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Preface. just, they certainly deserve some attention, and finally will pre vail ; for, truth is eternal. Such as they are, however, they are my own, for no person whatever has yet seen the con tents of the following book; no person has been consulted upon them; and I have studiously avoided, (what may ap pear very extraordinary) reading any work, or report whatever, on the subject of Africa, and the slavery of its natives ; lest I might have been biassed and led away by others arguments, and might have formed my opinion from the reasoning of others, instead of my own observation. In as much solitude then, and with as little advice, as if I had been yet following my Robinson-Crusoe-like kind of life on the Island of Bulama, were my sentiments committed to paper. I consulted Ed wards on the cultivation of cotton, coffee, &c., Labat, who wrote near a century ago ; and Golberry, who gave rise to this publication, but no other author. I may be accused of egotism in the narrative of the expedition. But alas ! of whom else had I to speak ? Things must be re lated as they were, and not altered, to appear more seemly : for truth, and not fiction, is the subject. The most formidable objection, however, is yet to come; and that is as to the execution of my task. It will be seen, and by the candid probably remembered, that among all the trades which I was obliged to practise when on the Island of Bu lama, that of book-making was not one ; the title however which I have chosen for this, promises not much; that of vii