Captain William Kidd declareth and saith That in his chest which he left at Gardiners Island there was three small baggs or more of Jasper Antonio or stone of Goa,[2] severall pieces of Silk stript with silver and gold, Cloth of Silver, about a Bushell of Cloves and Nutmegs mixed together and strawed up and down, severall books of fine white callicoes, severall pieces of fine Muzlins, severall pieces more of flowred silk, he does not well remmember what further was in it. he had an Invoyce thereof in his other chest. all that was contained in the said Chest was bought by him and some given him at Madagascar, nothing thereof was taken in the ship Quedah Merchant. he esteemed it to be of greater value than all else that he left at Gardiners Island except the gold and silver. there was neither gold or silver in the chest. It was fastned with a Padlock and nailed and corded about.
Further saith That he left at said Gardiners Island a bundle of nine or tenn fine India Quilts, some of them Silk with fringes and Tassells.
Wm. Kidd.
[1] Public Record Office, C.O. 5:860, no. 65 XIX. Enclosed in a letter of Bellomont to the Board of Trade, Aug. 28. There is a photographic facsimile of the original in R.D. Paine, The Book of Buried Treasure, at p. 85. Though this chest is mentioned in several of the Kidd documents, no account of its contents appears in the chief printed inventories, indeed I find no evidence that it was brought to Boston. The statement may have interest as showing kinds of goods then highly valued.
[2] A fever medicine, consisting of various drugs made up into a hard ball, lately invented in India by Gaspar Antonio, a lay brother of the Society of Jesus.
85. Lord Bellomont to the Board of Trade. November 29, 1699.[1]
Boston the 29 November 99.
My Lords
I gave your Lordships an account in my Letter of the 24th of last moneth[2] by the last ship that went hence for England, of my taking Joseph Bradish and Tee Wetherley, the two Pyrates that had escaped from the Goal of this town;[3] and I then also writ that I hoped in a little time to be able to send your Lordships the news of my taking James Gill[am] the Pyrat that killed Captain Edgecomb, Commander of the Mocha frigat for the East India Company,[4] and that with his own hand while the Captain was asleep, and Gillam is supposed to be the man that Incouraged the Ship's Company to turn Pyrats, and that ship has ever since been robbing in the Red Sea and Seas of India, and taken an Incredible deal of wealth; if one may believe the reports of men that are lately come from Madagascar, and that saw the Mocha frigat there, she has taken above two millions sterling. I have been so lucky as to take James Gillam, and he is now in Irons in the Goal of this town, and at the same time with him was sie[ze]d one Francis Dole,[5] in whose house he was harboured, who proves to be one of Hore's Crew, H[ore] one of Colonel Fletcher's Pyrates commissioned by him from New York; Dole is also committed to Goal. My taking of Gillam was so very accidentall that I cannot forbear giving your Lordships a narrative of it, and one would believe there was a strange fatality in that m[an's] Starrs. On Saturday the 11th Instant late in the evening I had a letter from Colonel Sanford,[6] Judge [of] the Admiralty Court in Rhode-Island, giving me an account that Gillam had been there, but was come towards Boston a fortnight before, in order to ship himselfe for some of the Islands, Jamaica or Barbados, that he was troubled he knew it not sooner, and was affraid his Intelligence would come too late to me; that the Messenger he sent knew the Mare Gillam rode on [to] this town. I was in despair of finding the man, because Colonel Sanford writ to me that he was g[one] to this town so long a time as a fortnight before that; however I sent for an honest Constable I had made use of in the apprehending of Kidd and his men, and sent him with Colonel Sanford's Messenger to examine and search all the Inns in Town for the mare, and at the first Inn they went to, they found her tied up in the yard; the people of the Inn reported that the man that brought her thither, had lighted off her about a quarter of an hour before, had there tied her, but went away without saying anything to anybody. Upon notice of this I gave order to the Master of the Inn that if any body came to look after the mare, he should be sure to seize and secure him, but no body came for her. The next morning which was Sunday I summoned [a] Council, and we published a Proclamation, wherein I promised a reward of 200[l.] for the seizing and securing Gillam, whereupon there was the strictest search [all that] day, and the next, that was ever made in this part of the world, but we had missed him, if I had not been Informed of one Captain Knot, as an old Pyrate and therefore likely [to k]now where Gillam was concealed.[7] I sent for Knot and examined him, promising h[im if h]e would make an Ingenious Confession, I would not molest or prosecute him; he seemed [mu]ch disturbed, but would not confesse anything to purpose. I then sent for his wife and examined her on oath apart from her husband, and she confessed that one who went by the [name] of James Kelly had lodged severall nights in her house, but for some nights past [lo]dged as she believed in Charlestown Crosse the River. I knew he went by the name of Kelly, [the]n I examined Captain Knot again, telling him his wife had been more free and ingenious [tha]n him, which made him believe she had told all; and then he told me of Francis Dole in Charlestown, and that he believed Gillam would be found there. I sent half a dousin men immediately over the water to Charlestown and Knot with them, they beset the house, and searched it but found not the man, Dole affirming with many protestations he was not there, neither knew [of] any such man. Two of the men went through a field behind Dole's house, and passing [thr]ough a second field they met a man in the dark (for it was ten a clock at night) whom they [seize]d at all adventures, and it happened as oddly as luckily to be Gillam, he had been treating [some] young women some few miles off in the Country, and was returning at night to his Landlord Dole's house, and so was met with. I examined him, but he denied everything, even that he came with Kidd from Madagascar, or ever saw him in his life; but Captain Davies,[8] who also came thence with Kidd, and all Kidd's men, are positive he is the man and that he went by his true name viz. Gillam, all the while he was on the voyage with them, and Mr. Campbel the Postmaster of this town (whom I sent to treat with Kidd) offers to swear this is the man he saw on [bo]ard Kidd's sloop under the name of James Gillam. He is the most impudent hardened V[illai]n I ever saw in my whole life. That which led me to an Inquiry and search after this man [was t]he Information of William Cuthbert on oath, which I sent your Lordships with my packet of the 26th of this last July,[9] wherein Cuthbert Informs that being lately in the East India Company's service [it w]as commonly reported there that Gillam had killed Captain Edgecomb with his own hand, that he had erved the Mogul, turned Mahometan and was Circumcised. I had him searched by a [su]rgeon and also by a Jew in this Town, to know if he were Circumcised, and they have both declared on oath that he is. Mr. Cutler the surgeon's[10] deposition goes (No. 1) and Mr. Frazon the Jew's (No. 2).[11] The rest of the Evidences about Gillam and some other Pyrates go numbered from 3 to 23 inclusive, which I recommend to your Lordships perusall, as what will inform you of the strange Countenance given to Pyrats by the Government and people of [Rhode]-Island. I have numbered the papers in order of time and according to their dates: most have reference to Gillam, some to Kidd. In searching the forementioned Captain Knot's house [12] The affidavit he made when I was at Rhode-Island goes numbered among the other evide[nce.] He then made oath that he had received nothing from Kidd's sloop when she lay at anchor by [torn] Island, yet by Knot's deposition your Lordships will find, he was sent with Mrs. Kidd's letter to Pa[in for] 24 ounces of gold, which Knot accordingly brought; and Mrs. Kidd's Injunction to Pain to keep a[ll the] rest that was left with him till further order, was a plain Indication that there was a good deal of [trea]sure still behind in Pain's Custody, therefore I posted away a messenger to Governor Crans[ton][13] and Colonel Sanford to make a strict search of Pain's house before he could have notice; it see[ms] nothing was then found, but Pain has since produced 18 ounces and odd weight of gold, as appears by Cranston's Letter of the 25th Instant and pretends it was bestowed on him by Kidd, hoping that may p[rove (?)] a salvo for the oath he made when I was in Rhode-Island, but I think it is plain he forswore himselfe then, and I am of opinion he has a great deal more of Kidd's gold still in his hands. [But] he is out of my power, and being in that Government I cannot compell him to deliver up th....
Your Lordships will find in Captain Coddington's narrative number 35[14] and sent with my Report dated the 27th Instant an Inventory of gold and Jew[els] in Governor Cranston's hands which he took from a Pyrat. I see no reason why he should keep them ... so far from that, that he (with submission) ought to be called to an account for Conniving at the Py[rats] making that Island their Sanctuary, and suffering some to escape from Justice. If there be an order sent to him to deliver what gold and jewels is contained in the said Inventory, and also the formentio[ned] parcel of gold which he received from Pain, with all other goods and treasure which he has at any time rec[eived] from Privateers or Pyrates, into my hands for the use of his Majesty, and that upon oath, I will [see] the order executed, and will give a faithfull account thereof according to the order I shall re[ceive].