It is impossible to follow Kidd’s career, and to study his trial, without coming to the conclusion that he deserved his fate.  There is no sign that he was sacrificed to political expediency.  Directly the House of Commons failed to bring home the responsibility for Kidd’s piracies to the leaders of the Whig party, he ceased to be of any importance for political purposes.  The charge of complicity with him was only one of ten charges against Orford, one of fourteen against Somers.  The court is said to have dealt hardly with him, but courts of justice were not very tender to any criminals in those days, and the jury did not hesitate to acquit three of those tried with him.  Criminals were not allowed the aid of counsel, except on a point of law.  Kidd did raise a legal point, and was allowed the aid of a counsel to argue it.  His intention was clear from the day he left New York.  The four pirates named in his commission were then on the American coast; he made no effort to look for them, but steered at once for the Cape.  If he could not control his crew, he could have invoked Warren’s help; instead of which he stole away in the night.  His threats to the Sidney at Johanna, his attack, after three weeks’ waiting, on the Mocha fleet, his detention of Parker, to say nothing of his dealings with Culliford, can only be interpreted in one way.  During his whole cruise he never put into Surat, Bombay, or Goa, but cruised like any other pirate.

The legend of his buried treasure has survived to our own day, owing to the fact that he had buried some of his booty before putting himself in Bellamont’s hands; but the record of his trial shows that, beyond what was obtained from the Quedah Merchant, his plunder consisted mostly of merchandise.  That some of his ill-gotten gains were recovered at the time seems clear from an Act of Parliament passed in 1705, enabling the Crown to “dispose of the effects of William Kidd, a notorious pirate, to the use of Greenwich Hospital”; which institution received accordingly 6472-1.

The scandal caused by Kidd’s piratical doings under a commission from the Crown, the political use made of it in Parliament, and the legend of a vast hoard of buried treasure, have conferred on him a celebrity not justified by his exploits.  As he appears in the Company’s records, he showed none of the picturesque daredevilry that distinguished many of the sea rovers whose names are less known.  No desperate adventure or hard-fought action stand to his credit.  Wherever we get a glimpse of his character it shows nothing but mean, calculating cunning; and to the end he posed as the simple, innocent man who was shamefully misjudged.  His crew were always discontented and ready to desert.  He had none of the lavish open-handedness that made the fraternity welcome in so many ports.  Every, Teach, England, and a dozen others in his place, would have thrown the commission to the winds, and sailed the seas under