"Fiddlestick with your Dutchmen!" cried the half-pay officer. "The
Dutch had nothing to do with them. They were all buried by Kidd
the pirate, and his crew."
Here a keynote was touched that roused the whole company. The name
of Captain Kidd was like a talisman in those times, and was
associated with a thousand marvelous stories.
The half-pay officer took the lead, and in his narrations fathered
upon Kidd all the plunderings and exploits of Morgan,[1]
Blackbeard,[2] and the whole list of bloody buccaneers.
[1] Sir Henry Morgan (1637-90), a noted Welsh buccaneer. He was
captured and sent to England for trial, but Charles II., instead of
punishing him, knighted him, and subsequently appointed him
governor of Jamaica.
[2] Edward Teach, one of the most cruel of the pirates, took
command of a pirate ship in 1717, and thereafter committed all
sorts of atrocities until he was slain by Lieutenant Maynard in
1718. His nickname of "Blackbeard" was given him because of his
black beard.
The officer was a man of great weight among the peaceable members
of the club, by reason of his warlike character and gunpowder
tales.
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