Kidd. “Do you think I was a pirate?”
Hewson. “I know his men would have gone a-pirateering and he refused it; and his men seized upon his ship. When he went this voyage, he consulted me and told me they had engaged him on such an expedition. And I told him he had enough already, and might be contented with what he had. And he said that was his own inclination; but my Lord Bellamont had told him, if he did not go this voyage, that there were great men and they would stop his brigantine in the river, if he did not go.”
Mr. Justice Turton. “Who told you so? Did he?”
Hewson. “Yes, my lord.”
Mr. Justice Turton. “Did you apprehend that his intention in that undertaking was to be a pirate?”
Hewson. “No, my lord. He told me his business was to go cruising and surprise pirates.”
The Solicitor General. “Did he tell you he had no such design?”
Hewson. “Yes; he said he would be shot to death before he would do any such thing. He was very serviceable in the West Indies.”
On the same occasion Captain Bond swore that he knew that Kidd was very useful at the beginning of the war, and Captain Humphreys that he had known Kidd at the beginning of the late war, and that he had the applause of the General, as he could show by the General’s letter, a general applause of what he had done from time to time.