His threats to the _Sidney_ at Johanna, his attack, after three weeks' waiting, on the Mocha fleet, his detention of Parker, to say nothing of his dealings with Culliford, can only be interpreted in one way.

During his whole cruise he never put into Surat, Bombay, or Goa, but cruised like any other pirate.
The legend of his buried treasure has survived to our own day, owing to the fact that he had buried some of his booty before putting himself in Bellamont's hands; but the record of his trial shows that, beyond what was obtained from the _Quedah Merchant_, his plunder consisted mostly of merchandise.

That some of his ill-gotten gains were recovered at the time seems clear from an Act of Parliament passed in 1705, enabling the Crown to "dispose of the effects of William Kidd, a notorious pirate, to the use of Greenwich Hospital"; which institution received accordingly 6472-1.
The scandal caused by Kidd's piratical doings under a commission from the Crown, the political use made of it in Parliament, and the legend of a vast hoard of buried treasure, have conferred on him a celebrity not justified by his exploits.

As he appears in the Company's records, he showed none of the picturesque daredevilry that distinguished many of the sea rovers whose names are less known.

No desperate adventure or hard-fought action stand to his credit.