For a very interesting account of the Devil and his
Stepping Stones, see the learned memoir read before the New York
Historical Society since the death of Mr. Knickerbocker, by his friend,
an eminent jurist of the place.]
KIDD THE PIRATE.
In old times, just after the territory of the New Netherlands had been
wrested from the hands of their High Mightinesses, the Lords States
General of Holland, by Charles the Second, and while it was as yet in
an unquiet state, the province was a favorite resort of adventurers of
all kinds, and particularly of buccaneers. These were piratical rovers
of the deep, who made sad work in times of peace among the Spanish
settlements and Spanish merchant ships. They took advantage of the easy
access to the harbor of the Manhattoes, and of the laxity of its
scarcely-organized government, to make it a kind of rendezvous, where
they might dispose of their ill-gotten spoils, and concert new
depredations. Crews of these desperadoes, the runagates of every
country and clime, might be seen swaggering, in open day, about the
streets of the little burgh; elbowing its quiet Mynheers; trafficking
away their rich outlandish plunder, at half price, to the wary
merchant, and then squandering their gains in taverns; drinking,
gambling, singing, swearing, shouting, and astounding the neighborhood
with sudden brawl and ruffian revelry.
At length the indignation of government was aroused, and it was
determined to ferret out this vermin brood from, the colonies. Great
consternation took place among the pirates on finding justice in
pursuit of them, and their old haunts turned to places of peril.
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