VII 



quoting their own actions, as related in their own 

 words, it should appear, that their intercourse with 

 the natives, wherever they visited, was marked with 

 circumstances to which this Journal affords no pa- 

 rallel, it is confidently expected that the charges of 

 the Reviewer will revert to their true source, hosti- 

 lity to himself, and a settled prejudice against his 

 country. 



The very first page of the Review exhibits a clear 

 indication of the spirit in which the critic undertook 

 the task of examining this work. It is extracted at 

 large, that the reader may not only have a fair op- 

 portunity of entering into the spirit of the Review- 

 er's feelings, but likewise of comparing the " style 

 of a boatswain^s mate" with that of a first rate 

 classical critic. Says the Review — 



" It will be thought superfluous, perhaps, to put the Eng- 

 lish reader on his guard against a book which he may never 

 have an opportunity of perusing ; for we believe that ours 

 is the only copy which has crossed, or is likely to cross, the 

 Atlantic : — if accident, however, should throw it in his way, 

 or if some English publisher should be desperate enough 

 to reprint it, it may save him both expense and trouble to 

 be apprisjed of the fallacies held forth in the lengthy title 

 page. We can assure him that he will look in vain for 

 the promised description of the Cape de Verd islands, — 

 or for that of the coasts of Brazil, or of Patagonia, — -no 

 part of the two latter of which, in fact, did the writer even 

 see. For the rest, 'A sequel to the Adventures of the 

 Bucaniers of America,' or to ' The History of the Pi- 

 rates,' would, in our estimation, have been a far more ap- 

 propriate title to this ' Journal of a Cruise,' than the one 

 assumed. It would, however, be an act of injustice to the 

 memory of the gallant Captain Morgan, the undaunted 

 Ann Bonney, and many others of the same class, to asso- 

 ciate with theirs the name of David Porter : to them we 

 cannot refuse the merit of heroic courage and disinterested 

 generosity ; but our ' adventurer,' as we gather from his 

 own narrative, is utterly destitute of both. 



