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TO THE READER.
Occasional gaps or breaks in the continuity of dates may be perceived, but here is an extensive hiatus, which I cannot account for, and have no means of filling up. I have no sufficiently distinct recollection of the incidents of that period. The original letters are now in Australia; some may have been lost or misplaced, or destroyed by untoward accident. Perhaps, even they may have possibly been omitted purposely by the caution of Sir Thomas. But I cannot at this distance of time imagine any sufficient reason for such by anything written at length in my Journal.
