“I tried to keep the dollars, but they were too heavy—they weighted me down, and I very soon dropped them, consoling myself with the recollection that the robbers never would get them again. I floated half a dozen miles down the stream, saw a house, and went ashore. Next day a flat-boat came along with one hand short, and I shipped on her to New Orleans. After that I had two or three fights with the river pirates, but they never bothered me much.”
LXI.
BURIED TREASURES.
CAPTAIN KIDD.—HIS HISTORY.—HOW HE MADE HIS FORTUNE.—HIS MELANCHOLY FATE.—JOINT STOCK IN THE ADVENTURE GALLEY.—SEARCHING FOR TREASURES.—STORIES OF THE SEA-COAST.—TRADITIONS.—ADVENTURES OF A TREASURE-HUNTER.—BILL SANBORN, AND WHAT HE DID.—JIM FOLLETT’S DOG.—A PRACTICAL JOKER.—A MESSAGE FROM THE SANDS OF THE SEA.—BILL SANBORN’S DREAM.—FINDING THE CHEST.—A SUPERNATURAL VISITOR.
A nautical ballad, with which many persons are familiar, narrates the adventures of the celebrated Captain Kidd. It is composed in the autobiographical form, and its first line runs as follows:—
“My name was Robert Kidd, as I sailed, as I sailed.”
THE STORY OF CAPTAIN KIDD.
Evidently the distinguished pirate travelled, like many other robbers, under an alias; and it is interesting to know that his name was Robert Kidd as he sailed, for he certainly was not Robert, but William, Kidd when on shore and away from his marine wanderings. It is to be noted that he draws particular attention to his alias, by repeating the words as I sailed; obviously wishing to state his case plainly, and guard against any imputation that he called himself Robert when on shore, or when his ship was at anchor or becalmed. It must have been very inconvenient for the man of tender conscience to change his name from William to Robert whenever his ship was in motion, and from Robert to William again when from any cause she stopped. It made things lively for him if he ever got into one of those peculiar squalls of the Mozambique Channel, where for two or three days you have a puff of wind one minute and a dead calm the next, so that your sails are alternately filling and flapping, and flapping and filling, about as fast as you can count. But, throwing speculation aside, it is sufficient to say that William Kidd was born about the middle of the seventeenth century, and followed the seas from his youth. About 1695 he was known as one of the boldest ship-masters sailing out of New York, and he became so famous that he attracted the favorable attention of the colonial government.