A TALE.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE DUTCHMAN'S FIRESIDE,"

&c. &c. &c.

• Come all you likely lads that has a mind for to range,
Into some foreign country, your situation for to change;
In seeking some new pleasures we will altogether go,
And we'll settle on the banks of the pleasant Ohio.

Come all you girls from New England that are unmarried yet,
O come along with us, and young husbands you shall get;
For there's all kinds of game besides the buck and doe,
To hunt with dog and rifle all on the Ohio."

Ballad.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

NEW-YORK:

HARPER & BROTHERS, 82 CLIFF STREET.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1832, by HARPER & BROTHERS,

in the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York.

THE devotees of sects and parties are exceedingly prone to imagine that every book, whatever may be its nature or object, is intended to operate in favour of or against their cherished doctrines or policy, and to test its opinions and sentiments by that standard alone. Such a rule, applied to fictions more especially, is calculated to put a tyrannical restraint on an author in the delineation of characters, as well as in detailing the sentiments and language naturally growing out of their particular habits, manners, and situations. Having conceived a character, it should be his aim to make it act and talk as such a person might naturally be supposed to do in similar circumstances. But we think he ought not to be held responsible for this any farther than probability and the decorums of life are concerned. Neither, as it appears to us, is he justly chargeable with hostility to any particular class, or profession, or sect, if he should happen to exhibit a character for the purpose of exposing their occasional excesses or absurdities. All we conceive a writer justly responsible for, in this point of view, are those sentiments and opinions he puts forth when he appears in his own proper person, and makes his bow to the reader. Thus, for instance, the little exhibitions of hostility to the Yankees occasionally introduced in the following work are given as characteristic of the feelings and prejudices of those to whom they are ascribed, and not as the sentiments of the author. So also with regard to the scene in Philadelphia, which is simply an exhibition of what it is supposed would naturally be the

feelings of a sagacious slave in the situation and under the circumstances described. The author yields to none in respect for the motives of those who are sincerely anxious to rid this country of the embarrassments of slavery; and none more heartily wishes the thing were possible, at a less risk to the happiness of both master and slave.

The great aim of the author has been to combine an important moral, with the interest of a series of incidents, and sketches of scenery, character, manners, and modes of thought and expression, such as he knows or imagines exist, or have existed, in particular portions of the United States. The story professes no connexion with history, and aspires to no special chronological accuracy; though it is believed that sufficient regard has been had to truth in this respect to give it the interest of something like reality. For very many of his ideas of the great Mississippi Valley the author is under particular obligations to the "Recollections" of the Rev. Timothy Flint, which contain by far the most picturesque description of that remarkable region which has ever fallen under his observation. This work has not met its deserts, and he should be highly gratified if this passing notice served in any way to call the public attention to its interesting details. New-York, May, 1832.

WESTWARD HO'