But although in reality Captain Kidd was no hero, he has been known for
a century and more as the great American pirate, and his name has been
representative of piracy ever since. Years after he had been hung, when
people heard that a vessel with a black flag, or one which looked black
in the distance, flying from its rigging had been seen, they forgot that
the famous pirate was dead, and imagined that Captain Kidd was visiting
their part of the coast in order that he might find a good place to bury
some treasure which it was no longer safe for him to carry about.
There were two great reasons for the fame of Captain Kidd. One of these
was the fact that he had been sent out by important officers of the
crown who expected to share the profits of his legitimate operations,
but who were supposed by their enemies to be perfectly willing to take
any sort of profits provided it could not be proved that they were the
results of piracy, and who afterwards allowed Kidd to suffer for their
sins as well as his own. These opinions introduced certain political
features into his career and made him a very much talked-of man. The
greater reason for his fame, however, was the widespread belief in his
buried treasures, and this made him the object of the most intense
interest to hundreds of misguided people who hoped to be lucky enough to
share his spoils.
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