r him, and
therefore advised him to surrender himself peaceably, and be the author
of a quiet surrender of the rest, as the only means to obtain any
favour; and then he might become an evidence against the rest, and so
might save his own life. This letter Mr. Fea sent by a boat with four
armed men to the island, to be given to the fellow that Gow had sent on
shore, and who waited there; at the same time, he gave them a letter
from Gow to Mr. Fea, for now he was humbled enough to write, which
before he refused. Gow's letter to Mr. Fea was to let him have some men
and boats, to take out the best of the cargo, in order to lighten the
ship, and set her afloat; offering himself to come on shore and be
hostage for the security of men and boats and to give Mr. Fea a thousand
pounds in goods for the service. He declared at the same time, that if
this small succour was refused him, he would take care nobody should
better himself by his misfortunes, for rather than they would suffer
themselves to be taken, they would set fire to the ship, and would all
perish together.

Mr. Fea replied to this letter that he had a boat indeed, that would
have been fit for his service, but that she was staved and sunk; but if
he would come on shore quietly without arms, and bring his carpenter
with him to repair the boat, he might have her. Mr. Fea did this to give
Gow an opportunity to embrace his first offer of surrendering. But Gow
was neither humble enough to come in nor sincere enough to treat with
him fairly, if he had intended to let him have the boat; and if he had,
it is probable that the former letter had made the men suspicious of
him, so that now he could do nothing without communicating it to the
rest of the crew. About four in the afternoon Mr. Fea received an answer
to his last letter, the copy of which is exactly as follows:

From on board our Ship the
_Revenge_, Feb. 16th, 1725.

Honoured Sir,

I am sorry to hear of the irregular proceedings of my men; I gave no
orders to that effect, and what hath been wrongfully done to the
country, was contrary to my inclinations. It is my misfortune to be
in this condition at present; it was in your power to have done
otherwise in making my fortune better. Since my being in the
country, I have wronged no man, nor taken anything but what I have
paid for. My design in coming was to make the country better, which
I am still capable to do, prov