3. One Handkerchief Gold.

4. One Bag Gold.

5. One Bag Gold.

6. One Bag Gold.

7. One Bag Gold.

Also Twenty Dollars, one halfe and one quart. pcs. of eight, Nine English Crowns, one small Barr of Silver, one small Lump Silver, a small Chaine, a small bottle, a Corral Necklace, one pc. white and one pc. of Checkquer'd Silk....

In Capt. William Kidd's Chests--Two Silver Boxons, Two Silver Candlesticks, one Silver Porringer, and some small things of Silver--Rubies small and great Sixty-seven, Green Stones two. One large Load Stone....

Landed from on board the Sloop _Antonio_ Capt. Wm. Kidd late Command.... 57 Baggs of Sugar, 17 pieces canvis, 38 Bales of Merchandize.

Received from Mr. Duncan Campbell Three Bailes Merchandise, Whereof one he had opened being much d.a.m.nified by water.... Eighty-five ps. Silk Rumals and Bengalis, Sixty ps. Callicoes and Muslins.

Received the 17th. instant of Mr. John Gardiner.

No. 1. One Bag dust Gold.

2. One Bag Coyned Gold and in it silver.

3. One p'cl dust Gold.

4. One Bag three Silver Rings and Sundry precious stones. One bag of unpolished Stones. One ps. of Cristol and Bazer Stone, Two Cornelion Rings, two small Agats. Two Amathests all in the same Bag.

5. One Bag Silver b.u.t.tons and a Lamp.

6. One Bag broken Silver.

7. One Bag Gold Bars.

8. One Bag Gold Barrs.

9. One Bag Dust Gold.

10. One Bag of Silver Bars.

11. One Bag Silver Bars.

The whole of the Gold above mentioned is Eleven hundred, and Eleven ounces, Troy Weight.

The silver is Two Thousand, three Hundred, Fifty-three ounces.

The Jewels or Precious Stones Weight are seventeen Ounces ... an Ounce, and Six[13] ... Stone by Tale.

The Sugar is Contained in Fifty-Seven Baggs.

The Merchandize is Contained in Forty-one Bailes.

The Canvis is Seventeen pieces.

SAM. SEWALL.

NATH'L BYFIELD.

JER. DUMMER.

LAUR. HAMMOND, Lt. Coll.

ANDR. BELCHER.

_Endorsed:_

Inventory of the Gold, Silver, Jewels and Merchandize late in the possession of Capt. Wm. Kidd and Seiz'd and secured by ordr. of the E.

of Bellomont, 28th of July 1699. This is an original paper.

BELLOMONT."

[Ill.u.s.tration: A memorandum of Captain Kidd's treasure left on Gardiner's Island. This is his own declaration, signed and sworn.]

That famous sloop, the _San Antonio_, was also carefully inventoried but her contents were for the most part sea gear and rough furnishings, barring a picturesque entry of "ye boy Barleycorn," an apprentice seaman who had sailed with Kidd. Robert Livingston has something to say about Kidd's property in his statement under examination, which has been preserved as follows:

"Robert Livingston, Esq. being notified to appear before his Excellency and Council this day and sworn to give a true Narrative and Relation of his knowledge or information of any Goods, Gold, Silver, Bullion, or other Treasure lately imported by Capt. William Kidd, his Company and Accomplices, or any of them, into this Province, or any other of his Majesty's Provinces, Colonies, or Territories in America, and by them or any of them imbezelled, concealed, conveyed away, or any ways disposed of, saith:

"That hearing Capt. Kidd was come into these parts to apply himself unto his Excellency the Earl of Bellomont, the said Narrator came directly from Albany ye nearest way through the woods to meet the said Kidd here and to wait upon his Lordship. And at his arrival at Boston Capt. Kidd informed him there was on board his Sloop then in Port forty bales of Goods, and some Sugar, and also said he had about eighty pound weight in Plate. The Narrator does not remember whether he said this was on board the Sloop or not. And further the sd. Kidd said he had Forty pound weight in Gold which he hid and secured in some place in the Sound betwixt this and New York, not naming any particular place, which n.o.body could find but himself. And that all the said Goods, Gold, Plate and Sloop was for accompt. of the Owners of the _Adventure Galley_, whereof this Narrator was one.

"And upon further discourse, Kidd acknowledged that several Chests and bundles of Goods belonging to the men were taken out of his Sloop betwixt this place and New York, and put into other sloops, saying he was forced thereto, that his men would otherwise have run the Sloop on sh.o.r.e. And he likewise acknowledged that he had given Mr. Duncan Campbell one hundred pieces of eight when he was on board his Sloop at Rhode Island. And he knows no further of any concealment, imbezelment, or disposal made by said Kidd, his Company, or accomplices of any Goods, Gold, money, or Treasure whatsoever, saving that Kidd did yesterday acknowledge to this Narrator that ye Gold aforementioned was hid upon Gardiner's Island. He believed there was about fifty pound weight of it and that in the same box with it there was about three or four hundred pieces of eight and some pieces of Plate belonging to his boy Barleycorn and his Negro man which he had gotten by[14] ... for the men. Also the said Kidd gave this Narrator a negro boy and another to Mr. Duncan Campbell."

There is reproduced herewith the original statement of Kidd touching this Gardiner Island treasure. The doc.u.ment is badly torn and disfigured, but the gaps can be supplied from a copy made at that time, and here is what he had to say under oath:

BOSTON, Sept. 4th. 1699.

Captain William Kidd declareth and Saith that in his Chest which he left at Gardiner's Island there were three small baggs or more of Jasper Antonio, or Stone of Goa, several pieces of silk stript with Silver and gold Cloth of Silver, about a Bush.e.l.l of Cloves and Nutmegs mixed together, and strawed up and down, several books of fine white Callicoa, several pieces of fine Muzlins, several pieces more of flowered silk. He does not well remember what further was in it. He had an invoice thereof in his other chest. All that was contained in ye said Chest was bought by him and some given him at Madagascar.

Nothing thereof was taken in ye ship Quidah Merchant. He esteemed it to be of greater value than all else that he left at Gardiner's Island except ye Gold and Silver. There was neither Gold nor Silver in ye Chest. It was fastened with a Padlock and nailed and corded about.

Further saith that he left at said Gardiner's Island a bundle of nine or ten fine Indian quilts, some of ye silk with fringes and Ta.s.sels.

WM. KIDD.

The Earl of Bellomont was as keen as a bloodhound on the scent of treasure and it is improbable that any of the Kidd plunder escaped his search. He lost no time in the quest of that James Gillam whose chest had been landed in Delaware Bay, and a singularly diverting episode is related by Bellomont in one of his written reports to the Council of Trade and Plantations:

"I gave you an account, Oct. 24th, of my taking Joseph Bradish and Wetherly, and writ that I hoped in a little time to be able to send News of my taking James Gillam, the Pyrate that killed Capt. Edgecomb, commander of the _Mocha Frigate_ for the East India Co., and that with his own hand, while the captain was asleep. Gillam is supposed to be the man that encouraged the Ship's Company to turn pyrates, and the ship has ever since been robbing in the Red Sea and Seas of India. If I may believe the report of men lately come from Madagascar, she has taken above 2,000,000 pounds sterling.

"I have been so lucky as to take James Gillam, and he is now in irons in the gaol of this town. And at the same time we seized on Francis Dole, in whose house he was harboured, who proved to be one of h.o.r.e's crew. My taking of Gillam was so very accidental one would believe there was a strange fatality in the man's stars. On Sat.u.r.day, 11th inst., late in the evening, I had a letter from Col. Sanford, Judge of the Admiralty Court in Rhode Island, giving me an account that Gillam had been there, but was come towards Boston a fortnight before, in order to ship himself for some of the Islands, Jamaica or Barbadoes.

"I was in despair of finding the man. However, I sent for an honest Constable I had made use of in apprehending Kidd and his men, and sent him with Col. Sanford's messenger to search all the Inns in town and at the first Inn they found the mare on which Gillam had rode into town, tied up in the yard. The people of the Inn reported that the man who brought her hither had alighted off her about a quarter of an hour before, and went away without saying anything.

"I gave orders to the master of the Inn that if anybody came to look after the mare, he should be sure to seize him, but n.o.body came for her. Next morning I summoned a Council, and we published a Proclamation, wherein I promised a reward of 200 Pieces of Eight for the seizing and securing of Gillam, whereupon there was the strictest search made all that day and the next that was ever made in this part of the world. But we would have missed had I not been informed of one Capt. Knott as an old Pyrate and therefore likely to know where Gillam was conceal'd. I sent for Knott and examined him, promising if he would make an ingenious Confession I would not molest him.

"He seemed much disturbed but would not confess anything to purpose. I then sent for his wife and examined her on oath apart from her husband, and she confessed that one who went by the name of James Kelly had lodged several nights in her house, but for some nights past he lodged, as she believed, in Charlestown, cross the River. I knew that he (Gillam) went by the name of Kelly. Then I examined Captain Knott again, telling him his wife had been more free and ingenious than him, which made him believe she had told all. And then he told me of Francis Dole in Charlestown, and that he believed that Gillam would be found there.

"I sent half a dozen men immediately, and Knott with 'em. They beset the House and searched it, but found not the man. Two of the men went through a field behind Dole's house and ... met a man in the dark whom they seized at all adventure, and it happened as oddly as luckily to be Gillam. He had been treating two young women some few miles off in the Country, and was returning at night to his landlord Dole's house.

"I examined him but he denied everything, even that he came with Kidd from Madagascar, or even saw him in his life; but Capt. Davis who came thence with Kidd's men is positive he is the man and that he went by his true name Gillam all the while he was on the voyage with 'em. And Mr. Campbell, Postmaster of this town, whom I sent to treat with Kidd, offers to swear this is the man he saw on board Kidd's sloop under the name of Gillam. He is the most impudent, hardened Villain I ever saw....

"In searching Captain Knott's house a small trunk was found with some remnants of East India Goods and a letter from Kidd's Wife to Capt.

Thomas Paine, an old pyrate living on Canonicut Island in Rhode Island Government. He made an affidavit to me when I was in Rhode Island that he had received nothing from Kidd's sloop, when she lay at anchor there, yet by Knott's deposition, he was sent with Mrs. Kidd's letter to Paine for 24 ounces of Gold, which Kidd accordingly brought, and Mrs. Kidd's injunction to Paine to keep all the rest that was left with him till further notice was a plain indication that there was a good deal of treasure still left behind in Paine's Custody.