The Treasure of Captain William Kidd.

[Randawg72]

Wow. So many questions!..

1) Kidd took several prizes, but captured only o̲n̲e̲ 'Treasure ship". Yes, I believe the Quedagh Merchant is the primary source of Kidd's treasure.
2) The concept of treasure charts has been around for centuries. Treasure Island was released in 1883. And "treasure hunting" has Always been fashionable!
3) That reference is from: "Kidd, the Search for His Treasure" by George Edmunds, page 11.
Note: I never thought or insinuated that Kidd had or hid any treasure before his privateering mission in 1696.
4) Kidd's pirate hunt was over and he headed for home on the Quedagh (or Adventure Prize) in October of 1698.
5) (17th Century) Which is harder to believe?, that Palmer found four treasure charts, from objects obtained from four different sources, ..Or that four mischievous hoaxters drew (and then secretly hid) charts with the same island outline and details on vintage parchment with period ink to help sell a second hand desk and some wooden chests?
5A) As far as I know (re: your pics), only the picture frame and the chest shown with Palmer are attributed to Kidd.
I think that the skulls and dates were probably carved by later owners.
6) Bellomont's agents were looking for treasure. While they do have some value, consumer goods are not treasure.
7) Number CLA/035 is just a London prison policy prefix. Kidd spent 22 months in jail before being executed. Please clarify your question and I will answer it.

 

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[Randawg72]

Then amigo we have Harold T Wilkins.



Harold Tom Wilkins (June 1891 – 1960) was a British journalist known for his books on treasure hunting and pseudohistoric claims about Atlantis and South America.

While he did satisfy a need for general public to enjoys stories his writings was not exactly reliable as he blended fact and fiction together. Added his cognitive bias to suit his pet theories.

reception from academia and other was less flattering.

The anthropologist John Alden Mason has described Wilkins's research as pseudohistory and noted that most of his statements capable of verification turned out to be incorrect.

A review in Western Folklore claimed that Wilkins's Mysteries of Ancient South America reads like a science fiction book owing to its pseudohistoric claims.

His Secret Cities of Old South America was described by The Explorers Club in a review as a "crank book, basing most of its fantastic conclusions on the assumption that Atlantis and Mu did exist... Despite a long bibliography there is little dependable documentation in the book. It is vaporous hearsay."

Jason Colavito has noted that Wilkins was a plagiarist. In his book Secret Cities of Old South America he had taken material from Madame Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine.

So contrary if some things he claimed might be true we still cannot trust his writing. What is truth or just his imagination. To get to the truth we have carefully sift for what we can establish as fact.

Yet it cannot be denied he had a big impact on 20 century perceptions on the Captain Kidd treasure tale.

Crow

It's really a shame that so many focus on Harold Wilkins' credibility as a factor in Captain Kidd's story. Wilkins also wrote about Atlantis and UFO's. His only "impact" was to misinterpret the facts and confuse the public about the validity of Palmer's charts and Kidd's treasure.