Ixxxiv author's PllEFACE. 



vided they have so much relation to the Voyage, that they 

 cou'd not he learnt without it. On the contrary, the hest 

 and most agreeable thought will come in very Mai d propos, 

 in a Eelation of this Nature, if 'tis not, as one may say 

 born in the Voyage, and do's not properly and independently 

 belong to it. Pursuant to this Idea, I might report at 

 length, and keep still in my character of a Traveller, all the 

 long Discourse upon the Subject of Women: All that is 

 taken out of the Golden Sentences, all that is said on the 

 Eights of Mankind, and almost every thing else which I 

 have spoken of, that seems to go from the Subject. 



II. Some advis'd me to put my Name to those Memoirs 

 and others were of Opinion that I shou'd not do 

 it. The latter grounded theirs on a Principle of 

 Humility or Modesty, as the thing explains it self : 

 And the former pretend that every Man who affirms 

 Fact, is obliged to make himself known. 



I am entirely of their Sentiments. I believe that who- 

 ever speaks as a Witness, ought, as we say in French, to 

 decline^ his Name, and to omit nothing that may serve to 

 convince the Eeader of his Candour, and the most exact 

 truth of all he says. As to my self in particular, I own 

 I never had any Opinion at all of a Voyage, without the 

 Authors Name to it ; nor even of the Pielation of a Voyager 

 of an indifferent Eeputation, tho' he puts his Name to his 

 Work, if he do's not also produce Witnesses, especially if 

 he comes from a far Country. Who do's not know the Dis- 

 position of all Men ? A Traveller of an ordinary Character 

 for Fidelity, and one who has no Witnesses to prove what 

 he affirms to be true, is under a great Temptation when he 

 conceals his Name to lace his History a little, to render it 

 the more agreeable. And we have so many proofs of this 

 Truth, that no body can doubt of its being true. 

 1 In orig. : " decliner," i.e.-, to state. 



