Ixvi INTRODUCTION. 



and arguments were to be mentioned, they were noted the 

 inflant afterwards ; for, contrary I believe to what is often 

 the cafe, I can allure the reader thefe fpeeches and conver- 

 fations are abfolutely real, and not the fabrication of after- 

 hours. 



It will perhaps be laid, this work hath faults; nay, per- 

 haps, great ones too, and this I readily confefs. But I mull 

 likewife beg leave to fay, that I know no books of the kind 

 that have not nearly as many, and as great, though perhaps 

 not of the fame kind with mine. To fee diftinctly and ac- 

 curately, to defcribe plainly, difpaflionately and truly, is all 

 that ought to be expected from one in my fituation, con- 

 ftantly f unrounded with every fort of difficulty and dan- 

 ger. 



It may be faid, too, there are faults in the language - 

 more pains fhould have been taken. Perhaps it may 

 be fo ; yet there has not been wanting a confiderable de- 

 gree of attention even to this. I have not indeed confined, 

 myfeif to a painful and flavim nicety that would have pro- 

 duced nothing but a difageeable ftifihefs in the narrative, 

 It will be remembered likewife, that one of the motives of 

 my writing is my own amufement, and I would much ra- 

 ther renounce the fubject altogether than walk in fetters 

 of my own forging. The language is, like the fubjeer, rude 

 and manly. My paths have not been flowery ones, nor 

 would it have added any credit to the work, or entertain- 

 ment to the reader, to employ in it a ftile i proper only to 

 works of imagination and pleafure. Thefe trifling faults 

 I willingly leave as food to the malice of critics, who per- 

 haps^ 



