_And now, having discharged my Duty as a Christian, I must do my Office as a Judge, which is_
_You the said _Stede Bonnet_ shall go from hence, to the Place from whence you came, and from thence to the Place of Execution, where you shall be hanged by the Neck till you are dead._
We are now going to give an account of one whose name is better known in _England_, than most of those whose histories we have already related; the person we mean is Captain _Kid_, whose public Trial and Execution here, rendered him the subject of all conversation.
In the beginning of King _William's_ War, Captain _Kid_ commanded a Privateer in the _West-Indies_, and by several adventurous actions acquired the reputation of a brave man, as well as an experienced seaman. About this time the Pirates were very troublesome in those parts, wherefore Captain _Kid_ was recommended by the Lord _Bellamont_, then Governor of _Barbadoes_, as well as by several other persons, to the Government here, as a person very fit to be entrusted with the command of a Government Ship, and to be employed in cruising upon the Pirates, as knowing those Seas perfectly well, and being acquainted with their lurking places; but what reasons governed the politics of those times, I cannot tell, but this proposal met with no encouragement here, though it is certain it would have been of great consequence to the subject, our merchants suffering incredible damages by those robbers.
Upon this neglect the Lord _Bellamont_, and some others who knew what great captures had been made by the Pirates, and what a prodigious wealth must be in their possession, were tempted to fit out a ship at their own private charge, and to give the command of it to Captain _Kid_; and to give the thing a greater reputation, as well as to keep their seamen under the better command, they procured the King's Commission for the said Captain _Kid_.
Captain _Kid_ had also another Commission, which was called a Commission of Reprisals; for it being then War time, this Commission was to justify him in the taking of _French_ Merchant Ships, in case he should meet with any. He sail'd out of _Plymouth_ in _May_ 1696, in the _Adventure_ Galley of thirty guns, and eighty men; the place he first design'd for was _New York_; in his Voyage thither he took a French _Banker_, but this was no Act of Piracy, he having a Commission for that purpose, as we have just observed.
