CHAPTER IV
THE GENESIS AND GROWTH OF THE ARCH PIRATE MYTH
Kidd’s expedition having originated in the desire of the government to placate the East India Company, it is only reasonable to surmise that the Company received some early official intimation of what was being done on their behalf. To what extent they were informed officially of the details of the government scheme is of comparatively small importance. The great wealth at their disposal and the prodigality with which they expended their secret service money in those days, leave no room for doubt that at a very early stage of the proceedings they made themselves acquainted with the essential facts. Their factories were exposed to imminent danger from the irritation of the Great Mogul at the continuous robbery of his subjects’ goods by English-speaking seamen on his coasts. The Company must have taken the keenest interest in the measures designed for the repression of this piracy. With their practical knowledge of the difficulties to be encountered, it is unlikely that they at any time regarded the adventurers’ project as a very promising one. When they heard of the failure of the Admiralty to protect Kidd’s carefully selected crew from the press gang, and realised that the bulk of the ship’s company would have to be got from New York, it is impossible that they can have entertained any illusions as to the probability of its success.
Kidd’s crew was pressed at the Nore on the first of March, 1696. By one of the curious close coincidences of date which speak for themselves in this case more convincingly than any words can do, the Company on the following day addressed a petition to the Admiralty, praying to be allowed to take the business of dealing with the pirates into their own hands. In this petition they urged that “Your Lordships will please to empower the petitioners’ ships and officers to seize and take all pirates infesting those seas within the limits of the Company’s charter and likewise empower them to erect a Court of Admiralty in those parts.” This proposal except for a very excusable technical error contained in it, which if not corrected, would have enabled the Company, instead of the Admiralty, to create a Court of Admiralty, was not unreasonable. It was referred by the Admiralty to their judge, Sir Charles Hedges, who promptly reported in the following terms on the steps necessary to carry it into effect: “That the more regular way will be for your Lordships to take a Commission under the Great Seal of England giving power to the Lord Admiral or Commissioners for executing the office of High Admiral to grant commissions to any of the Captains of the East India Company’s ships for the taking of the ships of pirates, wherein it shall be expressed what parts or shares the King shall see fit to reserve to himself or bestow upon the Captors and Company.”
“That your Lordships may be pleased to erect a Vice-Admiralty at Bombay or any other place that shall be thought expedient in the same manner as is done in the West Indies, which being established by a commission in the ordinary form, that will be sufficient to empower such Vice-Admiralty there, to proceed against ships as fully as any Vice-Admiralty in England or the High Court of Admiralty can do.”
Why no action was taken on this proposal of the Company as modified by Sir Charles Hedges, is not clear. Possibly the Admiralty hesitated to hand over to the captains of the Company’s ships work which they thought more properly belonged to the King’s navy, and which when the French war was ended was very soon performed by Captain Warren’s squadron. Possibly they felt a delicacy in doing anything that might diminish the great ministers’ chances of gain from Kidd’s adventure. What seems to have happened is that the Company’s petition was officially shelved for nearly four years, when Captain Warren having in the meanwhile been sent out with five men-of-war to suppress the pirates, it was referred to the committee of the House of Commons, who had then been appointed to consider further the large question of the state and condition of the trade of England, by whom, if considered at all, it would have to run the gauntlet of many implacable enemies of the Company, and in particular of certain ardent protectionists of that day who never missed an opportunity of holding forth on the injuries to which English industries were exposed by the importation by the Company of Indian silks, calicoes, and muslins.
Apart, however, from any question of the probable success of Kidd’s expedition, or the desirability of giving the Company a free hand to deal themselves with the pirates, the terms of the grant of the spoil to the adventurers, with which the Company had evidently made themselves familiar, were calculated to place them in a very awkward position with the Great Mogul. What they had to protect themselves against, was a summary expulsion from his dominions; and they must have realized that even if Kidd succeeded in catching his pirates, it would be a very unsatisfactory reply to the demands of that great potentate for the immediate restitution of the stolen properties, to assure him that the thieves had been carried to England, where it was to be hoped that some of them might in due course be convicted, and possibly hung; but that the stolen goods had in the meanwhile been appropriated by some of the King’s great ministers. It was not impossible that the next demand of the Great Mogul might be that these great gentlemen together with such of the directors of the Company as had acquiesced in this arrangement should at once be handed over to him to be dealt with according to their deserts. It is not, therefore, surprising to find that on the twentieth of August in that year, whilst Kidd was still at New York trying to pick up his crew, the Company presented a further petition to the Lords Justices, praying that “such of the species of gold, silver and jewels as have already been or shall hereafter be seized in the custody of any of the pirates or any other persons who cannot make a legal title thereunto, may not be disposed of, but put into the possession of the Company, in order to be preserved for the use of the proprietors in India, that the Government may see that His Majesty as well as the Company have done their utmost endeavours to seize the said pirates and to make restitution to the persons injured so far as it is in their power.”