day they weighed again, holding the same course eastward,
through the openings between the islands, till they came off Ross Ness;
and now Gow resolved to make the best of his way for the Island of Eday,
to plunder the house of Mr. Fea, a gentleman of a considerable estate,
and with whom Gow had some acquaintance, having been at school together,
when they were youths. On the 13th of February in the morning, Gow
appearing with his ship off Calf Sound, Mr. Fea and his family were very
much alarmed, not being able to get together above six or seven men for
his defence. He therefore wrote a letter to Gow intending to send it on
board as soon as he should get into the harbour, to desire him to
forbear the usual salutes, with his great guns, because Mrs. Fea his
wife was so very much indisposed, and this as he would oblige his old
school fellow; telling him at the same time that the inhabitants were
all fled to the mountains, on the report of his being a pirate, which he
hoped would not prove true. In which case, he should be very ready to
supply him with all such necessities as the island would afford,
desiring him to send the messengers safe back, at whose return the
alarms of the people would immediately be at an end.

The tide it seems runs extremely rapid among those islands, and the
navigation is thereby rendered very dangerous and uncertain. Gow was an
able seaman, but was no pilot for that place, and which was worse, he
had no boat to assist in case of extremity, to ware the ship, and in
turning into Calf Sound, he stood a little too near the point of a
little island called the Calf, and which lay in the middle of the
passage. Here his ship missing stays, was in great danger of going on
shore; to avoid which, he dropped an anchor under his foot, which taking
good hold, brought him up, and he thought the danger was over. Gow was
yet in distress and had no remedy but to send his small boat on shore to
Mr. Fea to desire his assistance, that is to say, to desire him to lend
him a boat to carry out an anchor and heave off the ship. Mr. Fea sent
back the boat, and one James Laing in it, with the letter already
mentioned. Gow sent him back immediately with an answer, by word of
mouth, viz., that he would write to nobody, but if Mr. Fea would order
his people to assist him with a boat to carry out an anchor, he would
reward them handsomely.

In the meantime Mr. Fea ordered his great boat, for he had such a one as
Gow wanted,