CHAPTER LXXIX 414




Prefatory Note


In the _Metropolitan Magazine_, where this novel originally appeared
(Sep. 1834-Jan. 1836), Marryat prepared his readers for its reception in
the following words:--

"And having now completed 'Jacob Faithful,' we trust to the satisfaction
of our readers, we will make a few remarks. We commenced writing on our
own profession, and having completed four tales, novels, or whatever you
may please to call them" (viz., Frank Mildmay, The King's Own, Newton
Forster, Peter Simple), "in 'Jacob Faithful' we quitted the _salt_ water
for the _fresh_. From the wherry we shall now step on shore, and in our
next number we shall introduce to our readers 'The Adventures of
_Japhet_, in search of his Father.'"

The promise was faithfully kept, and Japhet, with all his varied
experience, never went to sea. There were indeed few companies on land
to which he did not penetrate. Reared in a foundling hospital, and
apprenticed to a Smithfield apothecary, his good looks, impulsive
self-confidence, and unbounded talent for lying, carried him with éclat
through the professions of quack doctor, juggler, and mountebank,
gentleman about town, tramp, and quaker: to emerge triumphantly at last
as the only son of a wealthy Anglo-Indian general, or "Bengal tiger," as
his friends preferred to call him.