Such was the end of the pirate Avery, of whom such extravagant stories had been told. It was while he was in this extreme of poverty in England, and when it was supposed that he was rioting in successful piracy in the East, that the Government coupled his name with that of Captain Kidd, denouncing them as outlaws, and declaring that their sins were too great to be forgiven, and that if arrested, the gallows was their inevitable doom. CHAPTER IV _Arrest, Trial, and Condemnation of Kidd._ Appalling Tidings.--Trip to Curacoa.--Disposal of the Quedagh Merchant.--Purchase of the Antonio.--Trembling Approach toward New York.--Measures for the Arrest of Kidd.--He enters Delaware Bay.--Touches at Oyster Bay and Block Island.--Communications with the Government.--Sails for Boston.--His Arrest.--Long Delays.--Public Rumors.--His Trial and Condemnation. Captain Kidd was greatly disturbed in learning at Anguilla that he had been denounced as a pirate, proscribed as an outlaw, and that he with the notorious Avery was expressly excluded from the pardon offered by the king to other buccaneers. He had thus far flattered himself with the hope that he could make it appear that all the prizes he had captured belonged to the French, and were legitimately taken under his commission as a privateersman. He also had placed much confidence in the support of the distinguished men composing the company by which he had been commissioned. The large wealth which he had expected to bring back to them, he thought, would unite their powerful influence in his support. But instead of this, it now appeared that the company was disposed to make him their “scapegoat.” They had been so severely condemned, as if responsible for the conduct of their agent, that in self-defence they became the loudest of his assailants, denouncing him in the severest terms, and clamoring most loudly that all seas should be explored to catch and hang the miscreant. It was these political complications, united with the renown of the company of king and nobles, which gave the name of Captain Kidd prominence far above anything which his achievements would warrant. It was known that he had been scouring the East-Indian seas with one of the most powerful of English ships, and it was surmised that he had accumulated wealth sufficient to found an empire. What became of this boundless wealth? This was the question which agitated England and America, and which set the money-diggers at work in so many different places.