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the consequences of an amour, which he was unwilling to
make good by marriage. But on the whole, I am disposed
to think that the former was the real cause; since he never
expressed any reluctance to go to America, but always
seemed to dread the idea of visiting Europe. I never
doubted at Mogadore that he was an American, as he
stated ; and on one occasion, he discovered an involuntary
exultation at the sight of the American flag, which seemed
quite convincing. He told me that he was born up the
river of New York, where his father lived when he quitted
America; and I learnt, either from himself or from some
other of the Charles's crew, that his mother was a Mulatto,
which circumstance his features and complexion seemed to
confirm.
“ On the whole, as I consider it not improbable that
Adams may be his real name, and being at all events quite
satisfied, that he is the person whom I knew at Mogadore,
I have, (to avoid confusion) adopted the name which he
bears in the Narrative, when I speak of him in my Notes.
“ I shall be very happy if this explanation, and the
details into which I have entered in the Notes, prove of any
interest: if you think them of sufficient importance, I can
have no possible ground for objecting to their being made
public.”
“ JOSEPH DUPUIS.”
Fortified by this important testimony, the Narrative is
now presented to the public, with a guarantee for its substantial
veracity, which happily supercedes, though it does
not render the less interesting, the presumptive and internal
evidence to which the Reader’s attention has already been
directed.
The Editor reserves for another place, a brief review of
the extent to which Mr. Dupuis’ communications thus
confirm the Narrative; together with an examination of
those parts of it which still rest on the unsupported authority
of the Narrator. But he cannot omit this, the earliest,
opportunity, of publicly acknowledging his great personal
obligations to that Gentleman, not merely for his examination
of the Narrative, and for the confirmation which his
Letter and Notes have lent to it, but peculiarly for the
ready kindness with which he has yielded to the Editor’s
request, in extending his interesting Remarks on some
particular occasions, further than the mere confirmation
of Adams’s Narrative in strictness seemed to require.
To this additional encroachment on the leisure of Mr.
Dupuis, the Editor was impelled by information, that few
persons were better qualified to give original and accurate
details respecting the natives of Barbary and the Desert;
— a residence of eight years in the dominions of the