question their guilt, or to doubt the truth of any
part of the account given in. Robert Read was a young man, mentioned
before, who escaped from the boat in the Orkneys, where he surrendered
himself, after getting a horse at a farmer's house, and conveying
himself to Kirkwall, the chief town of the said Orkneys. Nevertheless,
he was brought up as a prisoner with the rest, nor was he made use of as
an evidence but was tried upon most, if not all the indictments with the
rest. But Dobson, one of the witnesses, did him the justice to testify
that he was forced into their service, as others were, for fear of
having their throats cut, as many had been served before their faces,
and that in particular he was not present at, or concerned in any of the
murders for which the rest were indicted. Upon which evidence, he was
acquitted by the jury. Also he brought one Archibald Sutor, the man of
the house said before to be a farm-house, as to whether the said Read
made his escape in the Orkneys, who testified that he did so escape to
him, and that he begged him to procure him a horse, to ride off to
Kirkwall, which he did, and there he surrendered himself; also he
testified that Read gave him (Sutor) a full account of the ship and the
pirates that were in her, and what they were; and that he (Sutor)
revealed it all to the collector of the Customs, by which means the
country was alarmed, and he added, that it was by this man's means that
all the prisoners were apprehended (though that was going too far, for
'tis plain, that it was by the vigilance and courage of Mr. Fea,
chiefly, that they were reduced to such distresses as obliged them to
surrender). However, it was true that Read's escape did alarm the
country, and that he merited very well of the public for the timely
discovery he made, so he came off clear as indeed it was but just, for
he was not only forced to serve them, but as Dobson testified for him,
he had often expressed his uneasiness at being obliged to act with them,
and that he wished he could get away, and he was sincere in those
wishes, as appeared by his taking the first opportunity he could get to
put it in practice. This Dobson was one of the ten men who ran away with
the pirates' long-boat from the Orkneys, and who were afterwards made
prisoners in the Firth of Leith, and carried up to Edinburgh.

Gow was now a prisoner among the rest in the Marshalsea. His behaviour
there was sullen and reserved, rather than pen