(black,) and Milton Trusty, (mulatto,) a sweep, were brought down the same night and chained along side of Peter. Next evening two black boys, Clement Cox and William Chase, were brought down and chained with the rest. Peter says they were three days and nights before they sailed. That they sailed out of the capes and saw the light house. That in about a day's sail afterwards, they landed, and he and the four other boys were chained together in a small oyster house for three days. The five boys were then taken by night in a carryall and gig, passed Lewistown about day light, and stopped at Joe Johnson's house, a tavern, on the road six miles from Lewistown, saw Abraham F. Johnson, Joe's brother, and his wife there, where all five were chained to a staple in the floor of the garret. Soon after, a black boy, John Jacobs, a cart driver, from Philadelphia, was brought there.About three or four days after the 4th of July, a black boy, James Bayard, (a sweep,) a mulatto, Benjamin Baxter, who lived in Philadelphia, and little Jack, a small black boy, (a sweep,) were brought together to the garret, and soon after, Ephraim Lawrence, a black boy, and little John, a mulatto, were brought to the garret, and then a black, Henry, a young man grown, was brought there. The 12 were all chained to the same staple.

Two girls were brought there some time before this, (Lydia Smith and Sally,) both black. These girls were chained in a different part of the same garret. Peter never knew Henry before, but Henry said he was kidnapped by Johnson, on the road, as he was going to see his mother. Peter thinks they were kept in this garret about six months.

One night, twelve boys and two girls were taken down, walked 6 or 7 miles, and were put on board a ship by Joe Johnson, and set sail. In about six days after, they were landed, don't know where, heard them talking about the Chesapeake bay, and that they were near Baltimore. We then travelled by land for one month, until we came to Rockingham. Joe Johnson with them. He chained the large boys two and two, but not the small ones. They travelled generally on bye

roads. Were not permitted to talk to any one they met, always encamped out. Were severely whipped by Johnson, for saying we were free, though he never whipped me. Little John and himself were taken to a Mr. Owen's 13 miles from Rockingham, and staid there a month. Then Johnson sold them all to a Mr. Miller and Josiah Sutler near Rockingham. Staten and Constant, two black men, who said they were taken from Philadelphia, joined them. The whole sixteen, all unchained, then started, under Miller and Sutler, and after travelling some time, stopped at a Mr. Low's, 6 miles from Clinton, about two weeks; where a Mr. Walker came to see, and brought ten boys, and kept us a week or two, when he found out that we were free, and refused to keep us. Sutler sent Tom Low for us, and he, (Sutler and Miller met us on the road) with others, in all the 16 free, and 4 slaves, Lawdy, Fanny, Maria and Martha. They brought us all to this country, but Staten and Constant, who were sold on the way. Mr. Miller got sick on the road, and returned. Sutler sold four, Clem, Ephraim, Henry and Lydia, in Mississippi; Lydia, in Monticello, and the other three, twelve miles across the river, with one of the slaves, (Maria.) The rest were taken to Holmesville, and four of us, William Miller, John Jacobs, James Bayard and myself, were sold to Mr. Perryman, for $450 a piece, last winter. The other six free ones were taken on by Sutler.

500 DOLLARS REWARD.

PROCLAMATION.

Mayor's Office, Feb. 9, 1827. Whereas, information has been received, that in the year 1825, a number of free persons of colour, principally children, inhabitants of the city and county of Philadelphia, were forcibly seized by persons then unknown, and carried into slavery; and whereas public justice and the dignity of this city demand, that so signal an outrage on the rights of the inhabitants thereof, should not remain unpunished. Now, in pursuance of authority vested in me, by the Select and Common Coun

cils, I Joseph Watson, Mayor of said city, do hereby offer a reward of Five Hundred Dollars for the apprehension and prosecution to conviction of any person concerned in the forcible abduction of the free coloured persons from the city of Philadelphia, as above stated.

JOSEPH WATSON, Mayor.

MAYOR'S OFFICE, Philadelphia, January 20, 1827. GENTLEMEN.-I yesterday had the honour to receive your letter of the 23d December last. I beg you to accept my thanks for the important information I have derived from your letter and its enclosures. Your good offices and humane interpositions in favor of the poor kidnapped blacks, that were most inhumanly stolen away from this city and its suburbs, in the month of May, June and July, 1825, call forth the deep and humble thanks of their afflicted parents and friends, and will be duly appreciated by all benevolent and well disposed citizens. I shall immediately communicate with Duncan S. Walker, Esq. as you desire, in relation to this matter, with a determination, (so far as I am able,) to develope the mazes of this infernal plot, by means of which, a great number of free born children, during several years past, have been seduced away and kidnapped, principally, and almost wholly as I believe, by a gang of desperadoes, whose haunts and head quarters are now known to have been, on the dividing line between the states of Delaware and Maryland, low down on the peninsula, between the Delaware and Chesapeake bays.. The local situation of the country afforded them great facilities in carrying on this most iniquitous traffic, the bond and the free, have been equally subjects of their rapacity; numbers of slaves have been stolen from Maryland and Virginia, and carried to the southern and more western states for sale.

Messrs. Hamilton and Henderson, of Rocky Spring, in your state, about a year ago, arrested a gang of kidnapped children and blacks, who were stolen from this city and Delaware, in August, 1825; they were fortunately

stopped before they were sold by the agent who had them in possession, and by the noble conduct of the gentlemen before mentioned, were forwarded to this city, and safely returned to their friends, except one who was cruelly murdered near Rocky Spring, (whipped and beaten to death,) as the survivors declare, by a certain Ebenezer F. Johnson, the brother of Joe Johnson, spoken of by the boy Peter Hook. R. Stockton, Esq. the attorney general of your state, is, I think fully possessed of the details of the horrid doings of this case of robbery.

The warrants of Governor Shulze for their reclaimation as fugitives from the justice of this state, have been forwarded to Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Alabama, and Mississippi, nor have I a doubt that both the outrages to which I have alluded, have been perpetrated by the same gang. We have as yet not succeeded in the arrest of any of them, though frequent efforts have been made for the purpose.

They have been driven from their quarters in Delaware and Maryland, and most of them are believed to have gone into the interior of -; before the receipt of your letter, I was induced in consequence of a private intimation to forward a deposition to Mr. Stockton, in the case of Peter, which I have no doubt will act as a detainer. I have already a number of depositions, as respects Clem Cox and Baxter, that Peter's story is substantially correct, I have no doubt.

With great respect, I am your obedient servant,

JOSEPH WATSON, Mayor.

To David Holmes, and J. E. Davis, Esquires, Natchez.

To DUNCAN S. WALKER.

MAYOR'S OFFICE, Philadelphia, January 24, 1827.

DEAR SIR.--I had the pleasure to receive a letter dated, Natchez, 26th December last, from the Hon. David Holmes, and J. E. Davis, Esq. with an enclosure from you containing the narrative of Peter Hook, This narrative

of Hook, I have no doubt is substantially true, and unfolds a scene of iniquity and outrage unexampled within our borders, and deeply injurious to the peace and dignity of our city. Great individual distress and affliction have been produced by these repeated aggressions, and the public feeling is highly aroused and excited in consequence thereof-Messrs. Holmes and Davis refer me to you, for further communications, and legal assistance, in order to procure the restoration of these unfortunate blacks, to their friends and homes. I therefore, at the commencement of our correspondence, pray you to leave no stone unturned, no legal or humane effort unessayed, to speedily accomplish this purpose-I shall forward you as I procure it, and I hope before long, a body of documentary evidence, that I trust will at least elucidate the history of this foul transaction, and identify the persons and the loss of most of the children--the great difficulty is to procure even the written evidence of white people, to establish the identity of black children, more particularly, if they have been out of sight for a year or two. I have already found white persons who can identify Peter Hook, Clement Cox and Benjamin Baxter. Before I received the letter of Messrs. Holmes and Davis, I had received information of Hook being at Natchez, and immediately forwarded the description of his parents, Peter and Eliza Hook, and the depositions of Hartman Kuhn, and Judge Hemphill; I enclosed these documents to Mr. Stockton, your attorney general, to whose zeal and politeness on former occasions, I am greatly indebted; I beg leave to refer you to Mr. Stockton, and who will, also, be able to give you full information as to the character of the conspirators engaged in the transaction to which I have alluded. I presume Mr. Stockton has seen the correspondence between Messrs. Hamilton and Henderson, (of Rocky Spring) and myself; these gentlemen, however, if he has it not, will, I know, most willingly, exhibit it to you.

I have acknowledged the receipt of the letter of Messrs. Holmes and Davis, which they will, I presume, exhibit to you-although I have at present, no funds in my possession, to re

munerate you for your services in this good work, I will guarantee to you the compensation promised by Messrs. Holmes and Davis, in their letter of the 23d of December last. Will it be absolutely necessary that white persons should go on to your place, in order to identify these coloured people? might not depositions be taken under the act of congress, or in some way that would be availing before your tribunal? otherwise it operates as a monstrous oppression on these poor blacks, most of whom have very little to spare, and the charitable and humane here, as elsewhere, you know, are taxed up to the eyes, for a hundred matters, in which their feelings are continually interested. I hope to hear from you frequently. I shall not easily forget the subject myself, as the parents and relatives of the sufferers, will be continually inquiring after them. Once more I recommend this work to your unremitted exertions, and remain your obedient servant,

JOSEPH WATSON, Mayor.

Natchez, Feb. 25, 1827. Dear Sir,-1 have the pleasure of acknowledging yours of the 24th ult. received yesterday.

That the citizens of Philadelphia would feel aggrieved at this outrage, and that her active and intelligent police would use every means of redress, was expected. Here, if humanity could sleep, our own safety would prompt to action. There will be no want of either proper feeling or exertion among our citizens on this subject.

When my respected friends, Gov. Holmes and Mr. Davis, mentioned this subject to me as one requiring professional aid, I offered my services, but without requiring or intending to receive a fee. Your letter contained the first intimation I had received of such an offer, which I would have declined accepting from them, and as I do from you. I cannot agree in such a case, to receive any pecuniary compensation from any quarter.

It was thought advisable not to give publicity to this subject, until the necessary steps were taken, to ascertain the residence of all these kidnapped

blacks, and to prevent their further removal. This, as far as practicable, has been done. Our laws require these suits to be instituted in the Counties where the persons claiming the negroes reside, and the jurisdiction of the United States' Court in such cases, was at least doubtful. Five suits have been brought for eight of them-one in Pike County, for Peter Hook, William Miller, John Jacobs, and James Bayard-three suits in Lawrence County, for Clem, Ephraim and Henry -and one in Adams County, for Lydia. My brother and partner, Robert J. Walker, is now at the Supreme Court, at Monticello, and will make all possible inquiry into the situation of the remaining six, not yet accurately ascertained, although an inquiry was instantly set on foot. Milton Trusty and William Chase, are believed to be in Wayne County. Every man, woman and child, of these unfortunates in our State, must be hunted out, and as at present advised, we expect to account for twelve of them. Staten and Constant were sold to one Wood, near Milledgeville, Georgia; so says Lydia, who adds another to this dark catalogue of crime, Hannah, a small yellow woman, stolen from Philadelphia.

These poor creatures have been so scattered over our sparsely peopled County, that we have been obliged to ask the aid of some of the members of the bar who practice in those Circuits, which neither my brother or self attend, and which has been very promptly afforded by R. M. Gaines and William Case, Esqs. The documents forwarded to the late Richard Stockton, I have not yet been able to see, in the absence of his Administrator. In his death, the cause of humanity has lost an able advocate.

I can appreciate the difficulty you anticipate, of identifying black children, by the evidence of white persons. But however onerous it may be on all hands, we must do our duty. Written evidence, of course, is admissible; but it cannot be taken under the act of Congress. Interrogatories must be filed, and copies served on defendants, with 15 days' notice, before commission can issue. This will be done as soon as possible; but not in time for trial at the Spring Term in

March and April. If, however, you will send on satisfactory testimony in any of the cases, I do not despair of inducing the defendants to waive formal exceptions.

I enclose Lydia's statement. In her case, commissions, &c. will be waived, if the testimony is taken under the act of Congress. Testimony will be required from Delaware or Maryland, as well as from Philadelphia, in her case. I know you "will leave no stone unturned," to procure the necessary testimony, and we will leave no bayou unsearched for the restoration of the captives to their homes. Our soil affords no stone for building Penitentiaries, but our forests supply gallows for the kidnapper; and while our laws protect slave property, they will restore the free. The defendants, in these cases, have been imposed on, and trials must be had to enable them to regain their money.

We need no stimulus to exertion in this cause; public opinion is with us. The Philadelphians may rely on the hearty co-operation of our citizens in the pursuit and punishment of these audacious and infamous aggressors on all laws, human and divine. Forward the testimony, stating it to be "taken on the petition of for his or their discharge from illegal confinement," and I hope to render a favourable account of these kidnapped blacks.

Very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,
D. S. WALKER.

Hon. Joseph Watson.

Narrative of Lydia Smith.-Says she was born in Delaware, eighteen miles from Bridgeville; she first belonged to Clement Ross, and afterwards to Governor Collins as his executor; that she was entitled to freedom at 21, now 23 years of age; that she lived for some time with Gary Hitch, who married Ross's daughter; that Hitch, after his wife's death, being suspected of a disposition to sell her as a slave, she was taken to one Aaron Wright's, in Maryland, three miles from Norrisfork-hedge, and sent thence to Philadelphia, by the Abolition Society; that she lived there five years, at Mansfield's Tavern, at Edward Par

ker's in Zane street, at Britton Cooper's, whose store was on Market street wharf, and with Mason, the oys ter seller, (mentioned by Peter Hook,) that she was known in Philadelphia by the name of Eliza Parker; that she returned to Milford and thence to Bridgeville; that her father bought her time from Hitch for 65 dollars, and sold her for three years to Levin Stewart, Sheriff, three miles from Georgetown, (Delaware or Maryland) Stewart sold her to Bill Spicer, who took her to Miton, and thence to Salsbury; Spicer attempted to sell her as a slave; was sent for it, to Snow-Hill jail, while she was kept at preacher James Herron's for six months, till declared free; she then returned. Spicer got out of jail, caught her going from Milton to Georgetown; took her forcibly to his brother Theodore's, thence to James Walker's, one mile from Milton, thence to Patty Cannon's, thence to Joe Johnson's, on the line between Delaware and Maryland; there Spicer sold her to Edward Johnson for 110 dollars; thence to Johnson's sister, the wife of young Jess Cannon, where she was chained for 5 months, about one mile from Chrystler's ferry, and not five miles from her birth place; there she found Ephraim Lawrence, John Jacobs, (formerly of Harrisburg, Pa.) and little John; thence she was taken back to Joe Johnson's, where she met those named in Peter's narrative; Henry Carr, a black man, of Lombard street, Philadelphia, kidnapped Ephraim, and brought him to Johnson's. After sailing, she cannot tell where, they landed, and were taken to Petersburg, Va. and thence to Rockingham Court House, North Carolina. Robert Martin, and John James Miller, Josias Butler, and Tom Low, all belong to the gang, and live near Rockingham; so does James Jones, who lives near Johnson's in Delaware. She says Robert Martin is a Post Master! agrees with Peter in the account of their travels; recollects one little yellow woman, about 18 years old, Hannah, stolen from Philadelphia, and a slave, Aaron, stolen from his mistress, Widow Orner, who keeps a boarding house in Baltimore; these two not named by Peter; says that Dr. Carey,

near Georgetown, Delaware, will recollect her well.

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE PERIODICAL WINDS AND BAINS OF THE TORRID ZONE.

(Continued from page 25.)

As

If the tropical rains were always synchronous with the vertical position of the sun, they would necessarily extend from one tropic to the other, and in the interior of the torrid zone, the year would be marked by two rainy seasons instead of one. This, however, is not consistent with facts. the winds are generally directed towards those parts of the globe, where the greatest heat prevails, it is obvious their course, in any particular latitude, within the tropics, must vary with the varying declination of the sun. To the enormous masses of aqueous vapour, which are driven by the monsoons, across the mountainous tracts, with which the equatorial regions of Africa are girdled, we must attribute the regular returns and astonishing abundance of the tropical rains in that quarter of the globe. The position and the elevation of the land, causing great varieties in the periods and strength of the monsoons, as well as the temperature of the atmosphere, must produce numerous phenomena in the periodical rains, which cannot be clearly explained without a careful examination of the various local causes concerned. On this subject much remains to exercise the industry of philosophic observers.

In Borneo, the largest island of the East Indies, the rainy season continues from September to April, with the western monsoon, during which time there are scarcely two successive hours of fair weather. These rains, like all the rest of this class, are usually accompanied by the most appalling thunder and lightning. The dry season extends through the other half of the year, though on some parts of the coast the sea breeze is generally productive of a shower. Upon the coast of Siam the rains begin in April, soon after the commencement of the southern monsoon, and continue, with various degrees of violence, until Oc