Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The author is desirous that his European readers should bear in mind, that the present work is the production of a foreigner, in whose writing any errors of composition may be pardoned, as arising from the circum stances of his birth and position: the want of an idiomatic knowledge of the language in which he writes, may have deprived his pages of all grace of style. He is conscious, however, that he has most rigidly adhered to truth, and should he have succeeded in render ing his narrative clear and intelligible, the object with which he set out will have been fully accomplished.
