Xviii INTRODUCTION. 
the spot, every thing remarkable, which occurred to me in the course 
of my employment on this extraordinary service, I have, since my 
return to England, been induced to flatter myself, that my Journal 
might not be deemed altogether unworthy of the public curiosity. The 
trite plea of the importunity of friends, would naturally suggest to me 
the ridicule which has so often and so justly been cast upon it, if I 
had not, in the lateness of the publication, an evidence to acquit me, 
at least of too great forwardness to obtrude myself on the public notice. 
I have exceeded the rule laid down by Horace, of nonum premalur 
in annum , if it may be construed to extend to compositions of this 
nature. I may, also, without presumption, venture to hope, that, 
however incompetent I may be to embellish my narrative with the 
dress best fitted for it to appear in, yet the novelty and curiosity of 
the subject will, in some degree, compensate for my own deficiencies, 
\ 
as an Author, of which I cannot possibly be unconscious. 
i 
