PREFACE. FROM the entreaties of a Friend the following "Notes" were written for his private eye :from the solicitations of other friends they are now offered to the eye of the Public. The former were tender persuasions, and, in obeying them, the author had much and sincere gratification: he wishes he could feel as well assured that he is pursuing the path of wisdom, by yielding to the latter. But he is sensible that what may be amusing, or may be deemed even valuable, in the closet of friendship, may be very unfit to meet the less-prejudiced judgment of the world; and he is not without many apprehensions, lest a flattering partiality -a partiality which often deals praise, where no merit is due, should have induced him to present to the Public, that which ought never to have escaped beyond the limits of private perusal. Conscious how little his "Notes" are calculated to withstand the scrutinizing severity of criticism, he may observe that, at no time, during the period of writing them, had he a thought that they were destined to appear at the bar of the Public. To fulfil the wishes of one, whose sentiments and opinions were dear to him, was a grateful task: it was congenial to his feelings, and, regardless of studied rules, he performed it with all the freedom of familiar intercourse. He devoted to his friend, daily, the few last minutes before retiring to his pillow; whence it happened that his remarks were, often, traced with a drowsy pen, hurried over with a wearied and reluctant arm: but, from adopting this habit, the busy occupation of the day suffered no interruption; all the occurrences were noted, whilst they were strongly alive in the memory; and those who have known the privation of a long and perilous absence from their home, and the objects of their esteem, will comprehend the many happy associations, which were, thus, brought to sweeten the hours of repose. At the time of the author's arrival in the West Indies, every thing, in the tropical regions, was new to him. He was desirous of obtaining information, and without waiting to digest his remarks into a systematic train; to stamp them with the importance of method; or to improve them by more mature observation, he endeavoured to convey, to his friend, a correct representation of the feelings impressed upon his mind, by the novel scenes around him, before habit and familiarity had weakened their effect. He fears that the frequent repetitions, necessary to this mode of communication, will be found to be more tedious, and, in some instances, even more multiplied than a "thrice told tale;" but he saw no way of avoiding them, without altering the whole plan of the work, and depriving it of the only merit, which he feels it has any title to claim, viz. that of giving the occurrences, precisely as they passed before the eye. He was not engaged in a deliberate voyage of discovery; nor did the busy and anxious duties of his appointment allow him time for pursuits of minute investigation. The utmost he could hope was to catch events as they passed, and faithfully note them from the impression of the fleeting moment. If it should be objected to him that the remarks are not always of high importance, he would observe that it is not from great occurrences, alone, that a correct judgment is formed of men and things; it is more from the daily, common round, than from the great and blazoned events, that a just knowledge is acquired of the characters of individuals:—perhaps, also, of empires, nations, and colonies. |
