aced the first
opportunity, after his downfall, to mend his fortunes by honorable
industry in South America, entitled him to respectful confidence. As
their acquaintance ripened, my friend gradually drew from the wanderer
the story of his adventurous life, and so striking were its incidents,
so true its delineations of African character, that he advised the
captain to prepare a copious memorandum, which I should write out for
the public.

Let me tell you why I undertook this task; but first, let me assure
you that, entertaining as the story might have been for a large class
of readers, I would not have composed a line for the mere
gratification of scandalous curiosity. My conversations with Canot
satisfied me that his disclosures were more thoroughly candid than
those of any one who has hitherto related his connection with the
traffic. I thought that the evidence of one who, for twenty years,
played the chief part in such a drama, was of value to society, which,
is making up its mind, not only about a great political and domestic
problem, but as to the nature of the race itself. I thought that a
true picture of aboriginal Africa,--unstirred by progress,--unmodified
by reflected civilization,--full of the barbarism that blood and
tradition have handed down from the beginning, and embalmed in its
prejudices, like the corpses of Egypt,--could not fail to be of
incalculable importance to philanthropists who regard no people as
beyond the reach of enlightenment.

The completed task rises before me like a moving panorama whose
scenery and background are the ocean and tropics, and whose principal
actor combines the astuteness of Fouche with the dexterity of Gil
Blas. I have endeavored to set forth his story as plainly as possible,
letting events instead of descriptions develope a chequered life which
was incessantly connected with desperate men of both colors. As he
unmasked his whole career, and gave me leave to use the incidents, I
have not dared to hide what the actor himself displayed no wish to
conceal. Besides the sketches of character which familiarize us with
the aboriginal negro in Africa, there is a good moral in the
resultless life, which, after all its toils, hazards, and successes
leaves the adventurer a stranded wreck in the prime of manhood. One
half the natural capacity, employed industriously in lawful commerce,
would have made the captain comfortable and independent. Nor is there
much to attract in the sin