[Addressed:] To Milord Bellomont Earl, Gouvernor of New England, Yorck and other places, In Boston
I have had the honor to receive by way of Captain ---- Carry[2] Your Excellency's agreeable letter of July 26, and to understand fully from it what Your Excellency has been pleased to write as to the pirate Will Kidd, upon which I shall serve Your Excellency with the following reply. The aforesaid Will Kidd, with his freight-ship under the English flag, came to anchor off this harbor, out of range of the King's fortress, and then sent his shallop to land with a letter to me, in which he asked me for protection, further declaring that he was innocent as to robbing the subjects of the Mogul in the East Indies. His course of conduct being at that time still unknown to me, I wrote him in reply that, in case he was an honorable man, I would protect him, but he wished to have assurance that I would not give him up to any war-ship of His Majesty of Great Britain that should come to demand him. This I declined to give, whereupon he, understanding that I had forbidden all inhabitants to sell him any provisions, set sail again.[3] Since that time I have heard that he lay at anchor near the island of Mona, and that one Bolton of Antigua had been with him, to transact business. Afterward there came into this harbor a brigantine belonging to Barbados, on which one Will Burcke[4] was merchant, concerning whom I had no suspicion, still less the thought that he would dare to undertake bringing in here any pirate goods; yet I learned the other day that he by night had brought a quantity of goods to land, which, according to reports, he had sold to Mr. Pedro van Bellen, general director for the Electoral Brandenburg Privileged Company, and which are also stored in the Brandenburg warehouse.[5] I have not been able to get at the aforesaid goods, because the said Brandenburg patentees have here their own law and privileges, but I have caused the said Will Burcke to be arrested, and on his giving bail have let him return with the brigantine, yet on condition that he should discharge his responsibility to Barbadoes, he being a subject of His Majesty of England and resident there. Since that time he has come here again from Barbados, bringing with him a recommendation from Governor Grey[6] to me, and is living here still at the Brandenburg Lodge, but all the aforesaid goods have, it is said, been transported to other places. This is all the information that I can give Your Excellency respecting this matter, at the same time assuring you that no subjects of his Royal Majesty of Denmark, my sovereign Lord, or inhabitants here, have traded with the aforesaid Kidd, for in that matter I have enforced good order. Meanwhile I have forthwith sent a member of the council to Denmark, to report most submissively to His Royal Majesty, my most gracious King and Lord, all these matters just as they have occurred. Herewith closing, and commending myself to Your Excellency, to maintain all good friendship and further good correspondence, I remain