PRIVATEERS AND PIRATES 171

who had been appointed to succeed Fletcher as
Governor of New York. He was well known as a
bold and skillful sailor, and a man of wealth and
repute in New York, and in his marriage certificate
he was called "Captain William Kidd, Gentleman/'

The plan finally formed was that Kidd with a
privateer furnished with a letter of marque and a
special commission from the King should cruise
about in search of the pirates and capture them. In
pursuance of the scheme Kidd set sail on the Ad-
venture-Galley and reached New York in the spring
of 1696. He set up placards all over the town ask-
ing for recruits, with the result that a motley crew
of adventurers rushed to take ship in this strange
new enterprise. At this time Kidd was living in one
of the handsomest houses in New York, on what
is now Liberty Street. Before this, in 1691, he
had married the widow of a fellow sea-captain, a
woman of great respectability, by whom he had
one daughter, and he was known far and wide as
a solid and trustworthy merchant.

His venture seemed bulwarked by every guaran-
tee; but even at that epoch there were not wanting
those who predicted strange things for the Ad-
venture-Galley. Few, however, foresaw any events
as strange as those which actually occurred. After