three hundred and Eighty peices of Eight, all the rest is
in Debts outstanding which is much less than my Charges.[14]

[Footnote 14: But John Ruggles, master's mate of the _Primrose_ of
Boston, testified that, drinking in a public house at Charles Town,
Nevis, with William Cheesers and William Daniel, he heard the former
say that Bolton had got L16,000 by Captain Kidd. _Cal. St. P. Col._,
1699, p. 416.]

This is the full that presents to my Memory in Answer to their Lord'ps
Demands February 4th, 1700.

HEN. BOLTON.

_87. William Kidd to the Speaker of the House of Commons (Robert
Harley). April (?), 1701._[1]

[Footnote 1: From the manuscripts of the Duke of Portland at Welbeck
Abbey. The Historical Manuscripts Commission's calendar of those
archives, IV. 16, wrongly gives this petition the same date as the
next document, May 12, 1701. This petition was written before the
trials, which occurred on May 8 and 9, but after Kidd's appearances
before the House of Commons, which occurred on Mar. 27 and 31;
_Commons Journal_, XIII. 441, 463. Kidd, Gillam, Bradish, Witherley,
and 28 other pirates, mostly members of Kidd's crew, were shipped from
Boston soon after March 6, 1700 (eight months after his arrest), on
the _Advice_ frigate, and arrived in the Downs Apr. 11, the day on
which King William brought to an end, by prorogation, the session of
Parliament. In that session, chiefly as a means of attacking Somers,
the lord chancellor, a party in the House of Commons had assailed the
grant of letters patent under which Kidd's enterprise had been
undertaken (Dec. 6, 1699). They were outvoted, but on Mar. 16, 1700, a
vote was passed for addressing the king that Kidd should not be tried,
discharged, or pardoned till the next session of Parliament. The
Admiralty concurred, May 2. The new Parliament came together Feb. 6,
1701; Harley was chosen speaker Feb. 11; the impeachment of Somers and
Orford, in which the contract with Kidd was made the basis of one
article, was voted Apr. 14.]

_May it please Y'r Hon'r_

The long Imprisonment I have undergone, or the tryall I am to
undergoe, are not soe great an affliction to me, as my not being able
to give your Hon'ble House of Commons such satisfaction as was
Expected from me. I hope I have not offended against the Law, but if I
have, It was the fault of others who knew better, and made me the Tool
of their Ambition and Avarice, and who now perhaps think it their
Interest that