Page:Eventful life, and curious adventures of Peter Williamson.pdf/9

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The Life of Peter Williamson.

to death, I suffered their brutal pleasure without being allowed to vent my inexpressible anguish, otherwise than by shedding silent tears, even which, when these inhuman tonnentors observed, with a shocking pleasure and alacrity, they would take fresh coals, and applied near my eyes, telling me my face was wet, and that they would dry it for me, which lindeed they cruelly did. How u I underwent these tortures I t' rave here faintly described, has iji treen matter of wonder to me ft many times; but God enajled me to wait with more than rommon patience for a delivermcc I daily prayed for. Having at length satisfied

their brutal pleasures, they ,at down round the fire, and roasted their meat, of which They had robbed my dwelling. When they had prepared it, and satisfied their voracious appetites, they offered' some to ie; though it is easily imaitined I had but little appetite to eat, after the tortures and series I had undergone, pet was I forced to seem pleased with what they offered , lest by refusing it, they and again resumed their helish practices. What I could ot eat, I contrived to get beeen the bark and the tree, here I was fixed, they having nbound my hands till they imagined I had ate all they gave e as before ; in which deplorable condition was I forced to continue all that day. When
 * but then they again bound

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the sun was set, they put out the fire, and covered the ashes with leaves, as is their usual custom, that the white peoplo might not discover any traces or signs of their having been there. Going from thence along by the river Susquehanna for the space of six miles loaded as I was before, we arrived at a spot near the Apallachian Mountains, or Blue Hills, where they bid their plunder under logs of wood.—And, oh, shocking to relate ! from thence did these hellish monsters proceed to a neighbouring house, occupied by one Jacob Snider, and his unhappy family, consisting of his wife, five children, and a young man his servant. They soon got admittance into the unfortunate man’s house, where they immediately, without the least remorse, and with more than brutal cruelty, scalped* the tender parents and

the skin from the top of the head; which they perform with a long knife that they hang round their neck, and always carry with them. They cut the skin round as much if the head, as they think proper, sometimes quite round from the neck and forehead, then take it in their fingers, and pluck it off, and often leave the unhappy creatures, so served, to die in a most miserable manner. Some, who are not cut too deep in the tan-
 * SCALP IXCr is taking off