of Commons that in my late proceedings in the Indies I have Lodged goods and Tresure to the value of one hundred thousand pounds 2 which I desiere the Government may have the benefitt of, in order thereto I shall desiere no manner of liberty but to be kept prisonner on board such shipp as may be appointed for that purpose, and only give the necessary directions, and in case I faile therein I desiere no favour but to be forthwith Executed acording to my Sentance. if y'r honbl. house will please to order a Committee to come to me I doubt not but to give such satisfaction as may obtaine mercy, most Humbly submitting to the wisdom of your great assembly I am S'r Y'r Unfortunate humble servant WM. KIDD NEW GATE 12th May 1701 89. Captain Kid's Farewel to the Seas; or, the Famous Pirate's Lament. 1701.1 To the Tune of Coming down. My name is Captain Kid, who has sail' [who has sail'd], My name is Captain Kid, who has sail'd; My name is Captain Kid. What the laws did still forbid Unluckily I did while I sail'd [while I sailed, etc.]. "His first figure, as quoted by Bellomont in doc. no. 77, was £30,000. 'Of this ballad, contemporary with Kidd's execution, there is a unique copy in the famous collection of pamphlets belonging to the Earl of Crawford, from which it is reprinted in Professor Firth's Naval Songs and Ballads, pp 134-37, published by the Navy Records Society. By oral transmission it had wide currency in New England. There are bits of it in Palfrey, New England, IV. 185, and in Watson's Annals of Philadelphia, ed. 1830, p. 464; and the editor remembers hearing his Salem grandmother sing parts of it. Professor George L. Kittredge says that the Harvard College Library has a broadside of this American version, printed in Boston about 1810-1820, which, with some differences in the order of stanzas, is printed in Dr. E. E. Hale's New England History in Ballads, pp. 40-46. The original version, which we print, purports to be written between sentence and execution, May 9-23, 1701, and follows closely the chief incidents brought out in the trials, and in the documents which precede. 2 Upon the ocean wide, when I sail'd, etc., Upon the ocean wide, when I sail'd, I robbed on every side, With most ambitious pride, when I sail'd. My faults I will display while I sail'd, etc., My faults I will display, Committed day by day [A line lost.] Many long leagues from shore when I sail'd, etc., I murdered William More, And laid him in his gore, when I sail'd, Because a word he spoke when I sail'd, etc., I with a bucket broke His scull at one sad stroke, while I sail'd.' I struck with a good will when I sail'd, etc., I struck with a good will when I sail'd; I struck with a good will, And did a gunner kill As being cruel still when I sail'd. A Quida merchant' then while I sail'd, etc., A Quida merchant then while I sail'd, A Quida merchant then I robbed of hundreds ten, Assisted by my men, while I sailed. * See doc. no. 87, note 3. Captain Kidd, says the record of the trial (State Trials, V. 290), called Moore "a lousy dog". "Says William Moore, 'If I am a lousy dog, you have made me so; you have brought me to ruin, and many more'. Upon his saying this, says Captain Kid, 'Have I ruined you, ye dog?' and took a bucket bound with iron hoops and struck him on the right side of the head, of which he died next day." * See document 76, note 9. A banker's ship of France, while I sailed, etc., A banker's ship of France Before us did advance: I seized her by chance, while I sailed. Full fourteen ships I see when I sailed, etc., Full fourteen ships I see when I sailed; Merchants of high degree; They were too hard for me when I sailed." We steered from sound to sound while we sailed, A Moorish ship we found; Her men we stript and bound while we sailed. Upon the ocean seas while we sailed, etc., A warlike Portuguese In sport did us displease, while we sailed. At famous Malabar when we sailed, etc., At famous Malabar when we sailed, At famous Malabar We went ashore, each tar, And robbed the natives there, when we sailed. Then after this we chased, while we sailed, Then after this we chased A rich Armenian, graced With wealth, which we embraced, while we sailed. Many Moorish ships we took while we sailed, We did still for plunder look; All conscience we forsook while we sailed. I.e., a French fishing ship, bound to the banks of Newfoundland. See the second paragraph of doc. no. 76, Kidd's statement. The reference is to Kidd's projected, but abandoned, attack on the "Mocha fleet" at Babs Key, near the mouth of the Red Sea. I, Captain Cullifoord, while I sailed, etc., I, Captain Cullifoord, while I sailed, Did many merchants board, Which did much wealth afford, while we sailed. Two hundred bars of gold, while we sail'd, etc., And rix dollars manifold We seized uncontrolled, while we sailed. St. John, a ship of fame," when we sailed, etc., We plundered when she came, With more that I could name, when we sailed. We taken was at last, and must die, etc., We taken was at last, and must die; We taken were at last, And into prison cast: Now, sentence being past, we must die. Tho' we have reigned awhile we must die, etc., Tho' we have reigned awhile we must die; Tho' we have reigned awhile, While fortune seemed to smile, Now on the British Isle we must die. Farewel the ocean main, we must die, etc., Farewel the ocean main, we must die; Farewel the ocean main: The coast of France or Spain We ne'er shall see again; we must die. From Newgate now in carts we must go, etc., [From Newgate now in carts we must goe;] From Newgate now in carts, To have our due deserts we must go. 'This ship I do not identify; the name is perhaps due to misunderstanding of a passage in the trials. Some thousands they will flock when we die, Some thousands they will flock To Execution Dock, Where we must stand the shock and must die. THE FIDELIA. 90. Examination of William Sims. October 22, 1699.1 Suffolk SS. BOSTON, October 22, 1699 nine a clock at night: The Examination of William Syms of Boston, Marriner, Master of the Ship Fidelia, as followeth, Vizt. The Examinant saith That sometime in the month of August last past, he being at Crabb Island in the West Indies, where was lying the sd Ship Fidelia, one Tempest Rogers then Master of her,2 of whome this Examinant and John Brett of Antigua Merchant (then at the aforesd Island) bought the sd Ship, and the Examinant was Ships' 'Suffolk Court Files, Boston, no. 4682, paper 3. The case is not precisely one of piracy, though piracy was at first suspected, but rather of the receipt of piratical goods. Bellomont writes to the Board of Trade, Oct. 24, 1699 (Cal. St. P. Col., 1699, p. 486), that he had lately seized at Boston a ship and some East India goods; that the officers of the custom house were not nimble enough or they had got all the goods, worth above £2000; that that which first gave him a "jealousy" of the ship was the fact that the master, William Sims, a man formerly burnt in the hand for stealing, had gone forth a poor man and come back master and half owner of a ship. The ship was seized, condemned, and sold for the crown, and Sims committed to jail. He had sailed as master of a sloop to Curaçao, and thence to Crab Island (Vieques, see doc. no. 72, note 5). Ibid., 499. Bellomont suspected that what he found there in August had been derived from Kidd in May. She had cleared from London in November, 1697, for Madagascar (testimony of Edward Davis, her boatswain, who on arrival there in July, 1698, joined himself to Kidd, and came home with him, Commons Journal, XIII. 28). After selling the Fidelia and her goods, alleged to be largely Kidd's, Capt. Tempest Rogers settled at St. Thomas, where, says Richard Oglethorp (Cal. St. P. Col., 1706-1708, p. 24), "any piratt for a smale matter of money may bee naterlized Deane"; there he became "a sworn Deane", removed to St. Eustatius (Dutch), engaged in the contraband trade which these neutral islands maintained during the war between Great Britain and France, and finally died among the French-ubi bene, ibi patria. |