[figure description] Page vii.[end figure description]

Here, gentle reader, you have a genuine chronicle
of our borders. This story is truly named, a
story of our own country. The events are real,
and within the memory of men, though names have
been changed, and, in some respects, localities altered,
that living and innocent affections should not be
outraged. In the arrangement of my narrative, I
have not suffered myself to conduct it, as if the
events had been told according as they became
known to the narrator; but, for the easier comprehension
of the reader, I have stated them, as if after
subsequent consideration, putting each in its connection
with its fellow for the sake of more coherence.
The hero and the author become, under this plan,
identical—though I would not have any of my
friends suppose the author and narrator to be one.
While I am unknown to all, it matters little, indeed,
how much they may be confounded; and whether

[figure description] Page viii.[end figure description]

the reader shall ever grow wiser to know who I
am, is, perhaps, even less important to both of us.
Our acquaintance may be continued and increased
to the profit and pleasure of both without disturbing
the secrets of either. At least I hope so.