Pirate tales from the lawHarris, Arthur M. (Arthur Merton)
History
Pirate tales from the law
Harris, Arthur M. (Arthur Merton)
Pirates
Just what happened in the interview between Kidd and Bellamont is not
recorded, but they began to dicker. All the pirates were quite at
liberty, making themselves thoroughly at home and with all the air of
honest sailors returned to spend their money and take a respite from
the arduous sea.
Suddenly the wind changed. Why it so did we can only conjecture. But a
letter from Bellamont is preserved in which he remarks that at about
this time Livingston and Kidd were acting very “impertinently” about
the money and valuables that Kidd had brought home.
Does “impertinently” mean that Bellamont suspected that his two
partners were conspiring to deprive him of his share? That might well
be. However, it is not fair to insinuate the governor was remiss in
discharging his duties as a magistrate on the skimpy chronicle which
has come down to us. We can say, however, that, so far as we can make
out, he did not act with that decision which the crimes charged against
Kidd would seem to require. This dallying about and questioning,
privately and before the council, permit implications that the governor
may or may not be actually responsible for. The whole affair does not
look regular.
Then, again, Bellamont, who was sharp enough for most general affairs,
could plan something like this: throw Kidd into jail, thus clearing
himself of the talk of complicity which had been gathering since his
connection with the pirate had become known, send him home to England
for trial, and with him out of the way, attend to the matter of the
loot, against which he could make a claim by virtue of the original
commission to Kidd, supported by the political strength which he and
his noble friends at home could exert.
Whatever might be the fact, the governor’s equivocal conduct stopped
with the discovery of Livingston and Kidd’s “impertinence” in the
affair of the spoils, and Kidd, with all of his crew who could be
grabbed, were stowed away in Boston jail. Before that happened a
number of his men had slipped across to the Province of Jersey and
surrendered to Colonel Bass, the governor, in the spirit of the
king’s proclamation, within the time therein provided, but to none of
the persons therein particularly named as empowered to receive such
surrenders.
In December, 1699, the pirates were sent to England in the frigate
_Advice_, and on May 9, 1701, just about five years after leaving
Plymouth, they went to trial for their lives in the historic Old
Bailey.
XII
Captain Kidd and nine of his men arrived in Newgate gaol from the
colony in February of 1700, and lay there for over a year until their
trial. These nine men were those who surrendered to Colonel Bass,
governor of what is now New Jersey. What disposition was made of the
rest of those who came in on the _St. Antonio_ does not appear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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