The Lord Chief Baron. "Was that the reason that he struck Moore, because this ship was not taken?"
Parrott. "I shall tell you how this happened, to the best of my knowledge. My commander fortuned to come up with this Captain How's ship and some were for taking her, and some not. And afterwards there was a little sort of mutiny, and some rose in arms, the greater part; and they said they would take the ship. And the commander was not for it, and so they resolved to go away in the boat and take her. Captain Kidd said, 'If you desert my ship, you shall never come aboard again, and I will force you into Bombay, and I will carry you before some of the Council there.' Inasmuch that my commander stilled them again and they remained on board. And about a fortnight afterwards, there passed some words between this William Moore and my commander, and then, says he (Moore), 'Captain, I could have put you in a way to have taken this ship and been never the worse for it.' He says, (Kidd), 'Would you have had me take this ship? I cannot answer it. They are our friends,' and with that I went off the deck, and I understood afterwards the blow was given, but how I cannot tell."
Kidd. "I have no more to say, but I had all the provocation in the world given me. I had no design to kill him. I had no malice or spleen against him."
The Lord Chief Baron. "That must be left to the jury to consider the evidence that has been given. You make out no such matter."
Kidd. "It was not designedly done, but in my passion, for which I am heartily sorry."
Kidd was permitted to introduce no evidence as to his previous good reputation, and the Court concluded that it had heard enough. Lord Chief Baron Ward thereupon delivered himself of an exceedingly adverse charge to the jury, virtually instructing them to find the prisoner guilty of murder, which was promptly done. Having made sure of sending him to Execution Dock, the Court then proceeded to try him for piracy, which seems to have been a superfluous and unnecessary pother. Kidd declared, when this second trial began:
"It is vain to ask any questions. It is hard that the life of one of the King's subjects should be taken away upon the perjured oaths of such villains as these (Bradingham and Palmer). Because I would not yield to their wishes and turn pirate, they now endeavor to prove I was one. Bradingham is saving his life to take away mine."
The Crown proved the capture of the two ships belonging to the Great Mogul, and an East Indian merchant, representing the merchants, testified as to the value of the lading and the regularity of the ship's papers. Kidd challenged this evidence, and once more pleaded with the Court that he be allowed to bring forward the French passes. He asserted that the Quedah Merchant had a French Commission, and that her master was a tavern keeper of Surat. That he told the truth, the accompanying photograph of the said document bears belated witness. The Lord Chief Baron put his finger on the weak point of the case by asking to know why Kidd had not taken the ship to port to be lawfully condemned as a prize, as demanded by the terms of his commission from the King. To this Kidd replied that his crew were mutinous, and the Adventure Galley unseaworthy, for which reasons he made for the nearest harbor of Madagascar. There his men, to the number of ninety odd, mutinied and went over to the pirate Culliford in the Mocha Frigate. He was left short-handed, his own ship was unfit to take to sea, so he burned her, and transferred to the Quedah Merchant, after which he steered straight for Boston to deliver her prize to Lord Bellomont, which he would have done had he not learned in the West Indies that he had been proclaimed a pirate.
Edward Davis, mariner, confirmed the statement regarding the French passes, in these words:
"I came home a passenger from Madagascar and from thence to Amboyna, and there he (Kidd) sent his boat ashore, and there was one that said Captain Kidd was published a pirate in England, and Captain Kidd gave those passes to him to read. The Captain said they were French passes."