In December, a commission under the Admiralty Seal was issued to Kidd, authorizing him to proceed against French shipping. He was to keep a journal of his proceedings, and any ship captured was to be carried into the nearest port and legally adjudged by a competent court. If condemned, he might dispose of it according to custom. Six weeks later, a second commission under the Great Seal was granted him, in his capacity of a private man of war, to apprehend all pirates, freebooters, and sea rovers, the names of Thomas Too (? Tew), John Ireland, Thomas Wake, and William Maze, or Mace, being specially mentioned. Again, he was enjoined to keep an exact journal of his doings, and the pirate ships he captured were to be proceeded against according to law, in the same manner as French captures. A subsequent warrant was granted to the syndicate, who figure in it as the Earl of Bellamont, Edmund Harrison, William Rowley, George Watson, Thomas Reynolds, and Samuel Newton. Under these unpretentious names were hidden Lords Orford and Somers, and other Whig nobles. They were to account for all goods and valuables captured in the rovers' possession: one-tenth was to be reserved for the Crown, the rest being assigned to them to recoup their expenditure. The _Adventure_ carried thirty guns and rowed twenty-six or thirty oars. In May, 1696, Kidd sailed from Plymouth for New York with a crew of about seventy men. On the way he captured a small French vessel, which was properly condemned, and the proceeds helped to complete the equipment of the _Adventure_. In New York he filled up his crew to one hundred and fifty-five men, and people shook their heads when they saw the men of doubtful character that he enlisted. It was felt at the time that, either his intentions were dishonest, or he was taking a crew that he would be unable to control. The men were promised shares of what should be taken, while Kidd himself was to have forty shares. Nothing was said as to the share of the owners or the Crown. In September he sailed for the Cape. There were plenty of pirates and French trading-ships close at hand on the American coast, but he did not waste a day in looking for them.