"Is 't not strange, Canidius.
That from Tarentum and Brundusium
He could so quickly cut the Ionian Sea,
and take in Toryne."--SHAKSPEARE.
In one respect, this book is a parallel to Franklin's well-known apologueof the hatter and his sign. It was commenced with a sole view to exhibitthe present state of society in the United States, through the agency, inpart, of a set of characters with different peculiarities, who had freshlyarrived from Europe, and to whom the distinctive features of the countrywould be apt to present themselves with greater force, than to those whohad never lived beyond the influence of the things portrayed. By theoriginal plan, the work was to open at the threshold of the country, orwith the arrival of the travellers at Sandy Hook, from which point thetale was to have been carried regularly forward to its conclusion. But aconsultation with others has left little more of this plan than thehatter's friends left of his sign. As a vessel was introduced in the firstchapter, the cry was for "more ship," until the work has become "allship;" it actually closing at, or near, the spot where it was originallyintended it should commence. Owing to this diversion from the author'sdesign--a design that lay at the bottom of all his projects--a necessityhas been created of running the tale through two separate works, or ofmaking a hurried and insufficient conclusion. The former scheme has,consequently, been adopted.
It is hoped that the interest of the narrative will not be essentiallydiminished by this arrangement.
There will be, very likely, certain imaginative persons, who will feeldisposed to deny that every minute event mentioned in these volumes everbefell one and the same ship, though ready enough to admit that they mayvery well have occurred to several different ships: a mode of commentingthat is much in favour with your small critic. To this objection, we shallmake but a single answer. The caviller, if any there should prove to be,is challenged to produce the log-book of the Montauk, London packet, andif it should be found to contain a single sentence to controvert any oneof our statements or facts, a frank recantation shall be made. CaptainTruck is quite as well known in New York as in London or Portsmouth, andto him also we refer with confidence, for a confirmation of all we havesaid, with the exception, perhaps, of the little occasional touches ofcharacter that may allude directly to himself. In relation to the latter,Mr. Leach, and particularly Mr. Saunders, are both invoked asunimpeachable witnesses.
Most of our readers will probably know that all which appears in a NewYork journal is not necessarily as true as the Gospel. As some slightdeviations from the facts accidentally occur, though doubtless at verylong intervals, it should not be surprising that they sometimes omitcircumstances that are quite as veracious as anything they do actuallyutter to the world. No argument, therefore, can justly be urged againstthe incidents of this story, on account of the circumstance of their notbeing embodied in the regular marine news of the day.
Another serious objection on the part of the American reader to this workis foreseen. The author has endeavoured to interest his readers inoccurrences of a date as antiquated as two years can make them, when he isquite aware, that, in order to keep pace with a state of society in whichthere was no yesterday, it would have been much safer to anticipatethings, by laying his scene