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NOVEMBER, 1926 ]
NOTES ON PIRACY IN EASTERN WATERS
117
453. In October94 Kidd sighted the Loyal Captain (Captain How, not Hore as given in the State Trials), and his men were angry that he would not attempt to take her. About a fortnight later, on the 30th October, whilst in sight of a Dutch ship, which they also wanted to attack, there was a violent quarrel between Kidd and his gunner William Moore. Kidd says that the man enraged him by saying that he could have taken her without any danger of illconsequences to himself or his crew, if he had enticed the Captain on board and, as the Danes did to Captain Dobson in 1686 (See para. 364 above), compelled him to sign a statement that he had received no injury. Those of his crew, who gave evidence against Kidd at this trial, swore that Moore's only offence was in having said that Kidd had ruined them all. They were not cross-examined to elicit whether this meant that he had ruined them by involving them in his piratical acts or by omitting to take chances of committing piracies which could be explained away or safely denied. At any rate, Kidd lost his temper and struck him on the head with an iron-bound bucket. He died the next day, but whether of the blow or not is uncertain. Kidd's surgeon Robert Bradinham, who had turned King's evidence, said he did, others that he had been ailing for some time. The evening of the quarrel one of the boys on board jumped into the water and swam ashore. He said that there had been a disturbance (Kidd asserted that the men were mutinous at the time) and that Kidd had shot the Quartermaster (sic). Almost at the same time there came into the harbour the East India (? Loyal) Merchant, which Kidd mistook for the Sceptre (Captain Phinney) and knowing that the latter was on the look out for him (Bombay to Court 15th December 1697, Home Misc. LVI), he left Calicut in a hurry. On the 3rd November he stood in near Tellicherry Road under English colours which he quickly struck. A shot having been fired at him from the English Factory, he hoisted a French ensign (as a decoy. Ind. Off., 0. C. 6473) and returned another shot. He then returned to Calicut, sent his boats on board Mr. Pennyng's ship, the Thankful, and carried off the Master (Charles Perrin) to the Adventure Galley, threatened to burn his ship if he did not immediately supply him with wood and water, and sent him ashore to arrange the matter. To save the ship the wood and water were sent at once (Bombay to Surat, 25th November 1697).
N.B.-I am not quite sure of the proper sequence of the above incidents, as the accounts vary.
454. On the 18th (or 27th, State Trials, XIV, 187) November, Kidd took a "Moor" Ketch four leagues off Carwar. The Ketch was the Ruparel or Maiden (State Trials, XIV, 204), a ship of 150 tons, belonged to some Surat "Moors" and was commanded by a Dutchman, Michael Dekker or Skipper Michel (Dalton, p. 289). She carried a French pass, and Michael and two other Dutchmen joined him. Kidd renamed her the November and carried her with him later to Madagascar. After this, Kidd went to the Malabar (ie., Maldivo) Islands 96 (See Log of the Drake, John Pelly Commander, under date 9th February 1734), where his cooper having been killed by the natives, he made-savage reprisals, plundering and killing the inhabitants.
455. Late in the year he returned to the Malabar coast and on the 28th December took and burned a "Moor" Ketch four leagues from Calicut (State Trials XIV, P. 189) and on the 20th January 1697-8 he tooka Portuguese ship 12 leagues from the same port (Ibid., p. 198), but was chased off by the Dutch (Ibid., p. 230). At last, between the 30th January and 2nd February 1697-8, he found what he had been long in search of, namely a rich country ship. This was the Quedah Merchant, & ship of about 400 tons, with a cargo valued at 4 lakhs of rupees by some (Bruce, III, 271), though others put it at only half that amount, belonging to Kwaja Babba and other Armenian merchants. Part of her cargo belonged to Makhlis
# Or November. See Kidd's Prolest, Portland MSS. IX, p. 403.
05 I think the term was also applied to the Laccadive Islands. The Bombay to Surat letter, dated 28 Nov. 1697, says that he had been at the Laccadive Islands "ravishing, murdering men, women and children and acted all the villainios possible."
