Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period Part 28

Came Theophilus Turner, Borne at Heckfield near Hartley roade in Hampshire, Aged about thirty years, and being sworne upon the Holy Evangelists to declare the truth of what he knows concerning any Acts of Pyracy comitted by him or any others, saith:

That he sayled out of London about three years agoe in the Ship _Hanniball_, Captain William Hill Commander, which ship was a Merchant ship mounted with thirty two Gunns and Navigated with seventy Men, and went upon the Coast of Guinea, where the Captain put his Men to very short allowance so that severall of them, vizt. Henry Webber, 3d Mate, who afterwards Comanded the said ship, and severall others, took the ship from him and went to Brasile, where the Deponent and some others left the ship. After that the Deponent had lived at Brasile about one yeare, a French Vessell which had lost her top mast arrived there under the Comand of Mounsieur de Ley, on Board of which Vessell the deponent embarqued himselfe for the Coast of India, the said De Ley being bound to Bengall, in the Voyage whereto they touched at the Island of Johannah, an Island [whose] inhabitants are Arabians, which was in the Month of May or June 1698: and riding there at Anchor with the said ship, came a ship of fourty Gunns called the _Resolution_ by the Men on Board, But understood her right name was the _Moco_,[2]

from Madagaskar, Navigated with about 130 or 140 Men under the Comand of Captain Robert Culliford. De Ley weighed one Anchor and cut the other Cable, but Culliford chasing him took him and brought the deponent on Board them, being the only Englishman on board De Ley, and examined him concerning Deleys Loading, with many threats. after they plundered the ship and found there 2000 l. in money, besides Wine and Cloath, which they took, and because the Deponent was an Englishman they would not let him go on board De Ley again but kept him. After which the said Culliford sayled with the said ship upon the Coast of India: and about the middle of August came up with a Pyrate, who came out of America some where near Rhroad Island under the Comand of Richard Chivers, had 80 or 90 men and twelve Gunns, who kept Company and Consorted with Culliford. And about the End of September last they met off of Suratt with a turkey ship belonging to Suratt, which Chivers crew boarded: and the Quartermaster and some of Cullifords crew went on Board: she was laden with Pieces 8, Gold and Dollers, was reputed to the vallue of one Hundred and twenty or thirty thousand pounds. there were some shots made and several turks were killed and wounded and two or three of Chivers Company: they put the men on sh.o.a.re on the Coast of India, sunck their own ship and took the turkey ship and then shared the money, about 700 or 800 l. a man in each ship, and gave the Deponent who pumped for them on occasion and was ready at call 250 l., not deeming him as one of them but in the nature of a prisoner, and told him if that he would go out with them their next Voyage, he should be all one as the rest. thence the said Culliford and Chivers sayled to Madagascoe, Port St. Marys, a large Island about three or four Hundred Leagues in Length inhabited by a numerous people being Negroes.

THEO. TURNER.

Juratus coram me,

N. BLAKISTON.

[Footnote 2: The _Mocha_ had been a frigate belonging to the East India Company. Piratical members of the crew, especially James Gillam, had murdered the captain and had seized the ship.]

_75. Memorial of Duncan Campbell. June 19, 1699._[1]

[Footnote 1: Public Record Office, C.O. 5:860, no. 64 IV.; a copy certified by Bellomont, and endorsed, "Copy of a Memorial of Mr.

Campbell who had been sent by the Earl of Bellomont to Captain Kidd, about what Kidd had said to him.... Referred to in the Earl of Bellomont's Letter of the 26th July 1699. Received [_i.e._, by the Board of Trade] September 26th, Read 26th, 1699." This memorial is printed, with slight inaccuracies, in the _Commons Journal_, XIII.

21-22, and thence reprinted in Sir Cornelius N. Dalton's _The Real Captain Kidd_, pp. 315-321 (a book of slight value as a vindication of Kidd, but reprinting useful doc.u.ments); but the _Commons Journal_ is in few American libraries, and the doc.u.ment is essential to the story of Kidd, and therefore is printed here. Duncan Campbell, a Scot like Kidd, had been a bookseller in Boston, and was now postmaster there.

John Dunton describes him (1686) as "a brisk young Fellow, that dresses All-a-mode, and sets himself off to the best Advantage; and yet thrives apace. I am told (and for his sake I wish it may be true) that a Young Lady of a Great Fortune has married him." _Letters from New England_, p. 80.]

BOSTON, June the 19th, 1699.

The Memorial of Duncan Campbell, of Boston, humbly presented to his Excellency the Earle of Bellomont.

I, the said Duncan Campbell, being at Rhode-Island on Sat.u.r.day the 17th of June currant, that morning I went in a Sloop from said Island, in Company with Mr. James Emott of New-Yorke,[2] and two other men belonging to said Sloop, towards Block-Island, and, about three leagues from that Island, I mett a Sloop commanded by Captain Kidd, and haveing on board about Sixteen men besides; after hailing of which Sloop and being informed that the said Kidd was Commander thereof, he said Kidd desired me to come on board the same; which I accordingly did, and after some discourse pa.s.sed, said Kidd desired me to do him the favour as to make what Speed I could for Boston and acquaint your Excellency that the said Kidd had brought a Ship, about five or six hundred Tuns, from Madagascar, which, some considerable time since, he met with in [_blank_] and commanded her there to bring to; and that thereupon the Pilott, being a French man, came on board the said Kidds Ship, and told him, said Kidd, he was welcome, and that the said Ship (to which said Pilott belonged) was a lawfull Prize to him the said Kidd, she sailing under a French Pa.s.s: Whereupon he, the said Kidd, and Company, took the said Ship, and afterwards, understanding that the same belonged to the Moors, he, said Kidd, would have delivered her up again, but his men violently fell upon him, and thrust him into his Cabbin, saying the said Ship was a fair Prize, and then carryed her into Madigascar and rifled her of what they pleased, but before they got into Madigascar, the Gally under Command of him, said Kidd, became so leaky that she would scarce keep above water, whereupon the Company belonging thereto, haveing taken out of her her Guns and some other Things and put them on board the Prize, sett the said Gally on fire. The said Captain Kidd further told me that, when he and his Company were arrived at Madagascar, several of his Company moved him to go and take a Ship called the _Moco_ Frigat, that lay ready fitted at a place not far distant from them, in the possession of certain Privateers, and to go in the same for the red-Sea. But that he the said Kidd said that if they would join with him he would attempt the taking of the said Ship, (supposeing her a lawful Prize, being formerly belonging to the King of England), but would not afterwards go with them on the said design to the red-Sea. Whereupon ninety of his the said Kidd's men deserted him, went and tooke the said Ship, and sailed with the same on the aforesaid design, as he, said Kidd, was informed; obliging one Captain Culliver, the then Commander of her, to go along with them.

[Footnote 2: An attorney in New York, and vestryman of Trinity Church.]

And the said Kidd further told me That, his men having left him and his design frustrated, he thought it his best way to preserve the said Ship then in his possession, and the goods on board her, for his Imployers or the proper Owners thereof: And accordingly, with the few men he had then left, which would not joine with the other Ninety in their aforesaid design (being about Twenty in Number) and with a few other men that he procured at Madagascar to a.s.sist him in navigating said Ship, he intended to have brought the same to Boston, according to his Orders; but touching in his way at the Island of St. Thomas's and other places in the West-Indies, he there heard that great Complaints were preferred against him, and he proclaimed a Pirate, which occasioned him to saile to a place called Mona, near Hispaniola;[3] from whence he sent to Curaso,[4] and bought there the Sloop on which he is now on board, and tooke into her out of the said ship to the Value of about eight or ten thousand pounds in goods, gold, and Plate, for which Gold and Plate he traded at Madagascar, and was produced by the sale of sundry goods and Stores that he tooke out of the _Adventure Gally_, formerly commanded by him, and hath left the Ship taken by his Company, and carryed to Madagascar as aforesaid, at or near Mona abovesaid, in the Custody of about six men of his owne Company and Eighteen others that he got from Curaso (the Merchant of whom he bought the said Sloop being intrusted therewith), unto which he hath promised to returne again in three months, the said Kidd resolveing to come into Boston or New-Yorke to deliver up unto your Excellency what goods and Treasure he hath on board, and to pray your Excellency's a.s.sistance to enable him to bring the said Ship, left by him at Mona aforesaid, from thence, the said Ship being disabled from comeing, for want of furniture.[5]

[Footnote 3: Mona is a small island lying in the pa.s.sage between Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico.]

[Footnote 4: Curacao, Dutch West Indies.]

[Footnote 5: Masts, spars, sails, and rigging.]

But the said Captain Kidd further informed me, That by reason of what his Men had heard in the West-Indies, as aforesaid, of their being proclaimed Pirates, they would not consent to his coming into any Port without some a.s.surance from your Excellency That they should not be imprisoned or molested. And the said Captain Kidd did several times protest solemnly that he had not done anything since his going out in the said Gally contrary to his Commission and Orders, more than what he was necessitated unto by being overpowered by his Men, that deserted him, as aforesaid, who evil intreated him several times for his not consenting to, or joineing with them in, their actions. And all the men on board the Sloop now with him did in like manner solemnly protest their innocence, and declared that they had used their utmost endeavours in preserving the aforesaid Ship and goods for the Owners or Imployers. Said Kidd also said, that if your Lordship should see Cause so to direct, he would carry the said Ship for England, there to render an Account of his Proceedings.

Which beforegoing contains the particulars of what Captain Kidd and his Men related to

Your Lordship's most humble Servant,

DUNCAN CAMPBELL.

_76. Narrative of William Kidd. July 7, 1699._[1]

[Footnote 1: Public Record Office, C.O. 5:860, no. 64 XXV. Printed in _Commons Journal_, XIII. 31-32, and by Dalton, but the same remark applies to this doc.u.ment (and to doc.u.ments nos. 77, 79, and 82) as to no. 75; they are essential to an understanding of the story. A "protest" by Kidd, July 7, of similar purport, has just been published in _Portland MSS._, IX. 403.]

A Narrative of the Voyage of Captain William Kidd, Commander of the _Adventure Gally_, from London to the East Indies.

That the Journal of the said Captain Kidd being violently taken from him in the Port of St. Marie's in Madagascar, and his life many times being threatned to be taken away from him by 97 of his men that deserted him there, he cannot give that exact Account he otherwise could have done, but as far as his memory will serve is as followeth; viz.

That the said _Adventure Gally_ was launched in Castle's Yard at Deptford[2] about the 4th day of December 1695, and about the latter end of February the said Gally came to the buoy in the Nore, and about the first Day of March following, his men were pressed from him for the Fleet, which caused him to stay there 19 Days,[3] and then sailed for the Downs, and arrived there about the 8th or 10th Day of April 1696; and sailed thence for Plymouth, and on the 23d Day of the said month of April he sailed from Plymouth on his intended Voyage, and some time in the month of May met with a small French Vessel with Salt and Fishing Tackle on board, bound for Newfoundland, which he took and made Prize of and carried the same into New-York, about the 4th day of July, where she was condemned as lawful Prize, the produce whereof purchased Provisions for the said Gally for her further intended Voyage.

[Footnote 2: Three miles down the Thames from London Bridge. The Nore was a sandbank at the mouth of the river; the Downs is the roadstead off Deal.]

[Footnote 3: "At the Buoy in the Nore Captain Steward, commander of the _d.u.c.h.ess_, took away all my ship's crew; but Admiral Russell [one of Kidd's owners], upon my application to him at Sittingbourne, caused my men to be restored to me." Kidd's protest; Hist. MSS. Comm., _Ma.n.u.scripts of the Duke of Portland_, VIII. 80. England and France were at war from 1689 to the peace of Ryswyk, Sept. 20, 1697 (War of the Grand Alliance, King William's War). In such times the royal navy always relied, for its supply of men, upon impressment, especially of merchant seamen. See J.R. Hutchinson, _The Press-Gang Afloat and Ash.o.r.e_ (London, 1913).]

That, about the 6th day of September 1696 the said Captain Kidd sailed for the Maderas in Company with one Joyner, Master of a Briganteen belonging to Bermudas, and arrived there about the 8th day of October following; and thence to Bonavista,[4] where they arrived about the 19th of said month, and took in some Salt and stayed three or four days, and sailed thence to St. Jago,[4] and arrived there the 24th of the said month, where he took in some Water and staied about 8 or 9 Days, and thence sailed for the Cape of Good Hope, and in the Lat.i.tude of 32, on the 12th day of December 1696 met with four English Men of War, whereof Captain Warren was Commodore, and sailed a week in their Company, and then parted and sailed to Telere, a Port in the Island of Madagascar, and being there about the 29th day of January, came in a Sloop belonging to Barbadoes, loaded with Rhum, Sugar, Powder and Shot, one ---- French Master, and Mr. Hatton and Mr. John Batt Merchants, and the said Hatton came on board the said Gally and was suddenly taken ill there and dyed in the Cabin: and about the latter end of February sayled for the Island of Johanna, the said Sloop keeping Company, and arrived there about the 18th day of March, where he found Four East India Merchantmen, outward bound, and watered there all together, and stayd about four days, And from thence about the 22d of March sayled for Mehila, an Island Ten Leagues distant from Johanna, where he arrived the next morning, and there careened the said Gally, and about fifty men died there in a weekes time.

[Footnote 4: See doc. no. 71, note 2.]

That on the 25th day of April 1697 set saile for the Coast of India, and came upon the Coast of Mallabar in the beginning of the month of September, and went into Carrwarr upon that Coast about the middle of the same month and watered there, and the Gentlemen of the English Factory gave the Narrator an Account that the Portugese were fitting out two men of War to take him, and advised him to set out to Sea, and to take care of himselfe from them, and immediately he set sail thereupon ... about the 22d of the said month of September, and the next morning about break of day saw the said two Men of War standing for the said Gally, and spoke with him, and asked him Whence he was, who replyed, from London, and they returned answer, from Goa, and so parted, wishing each other a good Voyage, and making still along the Coast, the Commodore of the said Men of War kept d.o.g.g.i.ng the said Gally all Night, waiting an Opportunity to board the same, and in the morning, without speaking a word, fired 6 great Guns at the Gally, some whereof went through her, and wounded four of his Men, and thereupon he fired upon him again, and the Fight continued all day, and the Narrator had eleven men wounded: The other Portuguese Men of War lay some distance off, and could not come up with the Gally, being calm, else would have likewise a.s.saulted the same. The said Fight was sharp, and the said Portuguese left the said Gally with such Satisfaction that the Narrator believes no Portuguese will ever attack the Kings Colours again, in that part of the World especially, and afterwards continued upon the said Coast, cruising upon the Cape of Cameroone[5] for Pyrates that frequent that Coast, till the beginning of the month of November 1697 when he met with Captain How in the _Loyal Captaine_, an English Ship belonging to Maddara.s.s,[6] bound to Surat, whom he examined and, finding his Pa.s.s good, designed freely to let her pa.s.s about her affairs; but having two Dutchmen on board, they told the Narrator's men that they had divers Greeks and Armenians on board, who had divers precious Stones and other rich Goods on board, which caused his men to be very mutinous, and got up their Armes, and swore they would take the Ship, and two-thirds of his Men voted for the same. The narrator told them The small Armes belonged to the Gally, and that he was not come to take any Englishmen or lawful Traders, and that if they attempted any such thing they should never come on board the Gally again, nor have the Boat, or Small-Armes, for he had no Commission to take any but the King's Enemies, and Pirates, and that he would attack them with the Gally and drive them into Bombay; the other being a Merchantman and having no Guns, might easily have done it with a few hands, and with all the arguments and menaces he could use could scarce restraine them from their unlawful Designe, but at last prevailed, and with much ado got him cleare, and let him go about his business. All which Captain How will attest, if living.

[Footnote 5: Cape Comorin, the southern point of Hindustan.]

[Footnote 6: _I.e._, Madras.]

And that about the 18th or 19th day of the said month of November met with a Moors Ship of about 200 Tuns,[7] coming from Suratt, bound to the Coast of Mallabar, loaded with two horses, Sugar and Cotton, to trade there, having about 40 Moors on board, with a Dutch Pylot, Boatswain and Gunner, which said Ship the Narrator hailed, and commanded on board, and with him came 8 or 9 Moors and the said three Dutchmen, who declared it was a Moors Ship, and demanding their Pa.s.s from Suratt, which they shewed, and the same was a French Pa.s.s, which he believes was shewed by a Mistake, for the Pylot swore Sacrament[8]

she was a Prize, and staid on board the Gally and would not return again on board the Moors Ship, but went in the Gally to the Port of St. Maries.

[Footnote 7: The _Rouparelle_; her French pa.s.s (from the director of Surat for the French East India Company) showing a Mohammedan captain, Dutch pilot, and Dutch boatswain, is in _Commons Journal_, XIII. 21.

It was one of the two pa.s.ses whose absence at Kidd's trial was fatal to his case.]

[Footnote 8: "The Dutch-man seeing that, swore his countries oath, 'sacremente'." Bradford, _History of Plymouth Plantation_ (ed. 1908), p. 35.]

And that about the First Day of February following, upon the same Coast, under French Colours with a Designe to decoy, met with a Bengall Merchantman belonging to Surrat of the burthen of 4 or 500 Tuns, 10 guns, and he commanded the Master on board, and a Frenchman, Inhabitant of Suratt and belonging to the French Factory there, and Gunner of said Ship, came on board as Master, and when he came on board the Narrator caused the English Colours to be hoisted, and the said Master was surprized and said, You are all English; and asking, Which was the Captain, whom when he saw, said, Here is a good Prize, and delivered him the French Pa.s.s.[9] And that with the said two Prizes sailed for the Port of St. Maries, in Madagascar; and sailing thither the said Gally was so leaky that they feared she would have sunk every hour, and it required eight men, every two Gla.s.ses[10] to keep her free, and was forced to woold[11] her round with Cables to keep her together, and with much ado carried her into the said Port of St. Maries, where they arrived about the First Day of April 1698, and about the 6th day of May the lesser Prize was haled into the Careening Island or Key, the other not being arrived, and ransacked and sunk by the mutinous men, who threatened the Narrator and the men that would not join with them, to burn and sink the other, that they might not go home and tell the news.

[Footnote 9: The French pa.s.s of this ship, the _Cara Merchant_ or _Quedah Merchant_ (Kedah, in the Malay Peninsula) is in the _Commons Journal_, XIII. 21, signed by Francois Martin, the founder of Pondicherry and of the French empire in India. It is dated Jan. 14, 1698, at Hugli (Chandernagore). It names Armenians as commanders and owner, though the evidence given at Kidd's trials in London (Hargrave, _State Trials_, V. 287-338) constantly states an Englishman named Wright to have been commander. It should be remembered, in respect to these two captures, of vessels ostensibly French, in November, 1697, and February, 1698, that though the peace of Ryswyk was signed Sept.

20, 1697, the news of its signing did not reach the Indian Ocean till April, 1698; and by its terms (art. X.) captures made "beyond the Line" (Equator) within six months from the signing of the treaty were not illegal.]

[Footnote 10: _I.e._, an hour by the sand-gla.s.s.]

[Footnote 11: Wind.]

And that when he arrived in the said Port there was a Pyrate Ship, called the _Moca_ Frigat,[12] at an Anchor, Robert Culliford Commander thereof, who with his men left the same at his coming in, and ran into the Woods, And the Narrator proposed to his Men to take the same, having sufficient power and authority so to do,[13] but the mutinous Crew told him, if he offered the same, they would rather fire two Guns into him than one into the other, and thereupon 97 deserted, and went into the _Moca_ Frigat, and sent into the Woods for the said Pyrates and brought the said Culliford and his men on board again; and all the time she staid in the said Port, which was for the s.p.a.ce of 4 or 5 Dayes, the said Deserters, sometimes in great numbers, came on board the said Gally and _Adventure Prize_,[14] and carried away great guns, Powder, Shot, small Armes, Sailes, Anchors, Cables, Chirurgeons Chest, and what else they pleased, and threatned several times to murder the Narrator (as he was informed, and advised to take care of himselfe) which they designed in the Night to effect but was prevented by his locking himself in his Cabin at night, and securing himselfe with barrocading the same with bales of Goods, and having about 40 small Armes, besides Pistols, ready charged, kept them out. Their wickedness was so great, after they had plundered and ransacked sufficiently, went four miles off to one Edward Welche's house,[15] where his the Narrator's Chest was lodged, and broke it open, and took out 10 Ounces of Gold, forty Pounds of Plate, 370 pieces of Eight, the Narrator's Journal, and a great many papers that belonged to him and the People of New-York that fitted them out.

[Footnote 12: See doc. no. 74, note 2.]

[Footnote 13: One of the witnesses at Kidd's trial, a member of his crew, gives a very different account of the latter's att.i.tude toward Culliford. It may be quoted, as a specimen of Kidd's unstudied conversational style. "On the Quarter-deck they made a Tub of Bomboo, as they call it, (it is made of Water, and Limes, and Sugar) and there they drank to one another; and, says Capt. Kidd, Before I would do you any Damage, I had rather my Soul should broil in h.e.l.l-fire; and wished d.a.m.nation to himself several times, if he did. And he took the Cup, and wished that might be his last, if he did not do them all the Good he could." _State Trials_ (Hargrave), V. 306, 335.]

[Footnote 14: _I.e._, the _Quedah Merchant_.]

[Footnote 15: Edward Welch was a New Englander, who had come out to Madagascar as a boy, and had a house fortified with six guns near St.

Mary's, where he ruled over a company of negroes. _Cal. S.P. Col._, 1699, p. 289.]

That about the 15th of June, the _Moca_ Frigat went away, being manned with about 130 Men and forty Guns, bound out to take all Nations. Then it was that the Narrator was left only with 13 Men, so that the Moors he had to pump and keep the _Adventure Gally_ above Water being carried away, she sunk in the harbour, and the Narrator with the said thirteen men went on board of the _Adventure-Prize_, where he was forced to stay five months for a fair Wind. In the meantime some Pa.s.sengers presented, that were bound for these Parts, which he tooke on board to help to bring the said _Adventure-Prize_ home.