their noble and disinterested efforts for my release. In undertaking a
task which has no pleasures for me, and has been accomplished under
the most trying difficulties and with the greatest physical suffering,
I have embodied in the narrative a few of the manners and customs of
Indians, the leading features of the country, only sufficient to
render it clear and intelligible. I make no apology for issuing this
volume to the public as their unabated interest make it manifest that
they desire it, and I am only repaying a debt of gratitude by giving a
truthful narrative to correct false impressions, for their kindness
and sympathy to me.

I trust the public will receive the work in the spirit in which it is
given and any literary defects which it may have, and I am sure there
are many, may be overlooked, as I am only endeavoring to rectify
error, instead of aspiring to literary excellence. I express my
sincere and heartfelt thanks to the half-breeds who befriended me
during my captivity, and to the friends and public generally who
sheltered and assisted me in many ways and by many acts of kindness
and sympathy, and whose attention was unremitting until I had reached
my destination.

And now I must bid the public a grateful farewell and seek my wished
for seclusion from which I would never have emerged but to perform a
public duty.

THERESA GOWANLOCK.



MRS. GOWANLOCK