Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 11).djvu/31



any other point of view than with reference to the facts and observations which are here submitted to the public, who I am, and what I am, is certainly a matter of small moment; nor shall I detain the reader with any observations on that subject, on which sufficient information, through the medium of the following pages, will probably be found.

The motives which induced me to visit America, and afterwards to give to the public the results of my experience, originated in many favourable prepossessions for that country, and in a strong desire to ascertain the naked truth, in all particulars relating to emigration to that land of boasted liberty. When I saw thousands of my countrymen hurrying thither, as though they fled [viii] for life, and from the city of destruction, I became very anxious to know the real nature of their prospects. To them, I felt assured, that a statement, containing, to the best of the writer's belief, the truth and nothing but the truth, plainly and fearlessly spoken, and calculated to give a correct impression, would be of the most essential service; and, upon those subjects to which my inquiries were particularly directed, I may, perhaps, be allowed to say, that I was, in some measure, qualified to judge, by experience, and by the habits of my life. With these views, I have endeavoured to retrace my many steps, and to take the reader with me, that he may see, taste, and know, things as they are; the rough with the smooth; the bitter with the sweet; the good with the evil. That he may go where I