Journey to Pennsylvania/Preface
ESTEEMED READER.
THE value of this little book does not consist in elegant diction according to the rules of composition, but in its remarkable contents. The former will not be expected from the author, who is not a scholar. On the other hand his narrative, which, however, is quite readable, is to the reader a guaranty of his sincerity, not to mention the fact that he writes for the most part as an eye-witness. As he did not strictly aim at relating all matters of the same kind consecutively, his work has received some variety which is, perhaps, more agreeable to the reader. What the author narrates with simplicity and without ornamentation of the various Europeans and the American savages, their manners and customs, their laws, domestic and religious institutions, is for the most part new and of such a nature that thinking readers will be glad to perceive in it a special mingling of the European and American climate, of the customs of the Old and the New World, and of a civilized people living in part in natural freedom.
The communications from the realm of nature, the animals, plants, etc., will no less arrest the attention of the reader, inasmuch as the wise Creator has placed an entirely new theatre of his miracles before the eyes of rational man. But the most important part of this publication will no doubt be found in the account of the fate that awaits most of the unfortunate people who leave Germany to seek uncertain prosperity in the New World, but find instead, if not death, most surely an oppressive servitude and slavery. Nothing has been changed in the author's work, except that some notes from other writers of repute, confirming the author's narrative, have been added on the margin, and that the orthography has been made to conform to that in general use. The little work is herewith warmly recommended to the reader.