PREFACE xiii 



longer. *' By God, sir,'' said he, "I never saw 

 a man eat like vou. ' ' ' 



" This man had strength and perseverance 

 charactered in every muscle. He eat three cucimi- 

 bers, with a due quantity of bread and cheese, for 

 his breakfast the following morning. I was much 

 pleased with him, he was good-humoured and com- 

 municative; his long residence on the Labrador 

 coast made his conversation as instructive as in- 

 teresting. I had never before seen so extraordi- 

 nary a man, and it is not therefore strange that 

 my recollection of his manner, and words, and 

 countenance should be so strong after an interval 

 of six years. 



'^ I read his book in 1793, and, strange as it may 

 seem, actually read through the three quartos. 

 At that time, I w^as a verbatim reader of indefat- 

 igable patience, but the odd simplicity of the book 

 amused me — the importance he attached to his 

 tra])s delighted me, it w^as so unlike a book written 

 for the world — the solace of a solitan^ evening in 

 Labrador. I fancied him blockaded bv the snows, 

 rising from a meal upon the old, tough, high- 

 flavoured, hard-sinewed wolf, and sitting down 

 like Robinson Crusoe to his Journal. 



'* Tlie annals of his campaigns among the foxes 

 and beavers interested me more than ever did the 

 exploits of ]\rarl])orough or Ei-ederic; besides, I 

 saw plain truth and the heart in Cartwright's 

 book, and in what history could T look for this? 



** The print is aii ('xccllcnf likeiiess. Tict me 

 add that whoever would know the real history of 



