Editing William Kidd (section)

===Accusations of piracy===
Escaped prisoners told stories of being hoisted up by the arms and "drubbed" (thrashed) with a drawn [[cutlass]] by Kidd. On one occasion, crew members sacked the trading ship ''Mary'' and tortured several of its crew members while Kidd and the other captain, Thomas Parker, conversed privately in Kidd's cabin.

Kidd was declared a pirate very early in his voyage by a Royal Navy officer, to whom he had promised "thirty men or so".<ref name="Hamilton, 1961 p"/> Kidd sailed away during the night to preserve his crew, rather than subject them to Royal Navy [[impressment]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Harris |first1=Graham |title=Treasure and Intrigue The Legacy of Captain Kidd |date=2002 |publisher=Dundurn |isbn=978-1550024098 |pages=114–115 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZAbB8ujNogEC |access-date=13 June 2020}}</ref> The letter of marque was intended to protect a [[privateer]]'s crew from such impressment.
[[File:The Book of Buried Treasure.png|thumb|right|295px|The French pass from the "Quedagh Merchant"]]

On 30 January 1698, Kidd raised French colours and took his greatest prize, the 400-ton ''[[Quedagh Merchant]]'',<ref>{{cite web|title=Pirates of the High Seas – Capt. William Kidd |url=http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/01841/kidd.html |access-date=13 December 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728104918/http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/01841/kidd.html |archive-date=28 July 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| title ="Quedagh Merchant" (ship)| publisher =Encyclopedia Online| url =http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-486764/Quedagh-Merchant| access-date =13 December 2007}}</ref> an Indian ship hired by [[Armenia]]n merchants. It was loaded with [[satin]]s, [[muslin]]s, gold, silver, and a variety of [[East India]]n [[merchandise]], as well as extremely valuable silks. The captain of ''Quedagh Merchant'' was an Englishman named Wright, who had purchased passes from the French East India Company promising him the protection of the French Crown.<ref name="Hamilton, 1961">Hamilton, (1961)</ref>

When news of his capture of this ship reached England, however, officials classified Kidd as a pirate. Various naval commanders were ordered to "pursue and seize the said Kidd and his accomplices" for the "notorious piracies" they had committed.<ref name="Hamilton, 1961"/>

Kidd kept the French [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sea_pass sea passes] of the ''Quedagh Merchant'', as well as the vessel itself. British admiralty and vice-admiralty courts (especially in North America) previously had often winked at privateers' excesses amounting to piracy. Kidd might have hoped that the passes would provide the legal fig leaf that would allow him to keep ''Quedagh Merchant'' and her cargo. Renaming the seized merchantman as ''Adventure Prize'', he set sail for [[Madagascar]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bonner |first1=Willard Hallam |title=The Ballad of Captain Kidd |journal=American Literature |date=January 1944 |volume=15 |issue=4 |pages=363–380 |doi=10.2307/2920762 |jstor=2920762 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2920762 |access-date=26 October 2022}}</ref>

On 1 April 1698, Kidd reached Madagascar. After meeting privately with trader [[Tempest Rogers]] (who would later be accused of trading and selling Kidd's looted East India goods),<ref>{{cite book|last1=Office|first1=Great Britain Public Record|title=Calendar of State Papers: Colonial Series ...|date=1908|publisher=Longman|location=London|pages=486–487|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LBQFAAAAYAAJ|access-date=16 August 2017|language=en}}</ref> he found the first pirate of his voyage, [[Robert Culliford]] (the same man who had stolen Kidd's ship at Antigua years before) and his crew aboard ''Mocha Frigate''.

Two contradictory accounts exist of how Kidd proceeded. According to ''[[A General History of the Pyrates]]'', published more than 25 years after the event by an [[Captain Charles Johnson|author whose identity is disputed]] by historians, Kidd made peaceful overtures to Culliford: he "drank their Captain's health", swearing that "he was in every respect their Brother", and gave Culliford "a Present of an Anchor and some Guns".<ref name="General History Pyrates 2">{{cite book |last=Johnson |first=Charles |author-link=Captain Charles Johnson |date=1726 |title=[[A General History of the Pyrates|A General History of the Pyrates, vol. 2]] | edition=4 |location=London |publisher=T. Woodward |pages=75–76 }}</ref> This account appears to be based on the testimony of Kidd's crewmen Joseph Palmer and Robert Bradinham at his trial.

The other version was presented by Richard Zacks in his 2002 book ''The Pirate Hunter: The True Story of Captain Kidd''. According to Zacks, Kidd was unaware that Culliford had only about 20 crew with him, and felt ill-manned and ill-equipped to take ''Mocha Frigate'' until his two prize ships and crews arrived. He decided to leave Culliford alone until these reinforcements arrived. After ''Adventure Prize'' and ''Rouparelle'' reached port, Kidd ordered his crew to attack Culliford's ''Mocha Frigate''. However, his crew refused to attack Culliford and threatened instead to shoot Kidd. Zacks does not refer to any source for his version of events.<ref>Zacks, pp. 185–186.</ref>

Both accounts agree that most of Kidd's men abandoned him for Culliford. Only 13 remained with ''Adventure Galley''. Deciding to return home, Kidd left the ''[[Adventure Galley]]'' behind, ordering her to be burnt because she had become worm-eaten and leaky. Before burning the ship, he salvaged every last scrap of metal, such as hinges. With the loyal remnant of his crew, he returned to the Caribbean aboard the ''Adventure Prize'',<ref name="Jameson - Privateering and Piracy"/> stopping first at [[St. Augustine's Bay]] for repairs.<ref name="Grey Eastern"/> Some of his crew later returned to North America on their own as passengers aboard [[Giles Shelley]]'s ship ''Nassau''.<ref name="Jameson - Privateering and Piracy">{{cite book|last1=Jameson|first1=John Franklin|title=Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period|date=1923|publisher=Macmillan|location=New York|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24882/24882-h/24882-h.htm|access-date=26 June 2017}}</ref>

The [[1698 Act of Grace]], which offered a [[royal pardon]] to pirates in the Indian Ocean, specifically exempted Kidd (and [[Henry Every]]) from receiving a pardon,<ref>{{cite book |last=Lloyd |first=Charles Edward |date=1899 |title=State trials of Mary, Queen of Scots, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Captain William Kidd. |url=https://archive.org/details/statetrialsofmar00harrrich/page/129/ |location=Chicago |publisher=Callaghan and Company |pages=129–130}}</ref><ref name="General History Pyrates 2"/> in Kidd's case due to his association with prominent [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig]] statesmen.<ref>{{cite book |last=Goodwin |first=Maud Wilder |author-link= |date=1919 |title=Dutch and English on the Hudson |url=https://archive.org/details/dutchenglishonh00good/page/173/ |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |page=173}}</ref> Kidd became aware both that he was wanted and that he could not make use of the Act of Grace upon his arrival in [[Anguilla]], his first port of call since St. Augustine's Bay.<ref name="Grey Eastern"/>