still more apparent; and that, joined to these digressions, renders
his accounts, however just and interesting, so tedious and irksome to
read, and at the same time so indistinct, that few seem to have reaped
the benefit of them. For these reasons it was necessary to methodize
the whole work; to abridge some parts of it; and to leave out many
things that appear to be trifling. This we have endeavored to do in
the translation, by reducing the whole work to four general heads or
books; and {ii} by bringing the several subjects treated of, the
accounts of which lie scattered up and down in different parts of the
original, under these their proper heads; so that the connection
between them, and the accounts of any one subject, may more easily
appear.

This, it is presumed, will appear to be a subject of no small
consequence and importance to this nation, especially at this time.
The countries here treated of, have not only by right always belonged
to Great-Britain, but part of them is now acknowledged to it by the
former usurpers: and it is to be hoped, that the nation may now reap
some advantages from those countries, on which it has expended so many
millions; which there is no more likely way to do, than by making them
better known in the first place, and by learning from the experience
of others, what they do or are likely to produce, that may turn to
account to the nation.

It has been generally suspected, that this nation has suffered much,
from the want of a due knowledge of her dominions in America, which we
should endeavor to prevent for the future. If that may be said of any
part of America, it certainly may of those countries, which have been
called by the French Louisiana. They have not only included under that
name all the western parts of Virginia and Carolina; and thereby