PRINTED BY NEILL & CO.
Old Fishmarket, Edinburgh.
INTRODUCTION.
WHEN, for the first time, I left my father, and all the dear
friends of my youth, to cross the great ocean that separates my
native shores from those of the eastern world, my heart sunk
within me. While the breezes wafted along the great ship that
from La Belle France conveyed me towards the land of my
birth, the lingering hours were spent in deep sorrow or melancholy
musing. Even the mighty mass of waters that heaved
around me excited little interest: my affections were with those
I had left behind, and the world seemed to me a great wilderness.
At length I reached the country in which my eyes first
opened to the light; I gazed with rapture upon its noble forests,
and no sooner had I landed, than I set myself to mark every
object that presented itself, and became imbued with an anxious
desire to discover the purpose and import of that nature which
lay spread around me in luxuriant profusion. But ever and
anon the remembrance of the kind parent, from whom I had
been parted by uncontrollable circumstances, filled my mind,
and as I continued my researches, and penetrated deeper into
the forest, I daily became more anxious to return to him, and
to lay at his feet the simple results of my multiplied exertions.