d on a competence. No man knew the Eastern seas better. He
was perfectly acquainted with all the haunts of the pirates who prowled
between the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Malacca; and he would
undertake, if he were entrusted with a single ship of thirty or forty
guns, to clear the Indian Ocean of the whole race. The brigantines of
the rovers were numerous, no doubt; but none of them was large; one
man of war, which in the royal navy would hardly rank as a fourth rate,
would easily deal with them all in succession; and the lawful spoils of
the enemies of mankind would much more than defray the charges of the
expedition. Bellamont was charmed with this plan, and recommended it to
the King. The King referred it to the Admiralty. The Admiralty raised
difficulties, such as are perpetually raised by public boards when any
deviation, whether for the better or for the worse, from the established
course of proceeding is proposed. It then occurred to Bellamont that his
favourite scheme might be carried into effect without any cost to the
state. A few public spirited men might easily fit out a privateer which
would soon make the Arabian Gulph and the Bay of Bengal secure highways
for trade. He wrote to his friends in England imploring, remonstrating,
complaining of their lamentable want of public spirit. Six thousand
pounds would be enough. That sum would be repaid, and repaid with large
interest, from the sale of prizes; and an inestimable benefit would
be conferred on the kingdom and on the world. His urgency succeeded.
Shrewsbury and Romney contributed. Orford, though, as first Lord of the
Admiralty, he had been unwilling to send Kidd to the Indian ocean with a
king's ship, consented to subscribe a thousand pounds. Somers subscribed
another thousand. A ship called the Adventure Galley was equipped in the
port of London; and Kidd took the command. He carried with him, besides
the ordinary letters of marque, a commission under the Great Seal
empowering him to seize pirates, and to take them to some place where
they might be dealt with according to law. Whatever right the King
might have to the goods found in the possession of these malefactors he
granted, by letters patent, to the persons who had been at the expense
of fitting out the expedition, reserving to himself only one tenth part
of the gains of the adventure, which was to be paid into the treasury.
With the claim of merchants to have back the property of which they