It is Sismondi, I think, who says that "time prepares for a long flight,
by relieving himself of every superfluous load, and by casting away
everything that he possibly can." The author certainly would not ask him
to carry an onerous weight. But, in the history of the settlement of
such a country and such a population as this, there must be little, as
well as great labors, before the result to be sent forward to posterity
can be prepared by the dignified pen of polished history; and the writer
seeks nothing more than to furnish some illustrative memoranda for that
ultimate task, whoever may perform it.
He originally went to the west for the purpose of science. His
mineralogical rambles soon carried him into wide and untrodden fields;
and the share he was called on to take in the exploration of the
country, its geography, geology, and natural features, have thrown him
in positions of excitement and peril, which furnish, it is supposed, an
appropriate apology, if apology be necessary, for the publication of
these memoirs.
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