been indisputably the man, who, in placing my name at the head of the
undertaking, have rendered myself mainly and principally responsible
for its general success. When a ship of war goeth forth to battle with
her crew, consisting of sundry foremast-men and various officers, such
subordinate persons are not said to gain or lose the vessel which they
have manned or attacked, (although each was natheless sufficiently
active in his own department;) but it is forthwith bruited and noised
abroad, without further phrase, that Captain Jedediah Cleishbotham hath
lost such a seventy-four, or won that which, by the united exertions of
all thereto pertaining, is taken from the enemy. In the same manner,
shame and sorrow it were, if I, the voluntary Captain and founder of
these adventures, after having upon three divers occasions assumed to
myself the emolument and reputation thereof, should now withdraw myself
from the risks of failure proper to this fourth and last out-going. No!
I will rather address my associates in this bottom with the constant
spirit of Matthew Prior's heroine:

"Did I but purpose to embark with thee
On the smooth surface of some summer sea,
But would forsake the waves, and make the shore,
When the winds whistle, and the billows roar!"

As little, nevertheless, would it become my years and station not to
admit without cavil certain errors which may justly be pointed out in
these concluding "Tales of my Landlord,"--the last, and, it is manifest,
never carefully revised or corrected handiwork, of Mr. Peter Pattison,
now no more; the same worthy young man so repeatedly mentioned in these
Introductory Essays, and never without that tribute to his good sense
and talents, nay, even genius, which his contributions to this my
undertaking fairly entitled him to claim at the hands of his surviving