80 The Beginning of British Honduras
tured vessel eat them sizzling hot. A moidore was worth 27
shillings. For a time Low cruised in concert with Farrington
Spriggs, another notorious pirate who on one voyage took
sixteen ships in the Bay, and was also associated with Lowther
at one time. One day, Spriggs and Low, the former in a
schooner, the latter in a sloop, were chased by H.M.S. "Mer-
maid." The pirates crowded on sail, but do what they might
the man-of-war gained on them rapidly. In desperation the
schooner and the sloop separated, and the man-of-war went
after the sloop which Low was commanding for the man-of-
war doubtless had information which decided this selection.
When the two ships were within gunshot and things began
to look hopeless, the pirates played a trick. One of his crew
told Low of a shoal near by over which the sloop which drew
very little water could pass. Low ran his sloop over it, the
man-of-war tried to follow, and grounded. So he lived for a
few years and took on an average 100 vessels a year on the
high seas, until one night he murdered his quartermaster in
his sleep, and in consequence his crew threw him overboard.
Lowther was later found dead on a lonely beach, where he
apparently died by his own hand. Israel Hands, just as he
was about to be executed, was set free because a ship arrived
in Virginia with a proclamation prolonging the time of the
King's pardon to such of the pirates as should surrender, and
he lived on in London begging his bread in the streets.
Harris was taken by a man-of-war and hanged after an en-
gagement in which Low coolly left him in the lurch. Stede
Bonnet was hanged in South Carolina.