materials of the following tale, merits a public acknowledgment. As
your reluctance to appear before the world, however, imposes a
restraint, you must receive such evidence of gratitude, as your own
prohibition will allow.

Notwithstanding there are so many striking and deeply interesting events
in the early history of those from whom you derive your being, yet are
there hundreds of other families in this country, whose traditions, though
less accurately and minutely preserved than the little narrative you have
submitted to my inspection, would supply the materials of many moving
tales. You have every reason to exult in your descent, for, surely, if any
man may claim to be a citizen and a proprietor in the Union, it is one,
that, like yourself, can point to a line of ancestors whose origin is
lost in the obscurity of time. You are truly an American. In your eyes, we
of a brief century or two, must appear as little more than denizens quite
recently admitted to the privilege of a residence. That you may continue
to enjoy peace and happiness, in that land where your fathers so long
flourished, is the sincere wish of your obliged friend,

The Author




Preface.



At this distant period, when Indian traditions are listened to with the
interest that we lend to the events of a dark age, it is not easy to