 | Tales of the border |  |
PREFACE.
A few of the following Tales have been
heretofore published in periodicals, but have
not, it is supposed, been circulated to such
an extent as to have been generally read;
while the natural partiality which a writer
feels towards his literary offspring has induced
the author to wish to preserve them
in a form less perishable than that in which
they first appeared. The larger portion, however,
of this volume is now presented for the
first time to the public.
Although the garb of fiction has been
assumed, as that which would afford the
greatest freedom of description, the incidents
which are related in these and other tales of
the author are mostly such as have actually
occurred; and he has only exercised his own
together, in one sketch, the adventures which
may not have occurred in the connection in
which he has chosen to place them, or which
may have happened to different individuals.
In the descriptions of scenery he has not, in
any instance, intentionally departed from
nature, or exercised his own fancy in the
creation of a landscape, or in the exaggeration
of the features which he has attempted
to draw; and if the fidelity of his pictures
shall not be recognised by those who have
traveled over the same ground, the deficiency
will have resulted in the badness of the
execution, and not in any intentional deviation
from the originals.
In two of the tales, which occupy the
largest space in the volume, the author has
had an object in view, which will be readily
understood by those who are conversant
with American history, and especially by
those whose sympathies have been strongly
enlisted in behalf of the aborigines of our
of that mutual antipathy which has drawn a
broad line of separation between the white
and red races, and kept alive a feud as
deadly as it has been interminable. Yet
all are not so well acquainted with the
causes of that unhappy animosity, nor with
the numberless irritating circumstances by
which the passions of each party have been
excited, and a jealousy so deplorable handed
down from generation to generation. We
have selected a few of those facts, such as
most commonly occur, and have given them
with little embellishment, and, we hope, without
partiality.
The preparation of these sketches have
cost the author but little labour; they are
plain recitals of the traditions collected by
other travellers upon our border, or of the
legends which have amused his own hours
while sitting by the hospitable fireside of the
western farmer. Their brevity will probably
secure them a perusal, in common with the
any read them with instruction, the author
will be satisfied; should the critic pass them
over without censure, he will esteem himself
fortunate.
| Tales of the border | |