Captain William Kidd and Others of the Buccaneers

“The extraordinary career of Captain Kidd, a New-York merchant, the demoniac feats of those fiends in human form, Bonnet, Barthelemy, and Lolonois; the romantic history of the innocent female pirate Mary Read, and of the termagant Anne Bonney; the amazing career of Sir Henry Morgan, and the fanaticism of Montbar, scarcely surpassed by that of Mohammed or Loyola, combine in creating a story, which the imagination of Dickens or Dumas could scarcely rival.” —John S.C. Abbott, Preface, 1874

American historian John S.C. Abbott wrote Captain William Kidd and Others of the Buccaneers (1874) as part of his American Pioneers and Patriots series. Captain William Kidd (1655–1701) was a British sailor who fought for Great Britain against the French in the West Indies, became a shipowner in New York and  turned to piracy and who was tried and became one of the most colorful pirates of all time.