Worship, and sometimes with those who led them to ,the Chappel, not forbearing to take an Opportunity to beat and abuse them, and with a Knife in Hand to threaten them with present Death.

But tho? the Deportment of the Malefactors appear?d so visibly chang?d for the worse; when they found the Time for their Execution was become uncertain and precarious, yet if discours?d with, they would affirm, that they, chose rather soon to dye, if Death was to be their Lot, than so long to lye in the Terrors and Apprehensions of eath to them more shocking and dismal than Death itself, especially in a Place so loathsome, and in much Misery and Want.

1. ROBERT PERKINS< no role > , was condemned for Returing from His Majesty?s Plantations in America , without Lawful Cause, Having been Thither for Felony Transported; to continue the Space of 7 Years.

He said he was near 33 Years of Age; Born at Hempsted in Hartfordshire ; brought up at a Village some Miles distant, where his Father kept a considerable Inn: That he lived very happily with his Father, so long as his Mother lived, and afterwards, till his Father marry?d again; But then being Forbidden the House, he said, his Disasters began; he added, that his Mother-in-Law us?d him with the more severity, affirming that he attempted to cut her Throat; and once, in the Middle of the Night, set a Ladder against her Window, and endeavour?d to enter her Chamber Window; but if his Assertions are to be any way credited, he had no Design against the Life of his Mother; but was resolved to have a Shelter and a Harbour against the inclemency of the Weather and the Night; and to get if possible a Bed and Covering for his, Sister; soon after he said his Father died, worth 3 or 4 thousand pounds; but he advantaged by no part of it, was put Apprentice to a Baker in Thamestreet , where he had an Opportunity of being led into an honest, sober. and industrious Course of Life; had not his natural Inclinations directed him to Ease Idleness and Pleasures; for that he was always prone to prefer to all things, an immediate and present Gratifcation.

Once, he said, being drinking at an Alehouse in White-Chapel , and a Crown being mist out of the Til, he and his Companions were seiz?d and searched, and the Money found upon him, whom a Person of the House also affirm?d to have seen thro? a Hole, to take privately the Crown-piece: For this.being try?d, he was Convicted and Transported to Jamaica for 7 Years; where he was sold for about Ten Pounds; but his Trade being nothing there, he was put to Hoeing, planting Tobacco , and all the Hardships that the Negro Slaves endured. But his Master finding, he said, that no Words nor Stripes could make him Work in that way, sold him to another, who built an Oven, and try?d him in his own Business, to wit the making Jamaica Bread , of Indian Corn, or of European Corn with Leaven: But this Master, he said, beating him to Excess, and allowing him only Homine or American Grain and Water all the Week, and one small morsel of Meat every Sunday: He stole away from the Island of Jamaica, to the Continent, of America , and travelling Four Hundred Miles from Carolina , along