NARRATIVE OF A. GORDON PYM

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

UPON my return to the United States a few months ago, after the
extraordinary series of adventure in the South Seas and elsewhere, of
which an account is given in the following pages, accident threw me
into the society of several gentlemen in Richmond, Va., who felt deep
interest in all matters relating to the regions I had visited, and
who were constantly urging it upon me, as a duty, to give my
narrative to the public. I had several reasons, however, for
declining to do so, some of which were of a nature altogether
private, and concern no person but myself; others not so much so. One
consideration which deterred me was that, having kept no journal
during a greater portion of the time in which I was absent, I feared
I should not be able to write, from mere memory, a statement so
minute and connected as to have the _appearance _of that truth it
would really possess, barring only the natural and unavoidable
exaggeration to which all of us are prone when detailing events which
have had powerful influence in exciting the imaginative faculties.
Another reason was, that the incidents to be narrated were of a
nature so positively marvellous that, unsupported as my assertions
must necessarily be (except by the evidence of a single individual,
and he a half-breed Indian), I could only hope for belief among my
family, and those of my friends who have had reason, through life, to
put faith in my veracity-the probability being that the public at
large would regard what I should put forth as merely an impudent and
ingenious fiction. A distrust in my own abilities as a writer was,
nevertheless, one of the principal causes which prevented me from