CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER III
KIDD’S RETURN HOME
Had Kidd been fortunate enough on his first visit to Madagascar to find his pirates there, it is possible but not very probable that his crew might have done their best to kill or catch their fellow-countrymen, who were preying on the Indian commerce. On the other hand, had he not been so unfortunate as to find the pirates awaiting him there on his way back to Boston, he would probably have been able to bring his two prizes home safely within a reasonable time and have ended his voyage to the satisfaction of his employers and with credit to himself. Even as it was, had he been in command of a disciplined crew, as determined as their captain was, faithfully to discharge the painful duties they had undertaken, his finding the pirates at St. Marie’s would have given him a fair chance of crowning his patient efforts with a success which might have been handed down to posterity as a proof of the fortitude by which a great Scotch sea captain had been able to surmount apparently insuperable difficulties. But it would be hard to find in history, sacred or profane, an unluckier man than Kidd. The Adventure Galley came back to Madagascar in a sinking condition, with her crew on the brink of mutiny, worn out with repeated mishaps, having lost a large number of their fellows by sickness, disgusted at the ill-luck and strait-laced proceedings of their conscientious commander, in possession, it is true, of a rich prize, but in some doubt, owing to his hesitation in retaining her, whether, when they got to Boston, questions as to the legality of the capture, to say nothing of their recent misconduct in rifling the Portuguese ship, might not be raised, ending in their getting no pay whatever for between two and three years’ heavy and perilous work, and possibly in their being thrown into gaol by Bellamont for piracy. Probably they would have mutinied long before, if they could have found a capable leader with the necessary knowledge of navigation to take Kidd’s place. As it was, when they found their fellow-countrymen at St. Marie’s, living on the fat of the land on cargoes taken from the Moors, under an adventurous and successful commander, Culliford, who had stolen an East Indiaman from his employers, and was now reaping a rich harvest from his villainy, it was no wonder that the greater part of Kidd’s men at once decided to throw in their lot with him, rather than stand by Kidd in an internecine struggle with their fellow-countrymen, in which success was more than doubtful, and if attained would necessitate their carrying their conquered compatriots in chains to an English port, there to be handed over to the authorities with a view to their being hung as pirates, for what was regarded by the majority of the seamen on both sides as the very venial offence of plundering the enemies of Christianity. The catastrophe which now befell was the inevitable sequence of what had gone before, and what Kidd found awaiting him on his arrival at Madagascar.
Let him tell the tale in his own simple words.[8]
“When the Narrator arrived at the said Port, there was a Pirate Ship, called the Moca Frigate, at an anchor, Robert Culliford Commander thereof, who with his men left the same at his coming and ran into the woods. And the Narrator proposed to his men to take the same, having sufficient power and authority so to do. But the mutinous crew told him, ‘If he offered the same, they would rather fire ten guns into him than one into the other,’ and thereupon ninety-seven men deserted, and went into the Moca Frigate, and sent into the woods for the said pirates, and brought the said Culliford and his men on board again, and all the time he stayed in the said port the said deserters sometimes in great numbers came on board the said Galley and Adventure Prize, and carried away great guns, Powder, Shot, small arms, sails, Anchors, Cables, Surgeon’s chest, and what else they pleased; and threatened several times to murder the Narrator, as he was informed and advised to take care of himself, which they designed in the night to effect; but was [sic] prevented by his locking himself in his cabin at night, and securing himself by barricading the same with bales of goods and having about forty small arms besides pistols, ready charged to keep them out.”