h tar and hung in chains, was gibbeted on the
shore of the reach of the Thames hard by Tilbury Fort, as was the
customary manner of displaying dead pirates by way of warning to
passing seamen. His treasure was confiscated by the Crown, and what
was left of it, after the array of legal gentlemen had been paid their
fees, was turned over to Greenwich Hospital by act of Parliament.

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[Illustration: Kidd hanging in chains. (_From The Pirates' Own Book_.)]

"The Pirates' Stairs" leading to the site of Execution Dock at Wapping
where Kidd was hanged. The old stone steps are visible beneath the
modern iron bridge.

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Thus lived and died a man, who, whatever may have been his faults, was
unfairly dealt with by his patrons, misused by his rascally crew, and
slandered by credulous posterity.

[1] History of England.

[2] Published in 1701.

[3] Macauley.

[4] "From hence putting off to the West Indies, wee were not many dayes
at sea, but there beganne among our people such mortalitie as in fewe
days there were dead above two or three hundred men. And until some
seven or eight dayes after our coming from S. Iago, there had not died
any one man of sickness in all the fleete; the sickness shewed not his
infection wherewith so many were stroken until we were departed thence,
and then seazed our people with extreme hot burning and continuall
agues, whereof very fewe escaped with life, and yet those for the most
part not without great alteration and decay of their wittes and
strength for a long time after."--Hakluyt's Voyages.--(A Summarie and
True Discourse of Sir Francis Drake's West Indian voyage begun in the
Year 1585.)

[5] The _Quedah Merchant_.

[6] The _Quedah Merchant_.

CHAPTER V

THE WONDROUS FORTUNE OF WILLIAM PHIPS

The flaw in the business of treasure hunting, outside of fiction, is
that the persons equipped with the shovels and picks and the ancient
charts so seldom find the hidden gold. The energy, credulity, and
persistence of these explorers are truly admirable but the results have
been singularly shy of dividends the world over. There is genuine
satisfaction, therefore, in sounding the name and fame of the man who
not only went roving in search of lost treasure but also found and
fetched home more of it than any other adventurer known to this ki