o gave him an
extraordinary character, and declared to the court that he had served
under his command, and been in two engagements with him against the
French, in which he fought as well as any man he ever saw; that there
were only Kid's ship and his own against Monsieur du Cass, who commanded
a squadron of six sail, and they got the better of him. But this being
several years before the facts mentioned in the indictment were
committed, proved of no manner of service to the prisoner on his trial.

As to the friendship shown to Culliford, a notorious pirate, Kid denied,
and said he intended to have taken him, but his men, being a parcel of
rogues and villains, refused to stand by him, and several of them ran
away from his ship to the said pirate. But the evidence being full and
particular against him, he was found guilty as before mentioned.

When Kid was asked what he had to say why sentence should not pass
against him, he answered that "he had nothing to say, but that he had
been sworn against by perjured, wicked people." And when sentence was
pronounced, he said, "My lord, it is a very hard sentence. For my part I
am the innocentest person of them all, only I have been sworn against by
perjured persons."

Wherefore, about a week after, Captain Kid, Nicholas Churchill, James
How, Gabriel Loff, Hugh Parrot, Abel Owen, and Darby Mullins, were
executed at Execution Dock, and afterwards hung up in chains, at some
distance from each other down the river, where their bodies hung exposed
for many years.

III

CAPTAIN BARTHOLOMEW ROBERTS AND HIS CREW

Bartholomew Roberts sailed in an honest employ from London, aboard of
the _Princess_, Captain Plumb, commander, of which ship he was second
mate. He left England November, 1719, and arrived at Guinea about
February following and being at Anamaboe, taking in slaves for the West
Indies, was taken in the said ship by Captain Howel Davis. In the
beginning he was very averse to this sort of life, and would certainly
have escaped from them had a fair opportunity presented itself; yet
afterwards he changed his principles, as many besides him have done upon
another element, and perhaps for the same reason too, viz., preferment;
and what he did not like as a private man he could reconcile to his
conscience as a commander.

Davis having been killed in the Island of Princes whilst planning to
capture it with all its inhabitants, the company found themselves under
the necessity of