At ten o’clock the next morning the governor’s privy-council was assembled. The members of the board were seated along both sides of a huge mahogany table, carved around the edges in the old Dutch style. Governor Bellamont sat at one end of the table; on his right hand was Colonel De Peyster, then accorded by everyone the handsomest man in the province. At the end opposite to Nicholas Bayard sat the patroon. He was quiet in his manner and evidently much dejected over the miscarriage of his plan, though, as yet, he could have had no idea as to how it had gone wrong. When the soldiers arrested Bradford, they found him alone, busily engaged in setting up type with which to print the patroon’s paper. By the time the arrest was made, Louis Van Ramm had evidently returned to the manor-house to inform his chief that all the arrangements necessary to the plan had been successfully made. The patroon therefore, on his arrival in the town, must have expected to see his posters placed conspicuously in many public places. He found instead, only the locked door of the printing office and no posters. Immediately after this disappointment he presented himself at the council table in the fort.
145The Earl of Bellamont informed the members of his privy-council that he had summoned them thus hurriedly in order to communicate to them some important information. Then, drawing towards him a bundle of papers which lay close at hand, he addressed his advisors in these words:
“Gentlemen and Friends: Shortly after his most gracious majesty was pleased to appoint me to the governorship of this province, he called me to a private interview, in which he spoke of certain affairs in New York. He spoke in these words, as nearly as I could remember them when I wrote down the substance of our conversation shortly after our interview.
“‘The buccaneers,’ said his majesty, ‘have so increased in the East and West Indies, and all along the American coast, that they defiantly sail under their own flag. They penetrate the rivers; land in numbers sufficient to capture cities, robbing palaces and cathedrals, and extorting enormous ransom. Their suppression is vital to commerce. They have possessed themselves of magnificent retreats, in Madagascar and other islands of the Pacific ocean. They have established their seraglios, and are living in fabulous splendor and luxury. Piratic expeditions are fitted out from the colonies of New England and Virginia; and even the Quakers of Pennsylvania afford a market for their robberies. These successful free-booters are making their homes in the Carolinas, in Rhode Island, and along 146the south shore of Long Island, where they and their children take positions among the most respectable in the community.
“‘The buccaneers are so audacious that they seek no concealment. Their ships are laden with the spoils of all nations. The richest prizes that can now be taken upon the high seas are the heavily laden ships of the buccaneers. I have resolved, with the aid of others, to fit out a private expedition against them. We have formed a company for the purpose. By attacking the pirates we shall accomplish a double object. We shall, in the first place, check their devastating operations, and we shall also fill our purses with the proceeds of the abundant spoil with which their ships are laden.’”
The Earl laid down the paper from which he had been reading, and, looking directly at Mr. Livingston, who was on his left, bowed. “My trusted friend and councillor, who was in London at the time of my interview with our gracious majesty, was able to recommend to our notice a mariner upon whom we could confidently confer the responsible task of commanding this expedition. You all know him, gentlemen. I refer to the estimable William Kidd, of this city, whose house on Liberty Street we all remember because of the noble tree growing beside the stoop. It was planted to commemorate the arrival of Governor Petrus Stuyvesant, rest his soul, for he was a gallant gentleman and a valiant warrior. In Captain Kidd’s hands, with the consent 147of the Lord Chancellor and the Duke of Shrewsbury, together with the approval of the King, we have placed our frigate, the Adventure.
“Now, gentlemen,” continued the Earl, at the same time taking up another paper from the table. “You are aware of the steps I have already taken to diminish the practice of buccaneering in New York. It behooves me to make you acquainted forthwith with the commission the King has granted to Captain Kidd.”
Bellamont unfolded the paper in his hand and began to read in a loud, steady voice the King’s commission.
“‘William the Third, by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, to our true and well-beloved Captain William Kidd, commander of the Adventure. Whereas, divers wicked persons commit many and great piracies, robberies and depredations on the seas, upon the coasts of America, and other parts, to the hindrance of trade and the danger of our subjects, we have thought fit to give to the said William Kidd full authority to seize all such pirates upon the seas, whether our subjects or the subjects of other nations, with their ships and all merchandise or money which shall be found on board, if they willingly yield themselves. But if they will not yield themselves without fighting, then you are, by force, to compel them to yield. We do also require you to bring, or cause to be brought, such pirates, free-booters, or sea rovers, 148as you shall seize, to a legal trial, to the end they may be proceeded against according to the law in such cases.
“‘We enjoin you to keep an exact journal of your proceedings, giving the names of the ships you may capture, the names of their officers and crew, and the value of their cargoes, and stores. And we command you at your peril, that you do not molest our friends or allies under any pretense of authority hereby granted. Given the 26th of January, 169—.’”[A]
A. For the text of Governor Bellamont’s conversation with the King, and of the commission granted to Captain Kidd, the author is indebted to Mr. Abbot’s life of William Kidd.
In the discussion of the King’s plan which followed the reading of it, every gentleman present, with the one exception of Van Volkenberg, expressed his unqualified approval of what had been done. The patroon, however, sat silent and moody. He was unable to imagine why the Earl had chosen this time to explain in detail a plan that he had heretofore guarded with the utmost secrecy.
“I am glad of your approbation,” said the Earl. “I could expect no other reception of this frank expression (touching the King’s commission with his forefinger) of the honor and candor of our gracious sovereign and of his confidential advisers. Yet it appears that our colleague, Patroon Van Volkenberg, has not yet expressed his satisfaction in words.”
[Footnote A: For the text of Governor Bellamont’s conversation with the King, and of the commission granted to Captain Ki............