d, as she made no resistance, they plundered and
dismissed her.

They next sailed for the Orkney Isles to clean, but were apprehended by
a gentleman of that country, brought up to London, and tried before a
Court of Admiralty, in May, 1725. When the first indictment was read,
Gow obstinately refused to plead, for which the Court ordered his thumbs
to be tied together with whipcord. The punishment was several times
repeated by the executioner and another officer, they drawing the cord
every time till it broke. But he still being stubborn, refusing to
submit to the court, the sentence was pronounced against him, which the
law appoints in such cases; that is, "That he should be taken back to
prison, and there pressed to death." The gaoler was then ordered to
conduct him back, and see that the sentence was executed the next
morning; meanwhile the trials of the prisoners, his companions, went
forward.

But the next morning, when the press was prepared, pursuant to the order
of the Court the day before, he was so terrified with the apprehension
of dying in that manner, that he sent his humble petition to the Court,
praying that he might be admitted to plead. This request being granted,
he was brought again to the bar, and arraigned upon the first
indictment, to which he pleaded Not guilty. Then the depositions that
had been given against the other prisoners were repeated, upon which he
was convicted, and received the sentence of death accordingly, which he
suffered in company with Captain Weaver and William Ingham.

[Illustration: _Gow killing the Captain._]

The stories of these two men are so interwoven with others, that it
will be impossible to distinguish many of their particular actions. They
were, however, proved to have been concerned, if not the principal
actors, in the following piracies: first, the seizing a Dutch ship in
August, 1722, and taking from thence a hundred pieces of Holland, value
800_l_.; a thousand pieces of eight, value 250_l_. Secondly, the
entering and pillaging the Dolphin of London, William Haddock, out of
which they got three hundred pieces of eight, value 75_l_.; forty
gallons of rum, and other things, on the twentieth of November in the
same year. Thirdly, the stealing out of a ship called the Don Carlos,
Lot Neekins, master, four hundred ounces of silver, value 100_l_. fifty
gallons of rum, value 30_s_. a thousand pieces of eight, a hundred
pistoles, and other valuable goods. And fourthly,