said
Kidd, she sailing under a French Pass: Whereupon he, the said Kidd,
and Company, took the said Ship, and afterwards, understanding that
the same belonged to the Moors, he, said Kidd, would have delivered
her up again, but his men violently fell upon him, and thrust him into
his Cabbin, saying the said Ship was a fair Prize, and then carryed
her into Madigascar and rifled her of what they pleased, but before
they got into Madigascar, the Gally under Command of him, said Kidd,
became so leaky that she would scarce keep above water, whereupon the
Company belonging thereto, haveing taken out of her her Guns and some
other Things and put them on board the Prize, sett the said Gally on
fire. The said Captain Kidd further told me that, when he and his
Company were arrived at Madagascar, several of his Company moved him
to go and take a Ship called the _Moco_ Frigat, that lay ready fitted
at a place not far distant from them, in the possession of certain
Privateers, and to go in the same for the red-Sea. But that he the
said Kidd said that if they would join with him he would attempt the
taking of the said Ship, (supposeing her a lawful Prize, being
formerly belonging to the King of England), but would not afterwards
go with them on the said design to the red-Sea. Whereupon ninety of
his the said Kidd's men deserted him, went and tooke the said Ship,
and sailed with the same on the aforesaid design, as he, said Kidd,
was informed; obliging one Captain Culliver, the then Commander of
her, to go along with them.

[Footnote 2: An attorney in New York, and vestryman of Trinity
Church.]

And the said Kidd further told me That, his men having left him and
his design frustrated, he thought it his best way to preserve the said
Shi