University of Virginia Library

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PREFACE.

The flattering reception of the “Legends of the
West,” has induced the publisher of that little volume
to venture upon another by the same author.
He is the more encouraged in this enterprise, by a
belief that the American public is beginning to
awaken from the apathy with which our native
writers have heretofore been regarded, and that
our countrymen are now willing to bestow upon
native genius, some of the patronage which has
been lavished with indiscriminate profusion upon
undeserving foreigners.

A number of the tales in this volume have already
been published, but some of them appeared several
years ago, and are now forgotten: and while a few
have had the advantage of extensive circulation in
popular periodicals, others have not been thus
favoured. It is thought therefore, that they will be
sufficiently novel to most readers, and desirable to
the friends of the author, to warrant the collection
of them in a volume. It will be seen that they are
strictly American. Should the work sustain in the
opinion of the public, the character claimed for it,
the publisher will have attained his object, and the
author stand excused for permitting himself to be
again placed at the bar of criticism as a writer of
fiction.