the delivery up to him of all the prisoners surrendered by the Indians. Husbands went hundreds of miles, in hopes of finding lost wives or children. The collection amounted to several hundred; and the sight of seeing husbands and wives, rushing into each other's arms, and children claimed by their parents, made the joy of all such, extreme! There was also the mourning of others, who hoped to find relatives; but neither finding nor hearing of them, made much lamentation. There were also Indians, who had adopted all those persons, and loved them as their children or relatives, and having then to give them up, showed great signs of distress. Some young Indians had become passionately fond of some young women, and some few women had formed attachments for them. The Indians loaded their friends at their departure with their richest gifts; thus proving they had hearts of tenderness, even to prisoners.

THE PIRATES.

-A bucaniering race

The dregs and feculence of every land.

THE story of the pirates had been, in early times, one of deep interest and stirring wonder to our forefathers; so much so, that the echo of their recitals, far as we have been long since removed from their fears, have not yet ceased to vibrate upon our ears. Who among us of goodly years but has heard something of the names

and-piracies of Kid and Blackbeard! They have indeed much of the mist of antiquity about them; for none remember the original tales truly, and all have ceased to read, for none know where to find, the book of "the History of the Pirates," as published by William Bradford, in New York, in 1724. That book I have never been able to procure, although I have some conception of it and its terrifying pictures, as once seen and read by my mother when a child. It had every character of the marvellous, surely, when it contained notices of the lives of two females pirates-even of Mary Reed and Anne Bonny!

CAPTAIN KID.

Captain Kid (Robert) used to be the earliest name of terror along our coast, although I believe he never committed any excesses near our borders, or on our vessels; but partisans in his name were often named and dreaded. What countryman he was does not appear, but his residence appears to have been in New York before his piracies were known, where he had a wife and child. He most probably had been a successful privateersman, possessing then the friendship of Governor Fletcher, Mr. Nicolls, and Col. Robert Livingston; the latter of whom recommended him to the crown 66 as a bold and honest man to suppress the prevailing piracies in the American seas. It appears on record, at New York, as early as March 1691, that Captain Kid then reclaimed a pressed seaman; and on the 17th of August, of the same year, he is recorded as bringing in his prize and paying the king his tenth, and the governor his fifteenth, of course showing he was once every way a legalised

man among them. His being called "bold," probably arose from numerous acts of successful daring which made his name renowned while on the side of the law, and equally a subject of terror when openly acknowledged a pirate. It appears from a pamphlet of facts in the case, set forth by the friends of the Earl of Bellomont about the year 1702, that Col. Robert Livingston and Captain Kid being both in London in 1694, the former recommended him to the crown officers, and also became his security, by whom he received command of the Adventure galley, and sailed from Plymouth in February, 1695. He came out direct to New York,* thence went to Madeira, Madagascar, and the Red sea. In the latter he began his piracies, capturing several vessels, and finally the Quedah Merchant, of 400 tons; with her he came back to the West Indies, where leaving her in charge of one Bolton, he came in a sloopt to Long Island sound, and made many deposits on shore. While in the sound he sent one Emmet to the Earl of Bellomont, then transferred from the government at New York to that at Boston, to negotiate terms of reconciliation. The governor assured him of fair treatment, in such terms of equivocacy as ensnared him so far that he landed the first of June, 1699, was then arrested and sent home to England for trial. Finally, he was executed at Execution Dock, the 23d of March,

*The Modern Universal History (edition, 1763,) says he left off cruising along New York and New England, because of non

success.

+ The word sloop often meant a war vessel, without reference to the manner of her rigging.

L

1704, and so gave rise to the once notable" song of Captain Kid." Col. Livingston again attempted to befriend him after his arrest at Boston, by offering some suggestions for his relief. He was one fifth owner of his original enterprise, in concert with some noblemen in England. The whole was an unofficial adventure of crown officers, possessing, however, the sanction though not the commission of the king. The expedition itself being thus of an anomalous character, excited considerable political enquiry in England, and finally became, after Kid's death, the subject of parliamentary investigation. The particulars more at large have been preserved by me in my MS. book of Historical Collections, given to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Smith's History of New York has some few facts concerning him; see 4to edition, p. 91. A writer at Albany, in modern times, says they had the tradition that Kid once visited Coeymans and Albany; and at a place two miles from the latter it was said he deposited money and treasure in the earth. Two families, now of wealth and respectability, of New York, have been named to me as original settlers at Oyster Bay on Long Island, who became suddenly enriched by their connection with Kid's piracies. The story was, that they deserted from his sloop above mentioned, in the sound, after seeing the treasure deposited; that the chief was arrested, and the expedition destroyed, and they profited by the exclusive gain.

Many incidental facts of that day show that the pirates often had their friends and accomplices on shore, acting not unlike the armed vessels off our coasts in the time

of the French revolution, all of whom seemed to have accurate knowledge of fit prizes to sail, or expected to arrive. The very circumstance of Kid's having a family in New York inferred his family alliances, and perhaps, if we knew all things, we might see, even now, some of his wealthy descendants.

A letter from Jonathan Dickinson, then at Port Royal, dated the 5th of 4mo. 1699, to his wife then in Philadelphia, says, "Many pirates are, and have been upon the coast. About two days since came news of Captain Kid's being upon our coast; being come from the East Indies with a great booty, but wants provisions. He is in a ship which he took from the natives of those parts, having thirty-odd guns, with twenty-five white men and thirty negroes. There is gone hence, two days since, Ephraim Pilkerton in a sloop well manned to go and take him." Probably the reason of so few men on board the "Quedah" was, that Kid himself was absent in the sloop before mentioned.

An original letter, which I have seen, from John Askew in London, dated 22d of 3 mo. 1701, to Jonathan Dickinson, contains a post scriptum intimating the finale of this bold sea-rover-saying, "Captain Kid, with some other pirates are to execute to-morrow at Execution Dock, in Wapping-Kid, to be gibbetted at Tillberry Fort, Gravesend."

As a sequel to the whole, came out the ballad song of Captain Kid, a great rarity in the present day, although the pensive tones are still known to some, and have been latterly revived in much bad taste among the eccentric camp-meeting hymns; singing, "Farewell ye