THE LIFE AND ASTONISHING ADVENTURES OF PETER WILLIAMSON WHO WAS _Carried off when a Child from Aberdeen_ AND SOLD FOR A SLAVE. I was born in the parish of Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, of respectable parents, who sent me very early to live with an aunt at Aberdeen. When, under the years of pupilarity, once playing on the quay with others of my companions--being of a stout robust constitution--I was taken notice of by two fellows belonging to a vessel in the harbour employed in the trade called kidnapping--that is, stealing young children from their parents, and selling them as slaves in plantations abroad. Being marked out by those monsters of impiety as their prey, I was cajoled on board the ship by them, where I was no sooner got than they conducted me between the decks to some others they had kidnapped in the same manner. At 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. In about a month's time the ship set sail for America. I cannot forget that, when we arrived on the coast we were destined for, a hard gale of wind sprung up from the S.E., and, to the captain's great surprise (he not thinking he was near land, although having been eleven weeks on the passage), about twelve o'clock at night, the ship struck on a sandbank off Cape May, near the Capes of Delaware, and, to the great terror and affright of the ship's company, in a short time was almost full of water. The boat was then hoisted out, into which the captain and his fellow villains, the crew, got with some difficulty, leaving me and my deluded companions to perish, as they then naturally concluded inevitable death to be our fate. Often in my distresses and miseries since, have I wished that such had been the consequence, when in a state of innocence! But Providence thought proper to reserve me for future trials of its goodness. Thus abandoned and deserted, without the least prospect of relief, but threatened every moment with death, did these villains leave us. The cries, the shrieks and tears of a parcel of infants had no effect on, or caused the least remorse in, the breasts of these merciless wretches. Scarce can I say to which to give the preference, whether to such as these who have had the opportunity of knowing the Christian religion, or to the savages hereinafter described--who profane not the gospel or boast of humanity; and if they act in a more brutal and butcherly manner, yet it is to their enemies, for the sake of plunder and the rewards offered them--for their principles are alike, the love of sordid gain being both their motives. The ship being on a sandbank, which did not give way to let her deeper, we lay in the same deplorable condition until morning, when, though we