[Contents]CHAPTER XIKIDD, THE PIRATE WHO WASN’T A PIRATE“Whew, I didn’t know they had pirates and buccaneers right up here around home!” exclaimed Fred. “Think of pirates in Long Island Sound!”“Of course there were,” declared Jack. “If there weren’t, how do yousupposeCaptain Kidd could have buried his treasure up here?”“That’s so,” admitted his cousin. “But I always thought he pirated down in the West Indies and just brought his treasure up here to hide it. Do you suppose he reallydidbury anything up this way, Uncle Henry?”Mr. Bickford laughed. “No, most of those stories are purely imagination,” he replied. “There isn’t a stretch of coast from Canada to South America that hasn’t got its tale of buried pirate treasure. If they all were true there’d be more valuables hidden by the pirates than all the corsairs ever took.”[193]“Didn’t the buccaneers and pirates really bury treasure, then?” asked Jack. “You said that Davis was supposed to have hidden his loot on the Galápagos Islands.”“Undoubtedly they did,” his father assured him. “The buccaneer leaders were far more thrifty than their men, and as there were no banking facilities in the haunts of the pirates and no safe hiding places in the towns, I have not the least doubt that they did bury vast quantities of their booty. But, also, I have no doubt but that they eventually dug most of it up again. The majority of the buccaneer and pirate captains retired from the profession and settled down to a life of peace and plenty, as I have said, and there is no reason why they should have left their treasure hidden away. Of course those who were suddenly killed might have had money and valuables secreted at the time of their death, but there were far greater fortunes hidden by the Spaniards than by the pirates. No doubt thousands and thousands of dollars’ worth of money, plate and jewels were buried or hidden by the Dons to prevent their falling into the buccaneers’ hands and were never recovered. Very often the owners were killed or made prisoners and the secret of the[194]treasure died with them, or they died a natural death without digging up their buried riches.“Of course a great deal of hidden treasure has been found of which the world never hears. In most countries the government claims a large share of such finds and naturally the finder, having no desire to share his unexpected fortune, keeps mum when he discovers it. There are countless cases of poor negroes and others in the West Indies suddenly becoming well-to-do without apparent reason. From time to time ancient coins appear at money changers and now and then we hear of treasure being found. But as a rule, the sums discovered are not large and are found by accident.“And with few exceptions there is every reason to believe that the valuables were hidden by their lawful owners or were lost or accidentally buried. For example, there was the man Gayney, who was drowned in Darien and who had three hundred pieces of eight on his person. Any one might find that and think it was buried treasure and never imagine it was the loot carried on a man’s back. At other times, boats loaded with valuables were wrecked or sunk and the treasure lost. Then, years later, it is found in the sand of the shore[195]and the finders think of it as buried treasure. Moreover, wherever the pirates foregathered they naturally lost more or less money and if, by chance, some one picks up a few doubloons or pieces of eight in such places it always starts a tale of buried loot. At Anegada, St. John, St. Martin and, in fact, every other buccaneers’ old haunt, pieces of money are picked up from time to time and from these finds the tales of buried treasure have originated. In all the reliable histories and chronicles of the buccaneers and pirates I have never found any statement or hint that would lead one to think that it was customary for the corsairs to bury or hide their loot. All the tales of pirate captains burying treasure at dead of night and shooting the men who dug the holes are pure fiction with no fact on which to base them.“But there is no question that vast amounts of treasure lie at the bottom of the sea in the Caribbean and elsewhere. Port Royal, Jamaica, slipped bodily into the sea with all its treasure—and there was undoubtedly vast sums in money and jewels in the place—and not a cent has ever been salvaged. Jamestown, in Nevis, was also submerged by an earthquake and all the riches it contained still lie at the bottom of the sea. Countless ships,[196]attacked by the buccaneers, sank before the pirates could loot them and went to the bottom with their valuables, and many a buccaneers’ and pirates’ vessel was lost with thousands of dollars worth of treasure. The floor of the Caribbean is dotted with such wrecks. In some cases the men escaped and told of the loss, and the places where the ships went down are known, but in many cases the vessels with all their treasure and crew merely disappeared and no one knows their fate. It was thus with Grammont, a famous French buccaneer, who, in 1686, plundered and burnt Campeche and secured a vast treasure. But he and his ship were never heard from and beyond a doubt the immense fortune in gold, silver and precious stones lies somewhere among the rotted timbers of his ship at the bottom of the Caribbean.”“Well, it doesn’t sound as if treasure hunting would be very profitable,” remarked Jack.“Far more money has been spent in searching for treasure than ever was lost,” declared Mr. Bickford. “There was the Peruvian treasure supposed to have been hidden on Cocos Island—a vast fortune in church plate, holy vessels and coin which was taken away to prevent it falling into the hands of the enemy. Innumerable expeditions[197]have set out to find it but none have succeeded, although many have claimed to possess maps of the spot. But during the years that have passed, the island has altered, there have been landslides, and, if we are to believe the most reliable reports, the treasure lies buried under thousands of tons of rock and earth that has fallen from the mountainside. And as far as known the treasures that were lost when the Dons hurriedly sent it away from Old Panama to prevent it falling into Morgan’s hands has never been found. Some day some one may stumble upon it, but the chances are that it will remain lost to the world forever.”“Then all these stories about Captain Kidd’s treasure are just yarns,” said Fred regretfully. “And you said he wasn’t even a pirate.”“If Captain Kidd had possessed one-hundredth of the treasure he is supposed to have buried he would have been the most successful pirate who ever lived,” declared Mr. Bickford. “There is nothing to prove that Captain Kidd ever had any considerable treasure and the little he had was secreted on Gardiner’s Island and recovered by the men who employed Kidd and for whom it was intended. No, your old hero Kidd was not a pirate nor a buccaneer. On the contrary, he was a much[198]maligned man, a weak, rather cowardly chap, who was the tool of unscrupulous adventurers and paid the penalty for crimes that never were proved against him. And yet, strangely enough, he became noted as the most famous of all pirates and his name is a household word and the epitome of piracy. It is one of the most astounding examples of unwarranted fame and misconception on record, and so firmly fixed in the mind of the public is the erroneous idea that Kidd was the most notorious of pirates that not one person in a thousand will listen to reason or pay the least heed to documentary evidence or historical records proving he was no pirate at all.“It is the hardest thing in the world to down tradition and oddly enough the more false tradition is the harder it seems to be to correct it. Despite everything, Kidd will, no doubt, continue to remain the favorite pirate of romance and story, and to the end of time Kidd’s treasure will still, in imagination, be buried here, there and everywhere along the coasts.“We scarcely ever hear of ‘Blackbeard’s treasure,’ of ‘Morgan’s treasure’ or of ‘Bonnet’s treasure,’ although each and every one of those rascals was a pirate and took vast sums and may[199]have buried their loot for all we know. But always it is Kidd’s treasure, although the poor fellow never had any to bury.“As a matter of fact, Captain William Kidd was a respectable and honest sea captain, a native of Greenock, and was so highly respected for his integrity that he was given a commission to suppress piracy by King William the Third of England. The commission was addressed to ‘our trusty and well-beloved Captain William Kidd of the shipAdventure, galley’ and was dated 1695. The royal warrant went on to authorize Kidd to destroy and hunt down ‘divers wicked and ill-disposed persons who were committing many and great pyraces to the great danger and hurt of our loving subjects.’“Kidd, being impecunious, was backed by several rich and influential persons in Massachusetts and New York, among them Lord Belmont, the governor of Barbados, who saw in the capture of pirates and the taking of their ill-gotten loot a chance for large profits.“TheAdventureset forth on her mission in May, 1696, with a crew of one hundred and fifty-five men and cruised here, there and everywhere searching for piratical prey. Unfortunately pirates[200]seemed very scarce, Kidd’s crew became mutinous and clamored for excitement, and the next thing that was known, word came to the authorities that theAdventurehad attacked and taken a Moorish ship called theQueda Merchant. Furthermore, reports had it that Kidd had taken possession of the prize, had transferred his men, guns and other possessions to theQuedaand, having sunk theAdventure, had gone a-pirating in the Moorish ship. At once he was branded as a pirate and a price put upon his head. All unwittingly Kidd sailed into Santo Domingo in his prize and there learned that he was looked upon as a pirate and was wanted by the authorities.“Without hesitation, Kidd purchased a sloop, left theQuedain port and sailed as fast as possible to Boston to explain matters. He was, of course, rather doubtful of his reception and before throwing himself on the mercies of the authorities he secreted the few valuables he had on Gardiner’s Island, sent word to his sponsors, and after a consultation in which they agreed to stand by him and clear him of the charge of piracy, he gave himself up.“Kidd’s explanation was frank and simple. He claimed his crew, a gang of thugs and cut-throats,[201]had mutinied, had made him prisoner and of their own volition had captured the prize, and that theAdventure, being rendered unseaworthy in the action, had been abandoned, and the men and their belongings transferred to the Moorish ship. He also testified that his men had threatened to shoot him if he did not accede to their wishes and that during the time of the capture of the ship he had been locked in his cabin. He was questioned as to what became of the valuables, supposedly worth seventy thousand pounds sterling, which were on theQuedaand in reply swore that the men had taken it and made away with it. In the end, to make a long story short, the trial simmered down to a charge against the unfortunate Captain of having killed a gunner named Moore, who was a member of theAdventure’screw. Kidd frankly admitted he had killed the fellow by striking him over the head with a bucket, as Moore had been mutinous and had led the men in their scheme to turn pirates. Throughout these preliminary hearings, Kidd’s wealthy sponsors had deserted him. They saw that they would become involved; and poor Kidd found himself without friends or money and even deprived of the rights to produce documentary evidence of his statements. Heavily[202]manacled, he was sent to England and tried on the charge of piracy and murder at Old Bailey in May, 1701.“The trial was a rank travesty of justice from the beginning. Papers and letters favorable to Kidd were refused as evidence; his erstwhile friends perjured themselves to save their own names; counsel was denied him and only his faithful wife stood by him. In addition to Kidd, nine of his crew were also charged with piracy, these being the men who had remained faithful to their captain, and although all testified in Kidd’s behalf and substantiated his story, Kidd and six of the men were condemned to be hanged in chains. At Execution Dock the maligned, helpless captain and his fellows were strung up without mercy on May 23rd, and their dead bodies suspended in chains along the river side, where, for years, the bones swayed and rattled in the winds as a grim warning to all pirates.“But the execution was a bungling and awful thing. Kidd, standing with the noose about his neck, was pestered, browbeaten and cajoled to confess, but stoutly maintained his innocence. As he was swung off, the rope broke and the poor, tortured, groaning man was again hoisted to the scaffold[203]where, despite his suffering, a minister and others exhorted him to confess his crimes and reveal the hiding places of his treasure. But between pitiful groans and pleas for a speedy death, Kidd still maintained that he had no treasure and had told only the truth. Finally, despairing of wringing a confession from one who had nothing to confess, he was hanged until dead. His entire estate, consisting of less than seven thousand pounds, was confiscated and presented to the Greenwich Hospital, where, by all that was right and just, it should have proved a curse rather than a blessing.“No one ever knew what became of theQuedaor her treasure, but, no doubt, as Kidd claimed, she was scuttled by the mutinous crew and the loot divided between them was scattered to the four winds. Upon that slender mystery of the disappearance of the valuables of theQuedawere built all the tales of Captain Kidd’s buried treasure, and upon the farce of a trial and the conviction of the unfortunate seaman for killing a mutinous gunner in self-defense, was reared the undying fame of Captain Kidd.”“Gee, thatwasa shame!” declared Jack. “I feel really sorry for poor old Captain Kidd.[204]Think of Morgan being knighted and honored after all he did and Kidd being hung for nothing.”“You must bear in mind that times had changed since Morgan’s day,” said Mr. Bickford. “The romantic, picturesque buccaneers were a thing of the past, and England and her colonies were waging a relentless war on pirates. In a way we must not be too hard on the authorities for their treatment of Kidd. They were intent on discouraging piracy and doubtless felt that, even if there was a question of Kidd’s guilt, his death would be a wholesome warning to any seamen who felt inclined to turn pirates. But it certainly is a wonderful example of the irony of fate to think of Kidd winning undying fame as a bold and ruthless pirate when—even if he were guilty—he could not have been charged with taking more than one ship, while others, who destroyed hundreds and ravaged the seas for years, have been totally forgotten. There was not even anything romantic, daring or appealing to the imagination in Kidd’s career. In contrast, consider the most romantic corsair who ever pirated in the Caribbean, a veritable knight errant of the seas, a scion[205]of royalty, known as Prince Rupert of the Rhine.”“Why, I never ever heard of him!” exclaimed Fred. “What did he do?”“Of course you never heard of him,” said Mr. Bickford. “That is why I mentioned him, just as an example of how a man who should have been famous remains unknown and forgotten and a man like Kidd, with no claim to fame, lives on forever. Prince Rupert was a most romantic and fascinating character, a real Don Quixote, ever getting into one scrape after another, living a series of incredible adventures that would have put the famous D’Artagnan to shame; a dashing, impetuous gallant young prince who, according to historians, was ‘very sparkish in his dress’ and ‘like a perpetual motion.’ Young, handsome, a dashing cavalier, as ready with his sword as with his purse, he championed every romantic or hopeless cause, threw himself into any wild scheme or fray where a lady was concerned or some one was in distress, and was no sooner out of one trouble than he was head over heels into another. But he was ever resourceful, ever light hearted and ever a great favorite with the ladies. In his youth, he was cast into prison in Linz, but, despite his[206]plight, he managed to learn drawing, made love to the governor’s daughter and so won her heart that his escape was made easy.“Later, he decided that the land held too few opportunities for his restless, romantic spirit, and with a handful of choice companions he took to sea in command of a fleet of three ships. These were theSwallow, his own vessel, theDefiance, under command of his brother, Prince Maurice, and theHonest Seaman.“Gay with pennants and bunting, the little argosy set sail from Ireland in 1648, and with the gallant young Prince, dressed in his gayest silks, satins and laces, upon the high poop of theSwallow, the three tiny vessels set off on their voyage to do their bit towards championing the cause of their king in the far-off Caribbean.“For five years they sailed. Battling right nobly with the Dons, escaping annihilation a thousand times, beset by tempest and storm and meeting enough adventures at every turn to satisfy even the Prince’s ardent soul. A book might be written on the romantic, harebrained, reckless deeds performed by that hot-blooded young scion of royalty, but in the end, in a terrific hurricane, Prince Rupert’s fleet was driven on the treacherous[207]reefs off Anegada. Prince Maurice in theDefiancewas lost, theHonest Seamanwas battered to pieces and her few survivors reached the low, desolate land more dead than alive, but theSwallow, by chance or Providence, managed to escape by driving through a narrow entrance in the jagged reef to the sheltered water within. Battered and leaking, badly crippled, the poorSwallowwas far from seaworthy when the storm was over and the gay Prince, saddened and sorrowful at the loss of his brother and his men, sailed dolefully for England. He was a changed man thereafter and settled down to a very quiet life in a little house at Spring Gardens. All his brave deeds were forgotten, even his name passed into oblivion and in 1682 he died, almost unknown, in his English home.”[208]
[Contents]CHAPTER XIKIDD, THE PIRATE WHO WASN’T A PIRATE“Whew, I didn’t know they had pirates and buccaneers right up here around home!” exclaimed Fred. “Think of pirates in Long Island Sound!”“Of course there were,” declared Jack. “If there weren’t, how do yousupposeCaptain Kidd could have buried his treasure up here?”“That’s so,” admitted his cousin. “But I always thought he pirated down in the West Indies and just brought his treasure up here to hide it. Do you suppose he reallydidbury anything up this way, Uncle Henry?”Mr. Bickford laughed. “No, most of those stories are purely imagination,” he replied. “There isn’t a stretch of coast from Canada to South America that hasn’t got its tale of buried pirate treasure. If they all were true there’d be more valuables hidden by the pirates than all the corsairs ever took.”[193]“Didn’t the buccaneers and pirates really bury treasure, then?” asked Jack. “You said that Davis was supposed to have hidden his loot on the Galápagos Islands.”“Undoubtedly they did,” his father assured him. “The buccaneer leaders were far more thrifty than their men, and as there were no banking facilities in the haunts of the pirates and no safe hiding places in the towns, I have not the least doubt that they did bury vast quantities of their booty. But, also, I have no doubt but that they eventually dug most of it up again. The majority of the buccaneer and pirate captains retired from the profession and settled down to a life of peace and plenty, as I have said, and there is no reason why they should have left their treasure hidden away. Of course those who were suddenly killed might have had money and valuables secreted at the time of their death, but there were far greater fortunes hidden by the Spaniards than by the pirates. No doubt thousands and thousands of dollars’ worth of money, plate and jewels were buried or hidden by the Dons to prevent their falling into the buccaneers’ hands and were never recovered. Very often the owners were killed or made prisoners and the secret of the[194]treasure died with them, or they died a natural death without digging up their buried riches.“Of course a great deal of hidden treasure has been found of which the world never hears. In most countries the government claims a large share of such finds and naturally the finder, having no desire to share his unexpected fortune, keeps mum when he discovers it. There are countless cases of poor negroes and others in the West Indies suddenly becoming well-to-do without apparent reason. From time to time ancient coins appear at money changers and now and then we hear of treasure being found. But as a rule, the sums discovered are not large and are found by accident.“And with few exceptions there is every reason to believe that the valuables were hidden by their lawful owners or were lost or accidentally buried. For example, there was the man Gayney, who was drowned in Darien and who had three hundred pieces of eight on his person. Any one might find that and think it was buried treasure and never imagine it was the loot carried on a man’s back. At other times, boats loaded with valuables were wrecked or sunk and the treasure lost. Then, years later, it is found in the sand of the shore[195]and the finders think of it as buried treasure. Moreover, wherever the pirates foregathered they naturally lost more or less money and if, by chance, some one picks up a few doubloons or pieces of eight in such places it always starts a tale of buried loot. At Anegada, St. John, St. Martin and, in fact, every other buccaneers’ old haunt, pieces of money are picked up from time to time and from these finds the tales of buried treasure have originated. In all the reliable histories and chronicles of the buccaneers and pirates I have never found any statement or hint that would lead one to think that it was customary for the corsairs to bury or hide their loot. All the tales of pirate captains burying treasure at dead of night and shooting the men who dug the holes are pure fiction with no fact on which to base them.“But there is no question that vast amounts of treasure lie at the bottom of the sea in the Caribbean and elsewhere. Port Royal, Jamaica, slipped bodily into the sea with all its treasure—and there was undoubtedly vast sums in money and jewels in the place—and not a cent has ever been salvaged. Jamestown, in Nevis, was also submerged by an earthquake and all the riches it contained still lie at the bottom of the sea. Countless ships,[196]attacked by the buccaneers, sank before the pirates could loot them and went to the bottom with their valuables, and many a buccaneers’ and pirates’ vessel was lost with thousands of dollars worth of treasure. The floor of the Caribbean is dotted with such wrecks. In some cases the men escaped and told of the loss, and the places where the ships went down are known, but in many cases the vessels with all their treasure and crew merely disappeared and no one knows their fate. It was thus with Grammont, a famous French buccaneer, who, in 1686, plundered and burnt Campeche and secured a vast treasure. But he and his ship were never heard from and beyond a doubt the immense fortune in gold, silver and precious stones lies somewhere among the rotted timbers of his ship at the bottom of the Caribbean.”“Well, it doesn’t sound as if treasure hunting would be very profitable,” remarked Jack.“Far more money has been spent in searching for treasure than ever was lost,” declared Mr. Bickford. “There was the Peruvian treasure supposed to have been hidden on Cocos Island—a vast fortune in church plate, holy vessels and coin which was taken away to prevent it falling into the hands of the enemy. Innumerable expeditions[197]have set out to find it but none have succeeded, although many have claimed to possess maps of the spot. But during the years that have passed, the island has altered, there have been landslides, and, if we are to believe the most reliable reports, the treasure lies buried under thousands of tons of rock and earth that has fallen from the mountainside. And as far as known the treasures that were lost when the Dons hurriedly sent it away from Old Panama to prevent it falling into Morgan’s hands has never been found. Some day some one may stumble upon it, but the chances are that it will remain lost to the world forever.”“Then all these stories about Captain Kidd’s treasure are just yarns,” said Fred regretfully. “And you said he wasn’t even a pirate.”“If Captain Kidd had possessed one-hundredth of the treasure he is supposed to have buried he would have been the most successful pirate who ever lived,” declared Mr. Bickford. “There is nothing to prove that Captain Kidd ever had any considerable treasure and the little he had was secreted on Gardiner’s Island and recovered by the men who employed Kidd and for whom it was intended. No, your old hero Kidd was not a pirate nor a buccaneer. On the contrary, he was a much[198]maligned man, a weak, rather cowardly chap, who was the tool of unscrupulous adventurers and paid the penalty for crimes that never were proved against him. And yet, strangely enough, he became noted as the most famous of all pirates and his name is a household word and the epitome of piracy. It is one of the most astounding examples of unwarranted fame and misconception on record, and so firmly fixed in the mind of the public is the erroneous idea that Kidd was the most notorious of pirates that not one person in a thousand will listen to reason or pay the least heed to documentary evidence or historical records proving he was no pirate at all.“It is the hardest thing in the world to down tradition and oddly enough the more false tradition is the harder it seems to be to correct it. Despite everything, Kidd will, no doubt, continue to remain the favorite pirate of romance and story, and to the end of time Kidd’s treasure will still, in imagination, be buried here, there and everywhere along the coasts.“We scarcely ever hear of ‘Blackbeard’s treasure,’ of ‘Morgan’s treasure’ or of ‘Bonnet’s treasure,’ although each and every one of those rascals was a pirate and took vast sums and may[199]have buried their loot for all we know. But always it is Kidd’s treasure, although the poor fellow never had any to bury.“As a matter of fact, Captain William Kidd was a respectable and honest sea captain, a native of Greenock, and was so highly respected for his integrity that he was given a commission to suppress piracy by King William the Third of England. The commission was addressed to ‘our trusty and well-beloved Captain William Kidd of the shipAdventure, galley’ and was dated 1695. The royal warrant went on to authorize Kidd to destroy and hunt down ‘divers wicked and ill-disposed persons who were committing many and great pyraces to the great danger and hurt of our loving subjects.’“Kidd, being impecunious, was backed by several rich and influential persons in Massachusetts and New York, among them Lord Belmont, the governor of Barbados, who saw in the capture of pirates and the taking of their ill-gotten loot a chance for large profits.“TheAdventureset forth on her mission in May, 1696, with a crew of one hundred and fifty-five men and cruised here, there and everywhere searching for piratical prey. Unfortunately pirates[200]seemed very scarce, Kidd’s crew became mutinous and clamored for excitement, and the next thing that was known, word came to the authorities that theAdventurehad attacked and taken a Moorish ship called theQueda Merchant. Furthermore, reports had it that Kidd had taken possession of the prize, had transferred his men, guns and other possessions to theQuedaand, having sunk theAdventure, had gone a-pirating in the Moorish ship. At once he was branded as a pirate and a price put upon his head. All unwittingly Kidd sailed into Santo Domingo in his prize and there learned that he was looked upon as a pirate and was wanted by the authorities.“Without hesitation, Kidd purchased a sloop, left theQuedain port and sailed as fast as possible to Boston to explain matters. He was, of course, rather doubtful of his reception and before throwing himself on the mercies of the authorities he secreted the few valuables he had on Gardiner’s Island, sent word to his sponsors, and after a consultation in which they agreed to stand by him and clear him of the charge of piracy, he gave himself up.“Kidd’s explanation was frank and simple. He claimed his crew, a gang of thugs and cut-throats,[201]had mutinied, had made him prisoner and of their own volition had captured the prize, and that theAdventure, being rendered unseaworthy in the action, had been abandoned, and the men and their belongings transferred to the Moorish ship. He also testified that his men had threatened to shoot him if he did not accede to their wishes and that during the time of the capture of the ship he had been locked in his cabin. He was questioned as to what became of the valuables, supposedly worth seventy thousand pounds sterling, which were on theQuedaand in reply swore that the men had taken it and made away with it. In the end, to make a long story short, the trial simmered down to a charge against the unfortunate Captain of having killed a gunner named Moore, who was a member of theAdventure’screw. Kidd frankly admitted he had killed the fellow by striking him over the head with a bucket, as Moore had been mutinous and had led the men in their scheme to turn pirates. Throughout these preliminary hearings, Kidd’s wealthy sponsors had deserted him. They saw that they would become involved; and poor Kidd found himself without friends or money and even deprived of the rights to produce documentary evidence of his statements. Heavily[202]manacled, he was sent to England and tried on the charge of piracy and murder at Old Bailey in May, 1701.“The trial was a rank travesty of justice from the beginning. Papers and letters favorable to Kidd were refused as evidence; his erstwhile friends perjured themselves to save their own names; counsel was denied him and only his faithful wife stood by him. In addition to Kidd, nine of his crew were also charged with piracy, these being the men who had remained faithful to their captain, and although all testified in Kidd’s behalf and substantiated his story, Kidd and six of the men were condemned to be hanged in chains. At Execution Dock the maligned, helpless captain and his fellows were strung up without mercy on May 23rd, and their dead bodies suspended in chains along the river side, where, for years, the bones swayed and rattled in the winds as a grim warning to all pirates.“But the execution was a bungling and awful thing. Kidd, standing with the noose about his neck, was pestered, browbeaten and cajoled to confess, but stoutly maintained his innocence. As he was swung off, the rope broke and the poor, tortured, groaning man was again hoisted to the scaffold[203]where, despite his suffering, a minister and others exhorted him to confess his crimes and reveal the hiding places of his treasure. But between pitiful groans and pleas for a speedy death, Kidd still maintained that he had no treasure and had told only the truth. Finally, despairing of wringing a confession from one who had nothing to confess, he was hanged until dead. His entire estate, consisting of less than seven thousand pounds, was confiscated and presented to the Greenwich Hospital, where, by all that was right and just, it should have proved a curse rather than a blessing.“No one ever knew what became of theQuedaor her treasure, but, no doubt, as Kidd claimed, she was scuttled by the mutinous crew and the loot divided between them was scattered to the four winds. Upon that slender mystery of the disappearance of the valuables of theQuedawere built all the tales of Captain Kidd’s buried treasure, and upon the farce of a trial and the conviction of the unfortunate seaman for killing a mutinous gunner in self-defense, was reared the undying fame of Captain Kidd.”“Gee, thatwasa shame!” declared Jack. “I feel really sorry for poor old Captain Kidd.[204]Think of Morgan being knighted and honored after all he did and Kidd being hung for nothing.”“You must bear in mind that times had changed since Morgan’s day,” said Mr. Bickford. “The romantic, picturesque buccaneers were a thing of the past, and England and her colonies were waging a relentless war on pirates. In a way we must not be too hard on the authorities for their treatment of Kidd. They were intent on discouraging piracy and doubtless felt that, even if there was a question of Kidd’s guilt, his death would be a wholesome warning to any seamen who felt inclined to turn pirates. But it certainly is a wonderful example of the irony of fate to think of Kidd winning undying fame as a bold and ruthless pirate when—even if he were guilty—he could not have been charged with taking more than one ship, while others, who destroyed hundreds and ravaged the seas for years, have been totally forgotten. There was not even anything romantic, daring or appealing to the imagination in Kidd’s career. In contrast, consider the most romantic corsair who ever pirated in the Caribbean, a veritable knight errant of the seas, a scion[205]of royalty, known as Prince Rupert of the Rhine.”“Why, I never ever heard of him!” exclaimed Fred. “What did he do?”“Of course you never heard of him,” said Mr. Bickford. “That is why I mentioned him, just as an example of how a man who should have been famous remains unknown and forgotten and a man like Kidd, with no claim to fame, lives on forever. Prince Rupert was a most romantic and fascinating character, a real Don Quixote, ever getting into one scrape after another, living a series of incredible adventures that would have put the famous D’Artagnan to shame; a dashing, impetuous gallant young prince who, according to historians, was ‘very sparkish in his dress’ and ‘like a perpetual motion.’ Young, handsome, a dashing cavalier, as ready with his sword as with his purse, he championed every romantic or hopeless cause, threw himself into any wild scheme or fray where a lady was concerned or some one was in distress, and was no sooner out of one trouble than he was head over heels into another. But he was ever resourceful, ever light hearted and ever a great favorite with the ladies. In his youth, he was cast into prison in Linz, but, despite his[206]plight, he managed to learn drawing, made love to the governor’s daughter and so won her heart that his escape was made easy.“Later, he decided that the land held too few opportunities for his restless, romantic spirit, and with a handful of choice companions he took to sea in command of a fleet of three ships. These were theSwallow, his own vessel, theDefiance, under command of his brother, Prince Maurice, and theHonest Seaman.“Gay with pennants and bunting, the little argosy set sail from Ireland in 1648, and with the gallant young Prince, dressed in his gayest silks, satins and laces, upon the high poop of theSwallow, the three tiny vessels set off on their voyage to do their bit towards championing the cause of their king in the far-off Caribbean.“For five years they sailed. Battling right nobly with the Dons, escaping annihilation a thousand times, beset by tempest and storm and meeting enough adventures at every turn to satisfy even the Prince’s ardent soul. A book might be written on the romantic, harebrained, reckless deeds performed by that hot-blooded young scion of royalty, but in the end, in a terrific hurricane, Prince Rupert’s fleet was driven on the treacherous[207]reefs off Anegada. Prince Maurice in theDefiancewas lost, theHonest Seamanwas battered to pieces and her few survivors reached the low, desolate land more dead than alive, but theSwallow, by chance or Providence, managed to escape by driving through a narrow entrance in the jagged reef to the sheltered water within. Battered and leaking, badly crippled, the poorSwallowwas far from seaworthy when the storm was over and the gay Prince, saddened and sorrowful at the loss of his brother and his men, sailed dolefully for England. He was a changed man thereafter and settled down to a very quiet life in a little house at Spring Gardens. All his brave deeds were forgotten, even his name passed into oblivion and in 1682 he died, almost unknown, in his English home.”[208]
CHAPTER XIKIDD, THE PIRATE WHO WASN’T A PIRATE
“Whew, I didn’t know they had pirates and buccaneers right up here around home!” exclaimed Fred. “Think of pirates in Long Island Sound!”“Of course there were,” declared Jack. “If there weren’t, how do yousupposeCaptain Kidd could have buried his treasure up here?”“That’s so,” admitted his cousin. “But I always thought he pirated down in the West Indies and just brought his treasure up here to hide it. Do you suppose he reallydidbury anything up this way, Uncle Henry?”Mr. Bickford laughed. “No, most of those stories are purely imagination,” he replied. “There isn’t a stretch of coast from Canada to South America that hasn’t got its tale of buried pirate treasure. If they all were true there’d be more valuables hidden by the pirates than all the corsairs ever took.”[193]“Didn’t the buccaneers and pirates really bury treasure, then?” asked Jack. “You said that Davis was supposed to have hidden his loot on the Galápagos Islands.”“Undoubtedly they did,” his father assured him. “The buccaneer leaders were far more thrifty than their men, and as there were no banking facilities in the haunts of the pirates and no safe hiding places in the towns, I have not the least doubt that they did bury vast quantities of their booty. But, also, I have no doubt but that they eventually dug most of it up again. The majority of the buccaneer and pirate captains retired from the profession and settled down to a life of peace and plenty, as I have said, and there is no reason why they should have left their treasure hidden away. Of course those who were suddenly killed might have had money and valuables secreted at the time of their death, but there were far greater fortunes hidden by the Spaniards than by the pirates. No doubt thousands and thousands of dollars’ worth of money, plate and jewels were buried or hidden by the Dons to prevent their falling into the buccaneers’ hands and were never recovered. Very often the owners were killed or made prisoners and the secret of the[194]treasure died with them, or they died a natural death without digging up their buried riches.“Of course a great deal of hidden treasure has been found of which the world never hears. In most countries the government claims a large share of such finds and naturally the finder, having no desire to share his unexpected fortune, keeps mum when he discovers it. There are countless cases of poor negroes and others in the West Indies suddenly becoming well-to-do without apparent reason. From time to time ancient coins appear at money changers and now and then we hear of treasure being found. But as a rule, the sums discovered are not large and are found by accident.“And with few exceptions there is every reason to believe that the valuables were hidden by their lawful owners or were lost or accidentally buried. For example, there was the man Gayney, who was drowned in Darien and who had three hundred pieces of eight on his person. Any one might find that and think it was buried treasure and never imagine it was the loot carried on a man’s back. At other times, boats loaded with valuables were wrecked or sunk and the treasure lost. Then, years later, it is found in the sand of the shore[195]and the finders think of it as buried treasure. Moreover, wherever the pirates foregathered they naturally lost more or less money and if, by chance, some one picks up a few doubloons or pieces of eight in such places it always starts a tale of buried loot. At Anegada, St. John, St. Martin and, in fact, every other buccaneers’ old haunt, pieces of money are picked up from time to time and from these finds the tales of buried treasure have originated. In all the reliable histories and chronicles of the buccaneers and pirates I have never found any statement or hint that would lead one to think that it was customary for the corsairs to bury or hide their loot. All the tales of pirate captains burying treasure at dead of night and shooting the men who dug the holes are pure fiction with no fact on which to base them.“But there is no question that vast amounts of treasure lie at the bottom of the sea in the Caribbean and elsewhere. Port Royal, Jamaica, slipped bodily into the sea with all its treasure—and there was undoubtedly vast sums in money and jewels in the place—and not a cent has ever been salvaged. Jamestown, in Nevis, was also submerged by an earthquake and all the riches it contained still lie at the bottom of the sea. Countless ships,[196]attacked by the buccaneers, sank before the pirates could loot them and went to the bottom with their valuables, and many a buccaneers’ and pirates’ vessel was lost with thousands of dollars worth of treasure. The floor of the Caribbean is dotted with such wrecks. In some cases the men escaped and told of the loss, and the places where the ships went down are known, but in many cases the vessels with all their treasure and crew merely disappeared and no one knows their fate. It was thus with Grammont, a famous French buccaneer, who, in 1686, plundered and burnt Campeche and secured a vast treasure. But he and his ship were never heard from and beyond a doubt the immense fortune in gold, silver and precious stones lies somewhere among the rotted timbers of his ship at the bottom of the Caribbean.”“Well, it doesn’t sound as if treasure hunting would be very profitable,” remarked Jack.“Far more money has been spent in searching for treasure than ever was lost,” declared Mr. Bickford. “There was the Peruvian treasure supposed to have been hidden on Cocos Island—a vast fortune in church plate, holy vessels and coin which was taken away to prevent it falling into the hands of the enemy. Innumerable expeditions[197]have set out to find it but none have succeeded, although many have claimed to possess maps of the spot. But during the years that have passed, the island has altered, there have been landslides, and, if we are to believe the most reliable reports, the treasure lies buried under thousands of tons of rock and earth that has fallen from the mountainside. And as far as known the treasures that were lost when the Dons hurriedly sent it away from Old Panama to prevent it falling into Morgan’s hands has never been found. Some day some one may stumble upon it, but the chances are that it will remain lost to the world forever.”“Then all these stories about Captain Kidd’s treasure are just yarns,” said Fred regretfully. “And you said he wasn’t even a pirate.”“If Captain Kidd had possessed one-hundredth of the treasure he is supposed to have buried he would have been the most successful pirate who ever lived,” declared Mr. Bickford. “There is nothing to prove that Captain Kidd ever had any considerable treasure and the little he had was secreted on Gardiner’s Island and recovered by the men who employed Kidd and for whom it was intended. No, your old hero Kidd was not a pirate nor a buccaneer. On the contrary, he was a much[198]maligned man, a weak, rather cowardly chap, who was the tool of unscrupulous adventurers and paid the penalty for crimes that never were proved against him. And yet, strangely enough, he became noted as the most famous of all pirates and his name is a household word and the epitome of piracy. It is one of the most astounding examples of unwarranted fame and misconception on record, and so firmly fixed in the mind of the public is the erroneous idea that Kidd was the most notorious of pirates that not one person in a thousand will listen to reason or pay the least heed to documentary evidence or historical records proving he was no pirate at all.“It is the hardest thing in the world to down tradition and oddly enough the more false tradition is the harder it seems to be to correct it. Despite everything, Kidd will, no doubt, continue to remain the favorite pirate of romance and story, and to the end of time Kidd’s treasure will still, in imagination, be buried here, there and everywhere along the coasts.“We scarcely ever hear of ‘Blackbeard’s treasure,’ of ‘Morgan’s treasure’ or of ‘Bonnet’s treasure,’ although each and every one of those rascals was a pirate and took vast sums and may[199]have buried their loot for all we know. But always it is Kidd’s treasure, although the poor fellow never had any to bury.“As a matter of fact, Captain William Kidd was a respectable and honest sea captain, a native of Greenock, and was so highly respected for his integrity that he was given a commission to suppress piracy by King William the Third of England. The commission was addressed to ‘our trusty and well-beloved Captain William Kidd of the shipAdventure, galley’ and was dated 1695. The royal warrant went on to authorize Kidd to destroy and hunt down ‘divers wicked and ill-disposed persons who were committing many and great pyraces to the great danger and hurt of our loving subjects.’“Kidd, being impecunious, was backed by several rich and influential persons in Massachusetts and New York, among them Lord Belmont, the governor of Barbados, who saw in the capture of pirates and the taking of their ill-gotten loot a chance for large profits.“TheAdventureset forth on her mission in May, 1696, with a crew of one hundred and fifty-five men and cruised here, there and everywhere searching for piratical prey. Unfortunately pirates[200]seemed very scarce, Kidd’s crew became mutinous and clamored for excitement, and the next thing that was known, word came to the authorities that theAdventurehad attacked and taken a Moorish ship called theQueda Merchant. Furthermore, reports had it that Kidd had taken possession of the prize, had transferred his men, guns and other possessions to theQuedaand, having sunk theAdventure, had gone a-pirating in the Moorish ship. At once he was branded as a pirate and a price put upon his head. All unwittingly Kidd sailed into Santo Domingo in his prize and there learned that he was looked upon as a pirate and was wanted by the authorities.“Without hesitation, Kidd purchased a sloop, left theQuedain port and sailed as fast as possible to Boston to explain matters. He was, of course, rather doubtful of his reception and before throwing himself on the mercies of the authorities he secreted the few valuables he had on Gardiner’s Island, sent word to his sponsors, and after a consultation in which they agreed to stand by him and clear him of the charge of piracy, he gave himself up.“Kidd’s explanation was frank and simple. He claimed his crew, a gang of thugs and cut-throats,[201]had mutinied, had made him prisoner and of their own volition had captured the prize, and that theAdventure, being rendered unseaworthy in the action, had been abandoned, and the men and their belongings transferred to the Moorish ship. He also testified that his men had threatened to shoot him if he did not accede to their wishes and that during the time of the capture of the ship he had been locked in his cabin. He was questioned as to what became of the valuables, supposedly worth seventy thousand pounds sterling, which were on theQuedaand in reply swore that the men had taken it and made away with it. In the end, to make a long story short, the trial simmered down to a charge against the unfortunate Captain of having killed a gunner named Moore, who was a member of theAdventure’screw. Kidd frankly admitted he had killed the fellow by striking him over the head with a bucket, as Moore had been mutinous and had led the men in their scheme to turn pirates. Throughout these preliminary hearings, Kidd’s wealthy sponsors had deserted him. They saw that they would become involved; and poor Kidd found himself without friends or money and even deprived of the rights to produce documentary evidence of his statements. Heavily[202]manacled, he was sent to England and tried on the charge of piracy and murder at Old Bailey in May, 1701.“The trial was a rank travesty of justice from the beginning. Papers and letters favorable to Kidd were refused as evidence; his erstwhile friends perjured themselves to save their own names; counsel was denied him and only his faithful wife stood by him. In addition to Kidd, nine of his crew were also charged with piracy, these being the men who had remained faithful to their captain, and although all testified in Kidd’s behalf and substantiated his story, Kidd and six of the men were condemned to be hanged in chains. At Execution Dock the maligned, helpless captain and his fellows were strung up without mercy on May 23rd, and their dead bodies suspended in chains along the river side, where, for years, the bones swayed and rattled in the winds as a grim warning to all pirates.“But the execution was a bungling and awful thing. Kidd, standing with the noose about his neck, was pestered, browbeaten and cajoled to confess, but stoutly maintained his innocence. As he was swung off, the rope broke and the poor, tortured, groaning man was again hoisted to the scaffold[203]where, despite his suffering, a minister and others exhorted him to confess his crimes and reveal the hiding places of his treasure. But between pitiful groans and pleas for a speedy death, Kidd still maintained that he had no treasure and had told only the truth. Finally, despairing of wringing a confession from one who had nothing to confess, he was hanged until dead. His entire estate, consisting of less than seven thousand pounds, was confiscated and presented to the Greenwich Hospital, where, by all that was right and just, it should have proved a curse rather than a blessing.“No one ever knew what became of theQuedaor her treasure, but, no doubt, as Kidd claimed, she was scuttled by the mutinous crew and the loot divided between them was scattered to the four winds. Upon that slender mystery of the disappearance of the valuables of theQuedawere built all the tales of Captain Kidd’s buried treasure, and upon the farce of a trial and the conviction of the unfortunate seaman for killing a mutinous gunner in self-defense, was reared the undying fame of Captain Kidd.”“Gee, thatwasa shame!” declared Jack. “I feel really sorry for poor old Captain Kidd.[204]Think of Morgan being knighted and honored after all he did and Kidd being hung for nothing.”“You must bear in mind that times had changed since Morgan’s day,” said Mr. Bickford. “The romantic, picturesque buccaneers were a thing of the past, and England and her colonies were waging a relentless war on pirates. In a way we must not be too hard on the authorities for their treatment of Kidd. They were intent on discouraging piracy and doubtless felt that, even if there was a question of Kidd’s guilt, his death would be a wholesome warning to any seamen who felt inclined to turn pirates. But it certainly is a wonderful example of the irony of fate to think of Kidd winning undying fame as a bold and ruthless pirate when—even if he were guilty—he could not have been charged with taking more than one ship, while others, who destroyed hundreds and ravaged the seas for years, have been totally forgotten. There was not even anything romantic, daring or appealing to the imagination in Kidd’s career. In contrast, consider the most romantic corsair who ever pirated in the Caribbean, a veritable knight errant of the seas, a scion[205]of royalty, known as Prince Rupert of the Rhine.”“Why, I never ever heard of him!” exclaimed Fred. “What did he do?”“Of course you never heard of him,” said Mr. Bickford. “That is why I mentioned him, just as an example of how a man who should have been famous remains unknown and forgotten and a man like Kidd, with no claim to fame, lives on forever. Prince Rupert was a most romantic and fascinating character, a real Don Quixote, ever getting into one scrape after another, living a series of incredible adventures that would have put the famous D’Artagnan to shame; a dashing, impetuous gallant young prince who, according to historians, was ‘very sparkish in his dress’ and ‘like a perpetual motion.’ Young, handsome, a dashing cavalier, as ready with his sword as with his purse, he championed every romantic or hopeless cause, threw himself into any wild scheme or fray where a lady was concerned or some one was in distress, and was no sooner out of one trouble than he was head over heels into another. But he was ever resourceful, ever light hearted and ever a great favorite with the ladies. In his youth, he was cast into prison in Linz, but, despite his[206]plight, he managed to learn drawing, made love to the governor’s daughter and so won her heart that his escape was made easy.“Later, he decided that the land held too few opportunities for his restless, romantic spirit, and with a handful of choice companions he took to sea in command of a fleet of three ships. These were theSwallow, his own vessel, theDefiance, under command of his brother, Prince Maurice, and theHonest Seaman.“Gay with pennants and bunting, the little argosy set sail from Ireland in 1648, and with the gallant young Prince, dressed in his gayest silks, satins and laces, upon the high poop of theSwallow, the three tiny vessels set off on their voyage to do their bit towards championing the cause of their king in the far-off Caribbean.“For five years they sailed. Battling right nobly with the Dons, escaping annihilation a thousand times, beset by tempest and storm and meeting enough adventures at every turn to satisfy even the Prince’s ardent soul. A book might be written on the romantic, harebrained, reckless deeds performed by that hot-blooded young scion of royalty, but in the end, in a terrific hurricane, Prince Rupert’s fleet was driven on the treacherous[207]reefs off Anegada. Prince Maurice in theDefiancewas lost, theHonest Seamanwas battered to pieces and her few survivors reached the low, desolate land more dead than alive, but theSwallow, by chance or Providence, managed to escape by driving through a narrow entrance in the jagged reef to the sheltered water within. Battered and leaking, badly crippled, the poorSwallowwas far from seaworthy when the storm was over and the gay Prince, saddened and sorrowful at the loss of his brother and his men, sailed dolefully for England. He was a changed man thereafter and settled down to a very quiet life in a little house at Spring Gardens. All his brave deeds were forgotten, even his name passed into oblivion and in 1682 he died, almost unknown, in his English home.”[208]
“Whew, I didn’t know they had pirates and buccaneers right up here around home!” exclaimed Fred. “Think of pirates in Long Island Sound!”
“Of course there were,” declared Jack. “If there weren’t, how do yousupposeCaptain Kidd could have buried his treasure up here?”
“That’s so,” admitted his cousin. “But I always thought he pirated down in the West Indies and just brought his treasure up here to hide it. Do you suppose he reallydidbury anything up this way, Uncle Henry?”
Mr. Bickford laughed. “No, most of those stories are purely imagination,” he replied. “There isn’t a stretch of coast from Canada to South America that hasn’t got its tale of buried pirate treasure. If they all were true there’d be more valuables hidden by the pirates than all the corsairs ever took.”[193]
“Didn’t the buccaneers and pirates really bury treasure, then?” asked Jack. “You said that Davis was supposed to have hidden his loot on the Galápagos Islands.”
“Undoubtedly they did,” his father assured him. “The buccaneer leaders were far more thrifty than their men, and as there were no banking facilities in the haunts of the pirates and no safe hiding places in the towns, I have not the least doubt that they did bury vast quantities of their booty. But, also, I have no doubt but that they eventually dug most of it up again. The majority of the buccaneer and pirate captains retired from the profession and settled down to a life of peace and plenty, as I have said, and there is no reason why they should have left their treasure hidden away. Of course those who were suddenly killed might have had money and valuables secreted at the time of their death, but there were far greater fortunes hidden by the Spaniards than by the pirates. No doubt thousands and thousands of dollars’ worth of money, plate and jewels were buried or hidden by the Dons to prevent their falling into the buccaneers’ hands and were never recovered. Very often the owners were killed or made prisoners and the secret of the[194]treasure died with them, or they died a natural death without digging up their buried riches.
“Of course a great deal of hidden treasure has been found of which the world never hears. In most countries the government claims a large share of such finds and naturally the finder, having no desire to share his unexpected fortune, keeps mum when he discovers it. There are countless cases of poor negroes and others in the West Indies suddenly becoming well-to-do without apparent reason. From time to time ancient coins appear at money changers and now and then we hear of treasure being found. But as a rule, the sums discovered are not large and are found by accident.
“And with few exceptions there is every reason to believe that the valuables were hidden by their lawful owners or were lost or accidentally buried. For example, there was the man Gayney, who was drowned in Darien and who had three hundred pieces of eight on his person. Any one might find that and think it was buried treasure and never imagine it was the loot carried on a man’s back. At other times, boats loaded with valuables were wrecked or sunk and the treasure lost. Then, years later, it is found in the sand of the shore[195]and the finders think of it as buried treasure. Moreover, wherever the pirates foregathered they naturally lost more or less money and if, by chance, some one picks up a few doubloons or pieces of eight in such places it always starts a tale of buried loot. At Anegada, St. John, St. Martin and, in fact, every other buccaneers’ old haunt, pieces of money are picked up from time to time and from these finds the tales of buried treasure have originated. In all the reliable histories and chronicles of the buccaneers and pirates I have never found any statement or hint that would lead one to think that it was customary for the corsairs to bury or hide their loot. All the tales of pirate captains burying treasure at dead of night and shooting the men who dug the holes are pure fiction with no fact on which to base them.
“But there is no question that vast amounts of treasure lie at the bottom of the sea in the Caribbean and elsewhere. Port Royal, Jamaica, slipped bodily into the sea with all its treasure—and there was undoubtedly vast sums in money and jewels in the place—and not a cent has ever been salvaged. Jamestown, in Nevis, was also submerged by an earthquake and all the riches it contained still lie at the bottom of the sea. Countless ships,[196]attacked by the buccaneers, sank before the pirates could loot them and went to the bottom with their valuables, and many a buccaneers’ and pirates’ vessel was lost with thousands of dollars worth of treasure. The floor of the Caribbean is dotted with such wrecks. In some cases the men escaped and told of the loss, and the places where the ships went down are known, but in many cases the vessels with all their treasure and crew merely disappeared and no one knows their fate. It was thus with Grammont, a famous French buccaneer, who, in 1686, plundered and burnt Campeche and secured a vast treasure. But he and his ship were never heard from and beyond a doubt the immense fortune in gold, silver and precious stones lies somewhere among the rotted timbers of his ship at the bottom of the Caribbean.”
“Well, it doesn’t sound as if treasure hunting would be very profitable,” remarked Jack.
“Far more money has been spent in searching for treasure than ever was lost,” declared Mr. Bickford. “There was the Peruvian treasure supposed to have been hidden on Cocos Island—a vast fortune in church plate, holy vessels and coin which was taken away to prevent it falling into the hands of the enemy. Innumerable expeditions[197]have set out to find it but none have succeeded, although many have claimed to possess maps of the spot. But during the years that have passed, the island has altered, there have been landslides, and, if we are to believe the most reliable reports, the treasure lies buried under thousands of tons of rock and earth that has fallen from the mountainside. And as far as known the treasures that were lost when the Dons hurriedly sent it away from Old Panama to prevent it falling into Morgan’s hands has never been found. Some day some one may stumble upon it, but the chances are that it will remain lost to the world forever.”
“Then all these stories about Captain Kidd’s treasure are just yarns,” said Fred regretfully. “And you said he wasn’t even a pirate.”
“If Captain Kidd had possessed one-hundredth of the treasure he is supposed to have buried he would have been the most successful pirate who ever lived,” declared Mr. Bickford. “There is nothing to prove that Captain Kidd ever had any considerable treasure and the little he had was secreted on Gardiner’s Island and recovered by the men who employed Kidd and for whom it was intended. No, your old hero Kidd was not a pirate nor a buccaneer. On the contrary, he was a much[198]maligned man, a weak, rather cowardly chap, who was the tool of unscrupulous adventurers and paid the penalty for crimes that never were proved against him. And yet, strangely enough, he became noted as the most famous of all pirates and his name is a household word and the epitome of piracy. It is one of the most astounding examples of unwarranted fame and misconception on record, and so firmly fixed in the mind of the public is the erroneous idea that Kidd was the most notorious of pirates that not one person in a thousand will listen to reason or pay the least heed to documentary evidence or historical records proving he was no pirate at all.
“It is the hardest thing in the world to down tradition and oddly enough the more false tradition is the harder it seems to be to correct it. Despite everything, Kidd will, no doubt, continue to remain the favorite pirate of romance and story, and to the end of time Kidd’s treasure will still, in imagination, be buried here, there and everywhere along the coasts.
“We scarcely ever hear of ‘Blackbeard’s treasure,’ of ‘Morgan’s treasure’ or of ‘Bonnet’s treasure,’ although each and every one of those rascals was a pirate and took vast sums and may[199]have buried their loot for all we know. But always it is Kidd’s treasure, although the poor fellow never had any to bury.
“As a matter of fact, Captain William Kidd was a respectable and honest sea captain, a native of Greenock, and was so highly respected for his integrity that he was given a commission to suppress piracy by King William the Third of England. The commission was addressed to ‘our trusty and well-beloved Captain William Kidd of the shipAdventure, galley’ and was dated 1695. The royal warrant went on to authorize Kidd to destroy and hunt down ‘divers wicked and ill-disposed persons who were committing many and great pyraces to the great danger and hurt of our loving subjects.’
“Kidd, being impecunious, was backed by several rich and influential persons in Massachusetts and New York, among them Lord Belmont, the governor of Barbados, who saw in the capture of pirates and the taking of their ill-gotten loot a chance for large profits.
“TheAdventureset forth on her mission in May, 1696, with a crew of one hundred and fifty-five men and cruised here, there and everywhere searching for piratical prey. Unfortunately pirates[200]seemed very scarce, Kidd’s crew became mutinous and clamored for excitement, and the next thing that was known, word came to the authorities that theAdventurehad attacked and taken a Moorish ship called theQueda Merchant. Furthermore, reports had it that Kidd had taken possession of the prize, had transferred his men, guns and other possessions to theQuedaand, having sunk theAdventure, had gone a-pirating in the Moorish ship. At once he was branded as a pirate and a price put upon his head. All unwittingly Kidd sailed into Santo Domingo in his prize and there learned that he was looked upon as a pirate and was wanted by the authorities.
“Without hesitation, Kidd purchased a sloop, left theQuedain port and sailed as fast as possible to Boston to explain matters. He was, of course, rather doubtful of his reception and before throwing himself on the mercies of the authorities he secreted the few valuables he had on Gardiner’s Island, sent word to his sponsors, and after a consultation in which they agreed to stand by him and clear him of the charge of piracy, he gave himself up.
“Kidd’s explanation was frank and simple. He claimed his crew, a gang of thugs and cut-throats,[201]had mutinied, had made him prisoner and of their own volition had captured the prize, and that theAdventure, being rendered unseaworthy in the action, had been abandoned, and the men and their belongings transferred to the Moorish ship. He also testified that his men had threatened to shoot him if he did not accede to their wishes and that during the time of the capture of the ship he had been locked in his cabin. He was questioned as to what became of the valuables, supposedly worth seventy thousand pounds sterling, which were on theQuedaand in reply swore that the men had taken it and made away with it. In the end, to make a long story short, the trial simmered down to a charge against the unfortunate Captain of having killed a gunner named Moore, who was a member of theAdventure’screw. Kidd frankly admitted he had killed the fellow by striking him over the head with a bucket, as Moore had been mutinous and had led the men in their scheme to turn pirates. Throughout these preliminary hearings, Kidd’s wealthy sponsors had deserted him. They saw that they would become involved; and poor Kidd found himself without friends or money and even deprived of the rights to produce documentary evidence of his statements. Heavily[202]manacled, he was sent to England and tried on the charge of piracy and murder at Old Bailey in May, 1701.
“The trial was a rank travesty of justice from the beginning. Papers and letters favorable to Kidd were refused as evidence; his erstwhile friends perjured themselves to save their own names; counsel was denied him and only his faithful wife stood by him. In addition to Kidd, nine of his crew were also charged with piracy, these being the men who had remained faithful to their captain, and although all testified in Kidd’s behalf and substantiated his story, Kidd and six of the men were condemned to be hanged in chains. At Execution Dock the maligned, helpless captain and his fellows were strung up without mercy on May 23rd, and their dead bodies suspended in chains along the river side, where, for years, the bones swayed and rattled in the winds as a grim warning to all pirates.
“But the execution was a bungling and awful thing. Kidd, standing with the noose about his neck, was pestered, browbeaten and cajoled to confess, but stoutly maintained his innocence. As he was swung off, the rope broke and the poor, tortured, groaning man was again hoisted to the scaffold[203]where, despite his suffering, a minister and others exhorted him to confess his crimes and reveal the hiding places of his treasure. But between pitiful groans and pleas for a speedy death, Kidd still maintained that he had no treasure and had told only the truth. Finally, despairing of wringing a confession from one who had nothing to confess, he was hanged until dead. His entire estate, consisting of less than seven thousand pounds, was confiscated and presented to the Greenwich Hospital, where, by all that was right and just, it should have proved a curse rather than a blessing.
“No one ever knew what became of theQuedaor her treasure, but, no doubt, as Kidd claimed, she was scuttled by the mutinous crew and the loot divided between them was scattered to the four winds. Upon that slender mystery of the disappearance of the valuables of theQuedawere built all the tales of Captain Kidd’s buried treasure, and upon the farce of a trial and the conviction of the unfortunate seaman for killing a mutinous gunner in self-defense, was reared the undying fame of Captain Kidd.”
“Gee, thatwasa shame!” declared Jack. “I feel really sorry for poor old Captain Kidd.[204]Think of Morgan being knighted and honored after all he did and Kidd being hung for nothing.”
“You must bear in mind that times had changed since Morgan’s day,” said Mr. Bickford. “The romantic, picturesque buccaneers were a thing of the past, and England and her colonies were waging a relentless war on pirates. In a way we must not be too hard on the authorities for their treatment of Kidd. They were intent on discouraging piracy and doubtless felt that, even if there was a question of Kidd’s guilt, his death would be a wholesome warning to any seamen who felt inclined to turn pirates. But it certainly is a wonderful example of the irony of fate to think of Kidd winning undying fame as a bold and ruthless pirate when—even if he were guilty—he could not have been charged with taking more than one ship, while others, who destroyed hundreds and ravaged the seas for years, have been totally forgotten. There was not even anything romantic, daring or appealing to the imagination in Kidd’s career. In contrast, consider the most romantic corsair who ever pirated in the Caribbean, a veritable knight errant of the seas, a scion[205]of royalty, known as Prince Rupert of the Rhine.”
“Why, I never ever heard of him!” exclaimed Fred. “What did he do?”
“Of course you never heard of him,” said Mr. Bickford. “That is why I mentioned him, just as an example of how a man who should have been famous remains unknown and forgotten and a man like Kidd, with no claim to fame, lives on forever. Prince Rupert was a most romantic and fascinating character, a real Don Quixote, ever getting into one scrape after another, living a series of incredible adventures that would have put the famous D’Artagnan to shame; a dashing, impetuous gallant young prince who, according to historians, was ‘very sparkish in his dress’ and ‘like a perpetual motion.’ Young, handsome, a dashing cavalier, as ready with his sword as with his purse, he championed every romantic or hopeless cause, threw himself into any wild scheme or fray where a lady was concerned or some one was in distress, and was no sooner out of one trouble than he was head over heels into another. But he was ever resourceful, ever light hearted and ever a great favorite with the ladies. In his youth, he was cast into prison in Linz, but, despite his[206]plight, he managed to learn drawing, made love to the governor’s daughter and so won her heart that his escape was made easy.
“Later, he decided that the land held too few opportunities for his restless, romantic spirit, and with a handful of choice companions he took to sea in command of a fleet of three ships. These were theSwallow, his own vessel, theDefiance, under command of his brother, Prince Maurice, and theHonest Seaman.
“Gay with pennants and bunting, the little argosy set sail from Ireland in 1648, and with the gallant young Prince, dressed in his gayest silks, satins and laces, upon the high poop of theSwallow, the three tiny vessels set off on their voyage to do their bit towards championing the cause of their king in the far-off Caribbean.
“For five years they sailed. Battling right nobly with the Dons, escaping annihilation a thousand times, beset by tempest and storm and meeting enough adventures at every turn to satisfy even the Prince’s ardent soul. A book might be written on the romantic, harebrained, reckless deeds performed by that hot-blooded young scion of royalty, but in the end, in a terrific hurricane, Prince Rupert’s fleet was driven on the treacherous[207]reefs off Anegada. Prince Maurice in theDefiancewas lost, theHonest Seamanwas battered to pieces and her few survivors reached the low, desolate land more dead than alive, but theSwallow, by chance or Providence, managed to escape by driving through a narrow entrance in the jagged reef to the sheltered water within. Battered and leaking, badly crippled, the poorSwallowwas far from seaworthy when the storm was over and the gay Prince, saddened and sorrowful at the loss of his brother and his men, sailed dolefully for England. He was a changed man thereafter and settled down to a very quiet life in a little house at Spring Gardens. All his brave deeds were forgotten, even his name passed into oblivion and in 1682 he died, almost unknown, in his English home.”[208]