VI PREFACE. 



ing what an hour may bring forth, soon become 

 weary of the unnatural restramts and dull routine 

 of every-day life ; and the voices of the wild woods, 

 the whimper of the hound, the neighing of the 

 war-horse, or the rolling of the drum, awaken old 

 recollections, and bring back " the past,'' when 

 events, not i/ears, marked their journey along the 

 road of life. 



Some of my ancestors must have belonged to a 

 migratory tribe, for the nomadic propensity was 

 innate in me ; and bred up a soldier and a hunter, 

 since my boyhood I have been a wanderer over the 

 face of the earth, leading — what some of my friends 

 term — a vagabond life, which I do not feel inclined 

 to change, even now that the future looks small in 

 comparison with the past. 



My own experience leads me to believe in the 

 quaint sayings of the descendants of Ishmael : 

 " Mortal, if thou wouldst be happy, change thy 

 home often, for the sweetness of life is variety, and 



