York, my native State, after many years' residence and exploratory
travels of that quarter of the Union. Having become extensively known,
personally, and as an author, and my name having been associated with
several distinguished actors in our western history, the wish has often
been expressed to see some record of the events as they occurred. In
yielding to this wish, it must not be supposed that the writer is about
to submit an autobiography of himself; nor yet a methodical record of
his times--tasks which, were he ever so well qualified for, he does not
at all aspire to, and which, indeed, he has not now the leisure, if he
had the desire, to undertake.

Still, his position on the frontiers, and especially in connection with
the management of the Indian tribes, is believed to have been one of
marked interest, and to have involved him in events and passages often
of thrilling and general moment. And the recital of these, in the simple
and unimposing forms of a diary, even in the instances where they may be
thought to fail in awakening deep sympathy, or creating high excitement,
will be found, he thinks, to possess a living moral _undertone_. In the
perpetual conflict between civilized and barbaric life, during the
settlement of the West, the recital will often recall incidents of toil
and peril, and frequently show the open or concealed murderer, with his
uplifted knife, or deadly gun. As a record of opinion, it will not be
too much to say, that the author's approvals are ever on the side of
virtue, honor, and right; that misconception is sometimes prevented by
it, and truth always vindicated. If he has sometimes met bad men; if he
has experienced detraction, or injustice; if even persons of good
general repute have sometimes persecuted him, it is only surprising, on
general grounds, that the evils of this kind have not been greater or
more frequent; but it is conceived that the record of such injustice
would neither render mankind wiser nor the author happier. The "crooked"