Page:Eventful life, and curious adventures of Peter Williamson.pdf/4



FRENCH AND INDIAN CRUELTY,

EXAMPLIFIED IN THE LIFE OF PETER WILLIAMSON.

I Was born in Hirnlay in the parish of Aboyne, and coun- ty of Aberdeen, North Bri tain ; if not of rich, yet of re- putable parents, who support- ed me in the best manner they could, as long as they had the happiness of having me under their inspection but fatally for me, and to grief, as it afterwards  I was sent to live with an aunt at Aber- deen ; when under the yeats of pupilarity, playing on the quay, with others of my companions, being of a stout robust consti- tution, I was taken notice of by two fellows belonging to a ves- sel in the harbour, employed (as the trade then was) by

some of the worthy merchants of tire town, in that villanous and execrable practice called Kidnapping; that is, stealing young children from their pa- rents, and selling them as slaves in the Plantations abroad. Be- ing marked out by those mon- sters of impiety as their prey, I was cajoled on board the ship by them, where I was no sooner got, than they con- ducted me between the decks, to some others they had kid- napped in the same manner. At that time, I had no sense of the fate that was destined for me, and spent the time in child- ish amusements with my fel- low sufferers in the steerage,