Somers subscribed another thousand. A ship called the Adventure
Galley was equipped in the port of London; and Kidd took the
command. He carried with him, besides the ordinary letters of
marque, a commission under the Great Seal empowering him to seize
pirates, and to take them to some place where they might be dealt
with according to law. Whatever right the King might have to the
goods found in the possession of these malefactors he granted, by
letters patent, to the persons who had been at the expense of
fitting out the expedition, reserving to himself only one tenth
part of the gains of the adventure, which was to be paid into the
treasury. With the claim of merchants to have back the property
of which they had been robbed His Majesty of course did not
interfere. He granted away, and could grant away, no rights but
his own.

The press for sailors to man the royal navy was at that time so
hot that Kidd could not obtain his full complement of hands in
the Thames. He crossed the Atlantic, visited New York, and there
found volunteers in abundance. At length, in February 1697, he
sailed from the Hudson with a crew of more than a hundred and
fifty men, and in July reached the coast of Madagascar.

It is possible that Kidd may at first have meant to act in
accordance with his instructions. But, on the subject of piracy,
he held the notions which were then common in the North American
colonies; and most of his crew were of the same mind. He found
himself in a sea which was constantly traversed by rich and
defenceless merchant ships; and he had to determine whether he
would plunder those ships or protect them. The gain which might
be made by plundering them was immense, and might be snatched