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NOVEMBER, 1926)
NOTES ON PIRACY IN EASTERN WATERS
119
467. Kidd arrived at St. Mary's with about 115 men on the 1st April after taking a small Portuguese ship on the way. Here apparently the pirates had re-established themselves. In May arrived (See para. 444 above) Culliford in the Mocha (Sloane M8., 2902, f. 280). Kidd 24sorts that he wished to attack the Mocha, but that his men, so far from supporting him, threatened to take part against him if he did, and that he was in great danger of losing his life. The hostile evidence produced at his trial was to the effect that some of Culliford's men, who had known Kidd before, rowed over to ask his intentions and that Kidd not only denied any wish to injure them, but even visited Culliford, drank with him in a friendly fashion and exchanged presunty. What is certain is that on the 15th June 1698 Culliford left St. Mary's with 97 of Kidd's best men on board his vessel (Portland MSS., IX, p. 405; Johnson, II, 76). This left Kidd short of men, and moreover the Adventure Galley was very leaky. Accordingly he sank her after transferring his crew and booty (he had already given his men their share) to the Quedah Merchant, which he renamed, according to Bruce, though I have not found any other name mentioned. Kidd was forced to pick up a crew to carry her home. One of the men so engaged was Edward Davis, boatswain of the Fidelia (Captain Tempest Rogers), who deposed on the 15th April 1700, that coming to St. Mary's in July 1698, he was left on board the Quedah Jerchant by Captain Rogers and that Kidd brought him to New York as a passenger, com mitting no piracies on the way. By the difficulty of obtaining a crew and bad weather, Kidd was detained at St. Mary's until December, and then went to Tolear Bay (part of St. Augustine's Bay on the west coast of Madagascar). Here his ship being leaky, he beached and repaired her, and was seen by the English ship Swift, which reported on the 11th April at the Cape that she had mounted 30 guns and carried 200 men (Leibbrandt, Précis, p. 8), which looks as if he had picked up a full crew. Having rounded the Cape, Kidd came in April 1899 to Anguilla in the West Indies (not Amboyna in the Malay Archipelago as stated by Johnson, II, 76), where he heard that he had been proclaimed a pirate. Then he went to St. Thomas's, a Danish island, where the Governor refused to allow him to enter the harbour, and then to the eastern part of Hispaniola (H. C. A. 1-14). Here his ship was reported to be & Genoese vessel of about 400 tons, 30 guns and 80 men. It was said that his men had mutinied on the voyage and that about 30 had lost their lives (Cal., S. P. Col., 18th May 1699); probably many others had slipped away wherever she touched. The report that the Quedah Merchant was a Genoese vessel is interesting, for Chivers' New Soldado, formerly the Great Mahomet (See para, 463 below) had been described as the Algerine Galley (See para, 445 above). This shows, I think, that some of the Moors "ships in the Indian Seas must have been built on Mediterranean models. In the Hignos River, having purchased a sloop, the Anthony, from a Mr. Bolton, a merchant of Curaçoa (Exam. of Thomas Everitt, H.C.A.,1.15) on the 29th June, he set the Quedah Merchant on fire and started with about 20 men for New England (House of Commons Journal, XIII, 24). He is said to have put goods and treasure aahore at.various places. At last, having obtained a promise of protection from Lord Bellamont if he could prove his innocenoe, he arrived at Boston on the 1st July 1699. On the 7th he was arrested and all his papers (including the French passes) were taken from him. Partly because he had no authority to inflict the death penalty and partly because he was not sure of obtaining a conviction, public sentiment being in Kidd's favour, Bellamont sent all the evidence home and asked for a ship to be sent to take Kidd to England. As the rumours of Kidd's doings had excited much comment in England, these papers were called for and were presented to the House of Commons on the 4th December 1699 and they were returned to the Admiralty later on: "It is inportant to remember this fact, as the existence of the PA4866 was afterwards donied.
488. On the 6th March 1699-1700 Lord Bellamont wrote from Boston to the Lorde Commissionera for Trade and Plantations that he was sending home on board H. M. S. Adukce four "capital Pirates," viz., Kidd, Gillam (See para. 395 above), Bradish (See para. 461 below) and Weatherley (Report on MSS. of the Duke of Portland, VIII, 75). Kidd was called before
