VI 



PREFACE- 



gether inexcusable. Still, however, he thinks it 

 may fairly be questioned, whether the critic is 

 quite justifiable in all his manifestations of ill hu- 

 mour. So far as he takes exceptions to his style or 

 his physiognomy, the author willingly allows him 

 to be as merry as a person in a great passion can 

 reasonably be. It may also be allowed the critic to 

 indulge in that singular display of splenetic and bitter 

 folly, which prompts him to place an officer in the 

 discharge of his public duties, on a par with, nay, 

 below, the most renowned of the Bucaniers. All 

 this is well enough ; indeed, it is better for the author 

 than the critic, since it affords a clear indication of 

 the spirit of candour which the latter brings to the 

 aid of his judgment. 



But here the indulgence of the author toward his 

 critic must end. He was welcome to call names 

 and make comparisons ; but when a writer, under 

 the disguise of an advocate of religion and huma- 

 nity, comes forth to assail the character and morals 

 of another, he ceases to be either harmless or justifi- 

 able. It is with a view principally to the exposure 

 of these imputations, and to vindicate the author's 

 conduct, in situations where he is charged with out- 

 raging both decency and humanity, that Capt. Por- 

 ter has taken the pains to examine the details of a 

 great number of voyages, undertaken by various 

 nations, and to compare the course pursued by the 

 commanding officers with his own. His character 

 as an officer ; his reputation as a man ; his morals, 

 his reUgion, his humanity, have all been aspersed by 

 the Reviewer, who, in order to make good his char- 

 ges, triumphantly contrasts his conduct with that of 

 the illustrious navigators of his own country. It is 

 that conduct, which it is the intention of the author 

 to pass in rapid review before his readers ; and if in 



