PREFACE 



Conscious of my inability to entertain tlie 

 reader with tlie Style and Language of some late 

 writers, I humbly solicit his candor and indul- 

 gence for the many inaccuracies he will meet with 

 in the perusal of the work. However great some 

 of its defects may appear, I hope they will in some 

 measure be compensated for by the veracity of 

 my narrative. I do not pretend to give animated 

 descriptions of a country I have never visited, nor 

 of the custom and manners of a people I have 

 never seen. The transactions of the day w^ere in 

 general entered at the close of the same; and little 

 did I then suspect, that they W'Ould ever be ex- 

 hibited to the eye of the Public. They were writ- 

 ten for no other purpose, than to serve as mem- 

 orandums for my own use and personal reference. 



After my return to England, I had often been 

 solicited bv some of mv friends, who had occasion- 

 ally read parts of the manuscript, to print the 

 work; but I never could prevail on myself to do 

 so, until T was urged thereto by one in particular, 

 to whom I should have thought myself guilty of 

 great ingratitude had T refused. 



T flatter myself that it will not be deemed imper- 

 tinent, if, by way of excuse for not acquitting 

 myself better, T give (fn those who do not already 

 know it) a short sketch of my life. 



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