Page:Surprising life and sufferings of Peter Williamson.pdf/2



W born in Hirnly, in the parish of Aboyne, and county of Aberdeen, North Britain, of reputable parents who supported me in the best manner they could as long as they had the happiness of having me under their inspections but fatally for me, and to their great grief, I was sent to live with an aunt at Aberdeen; where playing on the quay with my companions, being of a stout robust constitution, I was taken notice of by two fellows belonging to a vessel in the harbour, employed (as the trade the was) by some of the worthy merchants of the town in that villanous practice called Kidnapping; that is, stealing young children from their parents, and selling them as slaves in the Plantations abroad. Being marked out by these monsters of impiety as their prey, I was cajoled on board the ship by them, where I was no sooner got than they condneted me between the decks, to some others they had kidnapped in the same manner. Αt that time I had no sense of the fate that was destined for me and spent the time in childish amusements with my fellow-sufferers in the steerage, being never suffered to go upon deck whilst the vessel lay in the harbour; which was untill