In old times, just after the territory of the New Netherlands had been wrested¹ from the hands of their High Mightinesses, the Lords States General of Holland, by Charles the Second, and while it was as yet in an unquiet state, the province was a favorite resort of adventurers of all kinds, and particularly of buccaneers. These were piratical rovers of the deep, who made sad work in times of peace among the Spanish settlements and Spanish merchant ships. They took advantage of the easy access to the harbor of the Manhattoes, and of the laxity of its scarcely-organized government, to make it a kind of rendezvous², where they might dispose of their ill-gotten spoils, and concert new depredations³. Crews of these desperadoes, the runagates of every country and clime, might be seen swaggering, in open day, about the streets of the little burgh; elbowing its quiet Mynheers; trafficking away their rich outlandish plunder⁴, at half price, to the wary⁵ merchant, and then squandering⁶ their gains in taverns⁷; drinking, gambling⁸, singing, swearing, shouting, and astounding⁹ the neighborhood with sudden brawl¹⁰ and ruffian revelry.  
At length the indignation of government was aroused, and it was determined¹¹ to ferret out this vermin brood from, the colonies. Great consternation¹² took place among the pirates on finding justice in pursuit of them, and their old haunts turned to places of peril¹³. They secreted¹⁴ their money and jewels in lonely out-of-the-way places; buried them about the wild shores of the rivers and sea-coast, and dispersed¹⁵ themselves over the face of the country.
 
Among the agents employed to hunt them by sea was the renowned¹⁶ Captain Kidd. He had long been a hardy¹⁷ adventurer, a kind of equivocal borderer, half trader, half smuggler¹⁸, with a tolerable dash of the pickaroon. He had traded for some time among the pirates, lurking¹⁹ about the seas in a little rakish, musquito-built vessel²⁰, prying²¹ into all kinds of odd places, as busy as a Mother Carey’s chicken in a gale²² of wind.
 
This nondescript personage was pitched upon by government as the very man to command a vessel fitted out to cruise against the pirates, since he knew all their haunts and lurking-places: acting²³ upon the shrewd old maxim²⁴ of “setting a rogue²⁵ to catch a rogue.” Kidd accordingly sailed from New York in the Adventure galley²⁶, gallantly²⁷ armed and duly commissioned, and steered²⁸ his course to the Madeiras, to Bonavista, to Madagascar, and cruised at the entrance of the Red Sea. Instead, however, of making war upon the pirates, he turned pirate himself: captured friend or foe²⁹; enriched himself with the spoils of a wealthy Indiaman, manned by Moors³⁰, though commanded by an Englishman, and having disposed of his prize, had the hardihood to return to Boston, laden³¹ with wealth, with a crew of his comrades at his heels.
 
His fame had preceded him. The alarm was given of the reappearance of this cut-purse of the ocean. Measures were taken for his arrest; but he had time, it is said, to bury the greater part of his treasures. He even attempted to draw his sword and defend himself when arrested; but was secured and thrown into prison, with several of his followers³². They were carried to England in a frigate³³, where they were tried, condemned³⁴, and hanged at Execution Dock. Kidd died hard, for the rope with which he was first tied up broke with his weight, and he tumbled to the ground; he was tied up a second time, and effectually; from whence arose the story of his having been twice hanged.
 
Such is the main outline of Kidd’s history; but it has given birth to an innumerable progeny³⁵ of traditions. The circumstance of his having buried great treasures of gold and jewels after returning from his cruising set the brains of all the good people along the coast in a ferment³⁶. There were rumors³⁷ on rumors of great sums found here and there; sometimes in one part of the country, sometimes in another; of trees and rocks bearing mysterious marks; doubtless indicating the spots where treasure lay hidden; of coins found with

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