[figure description] Dedication iii.[end figure description]

TO
THE REV. J. R. C.
OF
****** PENNSYLVANIA.

The kind and disinterested manner in
which you have furnished the materials of
the following tale, merits a public acknowledgment.
As your reluctance to appear before
the world, however, imposes a restraint,
you must receive such evidence of gratitude,
as your own prohibition will allow.

Notwithstanding there are so many striking
and deeply intersting events in the
early history of those from whom you derive
your being, yet are there hundreds of other
families in this country, whose traditions,
though less accurately and minutely preserved
than the little narrative you have submitted
to my inspection, would supply the materials
of many moving tales. You have every
reason to exult in your descent, for, surely,
if any man may claim to be a citizen and
a proprietor in the Union, it is one, that, like

[figure description] Dedication iv.[end figure description]

yourself, can point to a line of ancestors
whose origin is lost in the obscurity of time.
You are truly an American. In your eyes,
we of a brief century or two, must appear as
little more than denizens quite recently admitted
to the privilege of a residence. That
you may continue to enjoy peace and happiness,
in that land where your fathers so
long flourished, is the sincere wish of your
obliged friend,