Robert Harley [?]. May 12, 1701._[1]

[Footnote 1: From the manuscripts of the Duke of Portland at Welbeck
Abbey. See doc. no. 87, and notes. The trials had taken place on May 8
and 9, and Kidd was now under sentence. He was hanged at Wapping on
the shore of the Thames, May 23, 1701. The precept, or order for his
execution, at Wapping "infra fluxum et refluxum maris" (_i.e._,
between high-water and low-water mark, according to admiralty custom),
is quoted in Marsden, _Law and Custom of the Sea_ (Navy Records
Society), II. 263.]

_S'r_

The Sence of my present Condition (being under Condemnation) and the
thoughts of haveing bene imposed on by such as seek't my destruction
therby to fulfill their ambitious desieres makes me uncapable of
Expressing my selfe in those terms as I ought, therefore doe most
humbly pray that you will be pleased to represent to the Hon'bl.
house of Commons that in my late proceedings in the Indies I have
Lodged goods and Tresure to the value of one hundred thousand
pounds[2] which I desiere the Government may have the benefitt of, in
order thereto I shall desiere no manner of liberty but to be kept
prisonner on board such shipp as may be appointed for that purpose,
and only give the necessary directions, and in case I faile therein I
desiere no favour but to be forthwith Executed acording to my
Sentance. if y'r honbl. house will please to order a Committee to come
to me I doubt not but to give such satisfaction as may obtaine mercy,
most Humbly submitting to the wisdom of your great assembly I am

S'r Y'r Unfortunate humble servant

WM. KIDD

NEW GATE
12th May 1701

[Footnote 2: His first figure, as quoted by Bellomont in doc. no. 77,
was L30,000.]

_89. Captain Kid's Farewel to the Seas; or, the Famous Pirate's
Lament. 1701._[1]

[Footnote 1: Of this ballad, contemporary with Kidd's execution, there
is a unique copy in the famous collection of pamphlets belonging to
the Earl of Crawford, from which it is reprinted in Professor Firth's
_Naval Songs and Ballads_, pp. 134-37, published by the Navy Records
Society. By oral transmission it had wide currency in New England.
There are bits of it in Palfrey, _New England_, IV. 185, and in
Watson's _Annals of Philadelphia_, ed. 1830, p. 464; and the editor
remembers hearing his Salem grandmother sing parts of it. Professor
George L. Kittredge says that the Harvard College Library has a
broadside of this American version, printed in Bost