Gow,  and  others  of  his  crew,  suffered,  by  sentence  of
the  High  Court  of  Admiralty,  the  punishment  their
crimes  had  long  deserved.  He  conducted  himself  with
great  audacity  when  before  the  Court;  and,  from  an  ac-
count of  the  matter  by  an  eye-witness,  seems  to  have
been  subjected  to  some  unusual  severities,  in  order  to
compel  him  to  plead.  The  words  are  these:  "John
Gow  would  not  plead,  for  which  he  was  brought  to  the
bar,  and  the  Judge  ordered  that  his  thumbs  should  be
squeezed  by  two  men,  with  a  whip-cord,  till  it  did
break ;  and  then  it  should  be  doubled,  till  it  did  again
break,  and  then  laid  threefold,  and  that  the  execution-
ers should  pull  with  their  whole  strength ;  which  sen-
tence Gow  endured  with  a  great  deal  of  boldness."
The  next  morning,  (27th  May,  1725,)  when  he  had  seen
the  terrible  preparations  for  pressing  him  to  death,  his
courage  gave  way,  and  he  told  the  Marshal  of  Court,
that  he  would  not  have  given  so  much  trouble,  had  he
been  assured  of  not  being  hanged  in  chains.  He  was
then  tried,  condemned,  and  executed,  with  others  of
his  crew.
