682 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



one continuous ground of thrilling lore and bold adventure. In her 

 waters the ' Fire ship ' a glared amid the darkness ; her phantom crew, 

 like red hot statues, standing at their quarters, as rushing onwards, in 

 the furious storm, she passed the shuddering mariner, leaving comet- 

 like long streams of flame behind. Beneath her sands the red-shirted 

 buccaneers did hide their ill-gotten, blood-bespotted treasure. Ay ! and 

 'twas on her broad bosom that with iron-seared conscience, sailed that 

 pirate, fierce and bold — old Robert Kidd; and to this very day his 

 golden hoards, with magic mark and sign, still crowd her wooded 

 shores." 6 



Capt. Kidd, the notorious freebooter, whose name is so inseparably 

 connected with these shores, appears to have been employed by the 

 government in 1696 to suppress the buccaneers, (at that time very nu- 

 merous on our coast,) " from the knowledge he possessed of their num- 

 bers, strength, and places of resort." In 1699 he " returned from the 

 East Indies, whither he had sailed after making several unsuccessful 

 cruises on the American coast ; during his absence, having been engaged 

 in the very practices he had engaged to prevent. This result appears 

 to have been, in a measure, foreseen by the provincials. Governor 

 Fletcher, writing to the board of trade, June 22, 1697, says: "One 

 Captain Kidd lately arrived here, and produced a commission, under 

 the great seal of England for suppressing of piracy. When he was here 

 many flocked to him from all parts — men of desperate fortunes and ne- 

 cessitous, in expectation of getting vast treasures." " He* sailed from 

 hence with 150 men, as I am informed; a great part of them are of 

 this province. It is generally believed, here, they would have money 

 per fas ant nefas — that if he miss of the design intended for which he has 

 commissioned, it will not be in Kid' s power to govern snch a horde of men 

 under no pay. His subsequent career is well known; in 1699 he was 

 made prisoner in Boston," sent to England, and there executed in 

 1701.'^ 



The following ballad (attributed to Kid,)* pretends to set forth his 

 veritable history. It is entitled — 



a The tradition is, that she was taken by pirates, all hands murdered and abandoned, after 

 being set on lire by the buccaneers. Some accounts state that a large white horse which was 

 on board, was left near ths foremast to perish In the flames, and in storms of peculiarly ter- 

 rific violence, that she may be seen, rushing along enveloped in Are, the horse stamping and 

 pawing at the heel of the foremast, Her phantom crew assembled at quarters. — Gallop among 

 American Scenery, by A. B. Silliman. 



b ( tallop among American Scenery, by A. B. Silliman, ?12. 



e Hutchinson says (vol. li. 119) that when the officer arrested him he attempted to draw his 

 eword, but was prevented by a person in company. 



d New Jersey Hist. Soc. Collect, 146. 



e The author of the ballad has evidently mistaken the Christian name of the pirate, which 

 was William. 



