Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/82

lxvi and arguments were to be mentioned, they were noted the instant afterwards; for, contrary I believe to what is often the case, I can assure the reader these speeches and conversations are absolutely real, and not the fabrication of after-hours.

will perhaps be said, this work hath faults; nay, perhaps, great ones too, and this I readily confess. But I must likewise beg leave to say, that I know no books of the kind that have not nearly as many, and as great, though perhaps not of the same kind with mine. To see distinctly and accurately, to describe plainly, dispassionately and truly, is all that ought to be expected from one in my situation, constantly surrounded with every sort of difficulty and danger.

may be said, too, there are faults in the language; more pains should have been taken. Perhaps it may be so; yet there has not been wanting a considerable degree of attention even to this. I have not indeed confined myself to a painful and slavish nicety that would have produced nothing but a disageeable stiffness in the narrative. It will be remembered likewise, that one of the motives of my writing is my own amusement, and I would much rather renounce the subject altogether than walk in fetters of my own forging. The language is, like the subject, rude and manly. My paths have not been flowery ones, nor would it have added any credit to the work, or entertainment to the reader, to employ in it a stile proper only to works of imagination and pleasure. These trifling faults I willingly leave as food to the malice of critics, who per-