Peter Cornelius Hoof Declares and Saith That he was taken by Capt. Bellamy in a Vessel whereof John Cornelius was Master, That the sd. Bellamys Company swore they would kill him unless he would Joyn with them in their unlawfull Designs.
John Shuan, by his Interpreter, Saith That he was sick at the time when Capt. Bellamy took him, and went on board the Pyrate Vessel at the Instance of Capt. Bellamy's Doctor, who advised him to stay with him till his Cure. And that when he went on board the Pink _Mary Anne_ he did not Carry any Arms with him; and that he hoped by going on board the Pink he should the sooner make his Escape from the Pyrates, for that he had a better way of getting his Living than by Pyrating.
The Evidence for the King being fully heard, and also the Pleas and Allegations made by the Prisoners at the Barr, His Majesty's Attorney General[8] in a very handsome and learned speech summed up the Evidence and made his Remarques upon the whole, and the Court was cleared, and the Evidence and pleadings thereupon against the Prisoners, with their Defences, having been duly considered, and the Question put,[9]
[Footnote 8: Paul Dudley, acting as king's advocate before the special commission appointed under the act of 11 and 12 Will. III. ch. 7. See doc. no. 104, note 1.]
[Footnote 9: Here this fragmentary record of the trial ends. On Oct. 22 Van Vorst, Brown, Quintor, Hoof, Shuan, and Baker were condemned and sentenced to death. Cotton Mather records in his _Diary_, II. 483, that on Nov. 2 he had obtained a reprieve, perhaps a pardon, for one who was more penitent and less guilty than the others (South or Davis? but both had been acquitted). On Nov. 15 he records, II. 488, "Six pirates executed. I took a long and sad Walk with them, from the Prison to the Place of Execution", instructed them, and prayed with them. Before the end of the year he published _Instructions to the Living, from the Condition of the Dead, A Brief Relation of Remarkables in the Shipwreck of above One Hundred Pirates, Who were Cast away in the Ship Whido, on the Coast of New-England, April 26, 1717, And in the Death of Six, who after a Fair Trial at Boston, were Convicted and Condemned, Octob. 22, And Executed, Novemb. 15, 1717, With some Account of the Discourse had with them on the way to their Execution, And a Sermon preached on their Occasion_ (Boston, 1717). In the pamphlet _The Trials of Eight Persons_ we see Van Vorst and Baker, properly repentant, singing a Dutch psalm on their way to execution.]