So Lord Bellomont decided to raise a private armed force.  He got together a company, of which the King was a member, and they fitted out a strong and fast-sailing vessel called the Adventure Galley.  Lord Bellomont looked about for a good captain.  At last he thought he had found just the man in Captain William Kidd.  Captain Kidd just at this time happened to be in London, where he was well known, and well liked.  His home was in New York, where his wife and daughter lived in a fine house in Crown Street, and where he was a respected citizen.  But best of all for the Company, Captain Kidd had been in command of a privateer, and knew a good deal about pirates and their ways.

And so it came about that Captain Kidd sailed away, commander of the Adventure Galley, with its crew of sixty sailors, and its thirty guns, to destroy the pirates.

Then followed a space of time during which news of the bold Captain was eagerly awaited.  It came soon enough—­news that was startling.  Captain Kidd had been tempted by the adventurous life and great gains, and had himself turned pirate!  During the next two years he was heard of as the most daring and fierce of pirates, plundering and sinking ships, until his name became a terror on the sea.  He collected great treasure, and then decided to give up piracy.  He returned to New York, and touched first at Gardiner’s Island, a bit of land at the eastern end of Long Island.  There he buried a portion of his treasure.  The remainder he divided with his crew.  Then he went to Boston, took a new name, and intended to live in quiet and luxury during the remainder of his life.  But, unfortunately, one day Lord Bellomont was in Boston, met him, and caused his arrest.  In a few months he was sent to England in chains.  There he was executed.

When it was known that Captain Kidd had made a stop at Gardiner’s Island, search was made there and the hidden treasure was dug up.  There were rumors from time to time that Kidd and his pirate crew had stopped at points on the East River shore of the Island of Manhattan, and many men hunted that shore and sought in many places for hidden treasure, but none was ever found there.

During the time that Captain Kidd was roaming the sea, Lord Bellomont was governing New York.

[Illustration:  Arrest of Captain Kidd.]

The new Governor was at first much admired.  He was a fine man, with faultless manners, and a commander in every inch of his tall figure.  He had hands as soft as a woman’s, a kindly eye, and a gentle voice.  But he could be stern, and was stern and unyielding, too, when occasion required.  He dressed in better taste than anyone who had ever lived in the province, and his horses and carriage were finer than had ever before been seen in the city.

Friends of the dead Jacob Leisler had told Lord Bellomont tales of what a good man Leisler had been, and how he had been unjustly executed.  So Lord Bellomont, to the end of his life, favored the friends of Leisler.