Journal of an African Cruiser
Excerpt
The following pages have afforded occupation for many hours,
which might
else have been wasted in idle amusements, or embittered by still
idler
regrets at the destiny which carried the writer to a region so
little
seductive as Africa, and kept him there so long. He now
offers them to the
public, after some labor bestowed in correction and amendment,
but
retaining their original form, that of a daily Journal, which
better
suited his lack of literary practice and constructive skill, and
was in
fitter keeping with the humble pretensions of the work, than
a
re-arrangement on artistic principles. At various points of
the narrative,
however, he has introduced observations or disquisitions from two
or three
common-place books, which he kept simultaneously with the Journal;
and
thus, in a few instances, remarks are inserted as having been made
early
in the cruise, while, in reality, they were perhaps the ultimate
result of
his reflection and judgment upon the topics discussed.
