the red flag.  Kidd’s ruling idea appears to have been that he could hoodwink the world as to his doings under cover of his commission:  so that when he heard of the charges against him he believed he could disarm his accusers by sheer impudence.  At his trial he attempted to lay all the blame on his crew, and vowed he was ‘the innocentest person of them all,’ and all the witnesses were perjured.  Whatever touch of misdirected heroism was to be found in any pirate, it was certainly not to be found in Kidd.  He was altogether a contemptible rascal, and had no claims to be a popular hero.

Though Littleton’s squadron captured no pirate ships, its presence till the autumn of 1700 had a salutary effect.[4] Some made their submission, and the number who continued to ply their trade was greatly reduced.  Many of them were glad to leave a calling that had now become hazardous, in which they had been unwillingly forced to join, while the renewal of the war in Europe furnished a more legitimate outlet for the most turbulent spirits, in the shape of privateering.

North, after making his submission to Littleton, thought better of it, seeing the date of grace had expired, and refused to leave Madagascar.  There he remained for several years, fighting and subduing the natives round St. Mary’s, till he was finally killed by them.  His comrades ‘continued the war’ for seven years till they had completely subdued the country round.

On the 18th December, 1699, the Loyal Merchant, Captain Lowth, East Indiaman, lying in Table Bay, saw a small vessel of sixty tons enter the harbour under English colours.  This proved to be the Margaret of New York.  Lowth’s suspicions being awakened, he sent for the captain and some of the crew, who ‘confessed the whole matter,’ and were promptly put in irons.  The Margaret was seized, in spite of Dutch protests.  Two days later came in the Vine, pink, from St. Mary’s, with a number of ‘passengers’ on board.  These were pirates on their way to New England, to make their submission, among them Chivers and Culliford.  Lowth would have seized them also, but the Dutch interfered, and the behaviour of the Dutch admiral became so threatening that Lowth cut short his stay and made sail for Bombay, which he reached safely, taking with him the Margaret and eighteen prisoners.  On reaching England, Culliford was tried and condemned, but respited, as has already been mentioned.

While Kidd lay in Newgate awaiting trial, an Act was passed for the more effectual suppression of piracy.  Experience had shown that it was useless to issue proclamations against individuals, but that some new machinery must be created to deal with the gigantic evil that threatened to become chronic.  Under a former Act, passed in the reign of Henry VIII., the Lord High Admiral, or his Lieutenant, or his Commissary, had been empowered to try pirates; but the procedure had long fallen into abeyance.  It had been found