•xiv 
I N T R 6 D U G T I O N. 
racier of the natives of thefe iRands — fenfible how foon 
oral teffimony is beyond recovery, and the records of me¬ 
mory effaced by the events or cafuaities of life—I felt anx¬ 
ious to refcu.e thefe difcoveries from Hiding into oblivion, 
and to preferve them to the curiofity and information of the 
Public; I therefore engaged a volunteer in the bulinefs, 
proposing to Mr. Watson, that if his friend Captain Wil¬ 
son would give me his journals and papers, and procure me 
all the living teffimonies then in England, that I would 
my felf undertake the work;—on this condition, that the la¬ 
bour fhould be mine, the advantage Captain Wilson’s. 
After I had, with great attention, gone over all the jour¬ 
nals and papers, and tranfcribed them, the better to fix 
them in my memory, and to diredt my future enquiries, I 
had the benefit of a reference, both to Captain Wilson 
and his fon, during their ftay in England, for what fur¬ 
ther or fuller information I required; and, after the Cap¬ 
tain’s departure, I had alfo, in the beginning of 1786, whilft 
the fadts were recent, the alii fiance and information of fuch 
of his officers as remained in this country; who, for many 
weeks, were fo good as to devote themfelves, as it individu¬ 
ally fuited them, to this bulinefs. The tranfadlions of every 
day, as recorded in the journals, were minutely gone through; 
and it was a great pleafure to me, in taking their feparate 
relations, to find no material difference in their accounts of 
the fadis or occurrences, but, on the contrary, the moft per- 
fedt agreement. Thus, enlarged by the additions of the 
Gentlemen 
