INTRODUCTION, 



COMPRISING 



A BRIEF SKETCH OF 

 THE AUTHOR'S EARLY LIFE. 



In appearing thus before the public, and for the first time — not only 

 as an author, but as the discoverer of countries the very existence of 

 which was before unknown to the civilized world, — the writer of the 

 subsequent pages is aware that he is advancing claims of no ordinary 

 character. With what degree of ability they are about to be sustained 

 remains yet to be seen. * 



The author makes no pretensions to literary attainments, or to the 

 art of fine writing ; but he has the vanity to say, that, in his natural 

 sphere, on the deck of a ship, he will yield to none in his knowledge 

 and discharge of nautical duties. If this (perhaps gratuitous) boast 

 require justification, he trusts that it may be found in the following 

 brief sketch of some prominent incidents of his thus far checkered 

 life and maritime career, previous to the voyages which furnished the 

 subject-matter of the present work. This he gives the more readily, 

 as the public have an undoubted right to know something of a man 

 who comes before them with the high-sounding promise of increasing 

 their stock of geographical knowledge, and adding much to the accu- 

 mulated treasures of cosmographical science. 



Ever anxious to avoid even the appearance of egotism, he has 

 thus introduced himself to the reader in the third person ; but in 

 telling his own story, he finds it more convenient to adopt the first. 



My father, Benjamin Morrell, of Stonington, Connecticut, is well 

 known to the commercial community in New-England and New-York, 

 as a ship-builder of some professional eminence. His name, also, 

 will be remembered, as connected with a domestic calamity of the 

 most distressing and heart-rending character, which occurred in the 

 great gale of September 23d, 1815, which will be noticed in its proper 

 place. His family once comprised a beloved wife and seven children — 

 four sons and three daughters, of whom I was the eldest. 



I was born on the 5th day of July, 1795. My parents at that 

 time resided in a small town of Westchester county, in the state of 

 New-York, called Rye, on Long Island Sound, about eighteen miles 

 N.E. of the great commercial emporium of the United States. Thus, 

 I may say the salt water was almost the first scene presented to my 

 infant view ; and I have lived close by it, or on it, ever since. 



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