John Gardiner.
The within named Narrator further saith That whilst Captain Kidd lay with his Sloop at Gardners Island, there was a New Yorke Sloop, whereof one Coster is Master, and his Mate was a little black man, unknown to the Narrator by name,[4] who, as it was said, had been formerly Captain Kidds Quarter Master, and another Sloop belonging to New-Yorke, Jacob Fenick[5] Master, both which lay near to Kidds Sloop three dayes together, and whilst the Narrator was on board with Captain Kidd, there was several Bayles of Goods and other things put out of the said Kidds Sloop and put on board the other two Sloops aforesaid, and the said two Sloops sayled up the Sound. After which Kidd sailed with his Sloop for Block Island, and being absent by the Space of three dayes returned to Gardners-Island again in company of another Sloop belonging to New-Yorke, Cornelius Quick Master, on board of which was one Thomas Clarke of Setauket, commonly called Whisking Clarke, and one Harrison of Jamaica, Father to a boy that was with Captain Kidd, and Captain Kidds Wife was then on board his own Sloop.[6] And Quick remained with his Sloop there from noon to the evening of the same day, and tooke on board two Chests that came out of the said Kidd's Sloop, under the observance of this Narrator, and he believes several Goods more, and then sailed up the Sound. Kidd remained there with his Sloop until next morning, and then set saile intending, as he said, for Boston. Further the Narrator saith That the next day after Quick sayled with his Sloop from Gardners Island, he saw him turning out of a Bay called Oyster-pan Bay,[7] although the wind was all the time fair to carry him up the Sound; the Narrator supposes he went in thither to land some Goods.
John Gardiner.
Boston, July 1699.
The Narrator, John Gardiner, made Oath before his Excellency and Council unto the truth of his Narrative contained in this Sheet of Paper.
Isa. Addington, Secretary.
[1] Public Record Office, C.O. 5:860, no. 64 XXI; Commons Journal, XIII. 30-31. John Gardiner (1661-1738), grandson of Lion Gardiner, was the third manorial proprietor of Gardiner's Island, an island lying three miles northward from Long Island, toward its eastern extremity and near the entrance to the Sound. The narrative was sent to the Board of Trade by Bellomont as an enclosure in no. 82.
[2] Damaged. Bengals were striped goods, partly silk. Kidd gave Mrs. Gardiner more than this. A pitcher and fragments of a piece of cloth of gold are still in the hands of different descendants of two of John Gardiner's wives. See article by John R. Totten in N.Y. Biog. Rec., L. 17-25. The story is told in Thompson's Long Island, p. 203, from a letter of a descendant writing more than a hundred years ago. "He [Kidd] wanted Mrs. Gardiner to roast him a pig; she being afraid to refuse him, roasted it very nice, and he was much pleased with it. He then made her a present of this cloth."
[3] Neither of these sailors was of the original crew. Hugh Parrott, of Plymouth, England, joined Kidd at Johanna, and was tried and condemned with him. His examination at Boston is in Commons Journal, XIII. 29.
[4] Carsten Luersen and Hendrick van der Heul.