The ship itself with its Armenian crew he allowed to proceed on its course after a few days’ detention. Before it left him, some misunderstanding seems unfortunately to have arisen between the English seamen on board of her and the Armenians; and it is alleged that on this occasion the former hung up four of the latter and spanked them with the flats of their cutlasses. Kidd’s defence, and there is no reason to doubt that it was a perfectly genuine defence so far as he was concerned, was that he had nothing whatever to do with this fracas and that he did not go on board the ship at all. It was further alleged by the King’s evidence that his men took out of her a bale of coffee and a bale of pepper and some beeswax. Whether they neglected to give adequate money or goods in exchange is not stated, but as it is admitted that Kidd trafficked with many of the ships which he met on this coast, it is not unreasonable to suppose that he did so with this one. At any rate, there is no good reason to believe that he was a party to the theft of these paltry articles. The next vessel he met was a Portuguese man-of-war which attacked him without the slightest provocation, taking him possibly for one of the pirates of whom he was in quest, or possibly for some less reputable reason. Here again, Palmer, the King’s evidence, tried to give the jury the false impression that Kidd was the aggressor. PALMER. “He met a Portuguese ship and fought her.” KIDD. “Who fired first?” PALMER. “The Portuguese fired first.”