PREFACE.

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The history of the borders is filled with legends
of the sufferings of isolated families, during the
troubled scenes of colonial warfare. Those which
we now offer to the reader, are distinctive in many
of their leading facts, if not rigidly true in the details.
The first alone is necessary to the legitimate objects
of fiction.

One of the misfortunes of a nation, is to hear little
besides its own praises. Although the American
revolution was probably as just an effort as was ever
made by a people to resist the first inroads of oppression,
the cause had its evil aspects, as well as all
other human struggles. We have been so much accustomed
to hear everything extolled, of late years,
that could be dragged into the remotest connection
with that great event, and the principles which led
to it, that there is danger of overlooking truth, in a
pseudo patriotism. Nothing is really patriotic, however,
that is not strictly true and just; any more
than it is paternal love to undermine the constitution
of a child by an indiscriminate indulgence in pernicious
diet. That there were demagogues in 1776,
is as certain as that there are demagogues in 1843,
and will probably continue to be demagogues as long
as means for misleading the common mind shall exist.

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A great deal of undigested morality is uttered to
the world, under the disguise of a pretended public
virtue. In the eye of reason, the man who deliberately
and voluntarily contracts civil engagements is
more strictly bound to their fulfilment, than he whose
whole obligations consist of an accident over which
he had not the smallest control, that of birth; though
the very reverse of this is usually maintained under
the influence of popular prejudice. The reader will
probably discover how we view this matter, in the
course of our narrative.

Perhaps this story is obnoxious to the charge of a
slight anachronism, in representing the activity of
the Indians a year earlier than any were actually
employed in the struggle of 1775. During the century
of warfare that existed between the English and
French colonies, the savage tribes were important
agents in furthering the views of the respective belligerents.
The war was on the frontiers, and these
fierce savages were, in a measure, necessary to the
management of hostilities that invaded their own
villages and hunting-grounds. In 1775, the enemy
came from the side of the Atlantic, and it was only
after the struggle had acquired force, that the operations
of the interior rendered the services of such
allies desirable. In other respects, without pretending
to refer to any real events, the incidents of this
tale are believed to be sufficiently historical for all
the legitimate purposes of fiction.

In this book the writer has aimed at sketching
several distinct varieties of the human race, as true

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to the governing impulses of their educations, habits,
modes of thinking and natures. The red man had
his morality, as much as his white brother, and it is
well known that even Christian ethics are coloured
and governed, by standards of opinion set up on
purely human authority. The honesty of one Christian
is not always that of another, any more than
his humanity, truth, fidelity or faith. The spirit
must quit its earthly tabernacle altogether, ere it
cease to be influenced by its tints and imperfections.

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