s, from having displayed some strong traits of character. Mr. T.
Scott had determined to represent his youthful acquaintance as emigrating
to America, and encountering the dangers and hardships of the New World,
with the same dauntless spirit which he had displayed when a boy in his
native country. Mr. Scott would probably have been highly successful,
being familiarly acquainted with the manners of the native Indians, of
the old French settlers in Canada, and of the Brules or Woodsmen, and
having the power of observing with accuracy what I have no doubt he could
have sketched with force and expression. In short, the Author believes
his brother would have made himself distinguished in that striking field
in which, since that period, Mr. Cooper has achieved so many triumphs.
But Mr. T. Scott was already affected by bad health, which wholly
unfitted him for literary labour, even if he could have reconciled his
patience to the task. He never, I believe, wrote a single line of the
projected work; and I only have the melancholy pleasure of preserving in
the Appendix [Footnote: See Appendix No. III.] the simple anecdote on
which he proposed to found it.

To this I may add, I can easily conceive that there may have been
circumstances which gave a colour to the general report of my brother
being interested in these works; and in particular that it might derive
strength from my having occasion to remit to him, in consequence of
certain family transactions, some considerable sums of money about that
period. To which it is to be added that if any person chanced to evince
particular curiosity on such a subject, my brother was likely enough to
divert himself with practising on their credulity.

It may be mentioned that, while the paternity of these Novels was from
time to time warmly disputed in Britain, the foreign booksellers
expressed no hesitation on the matter, but affixed my name to the whole
of the Novels, and to some besides to which I had no claim.

The volumes, therefore, to which the present pages form a Preface are
entirely the composition of the Author by whom they are now acknowledged,
with the exception, always, of avowed quotations, and such unpremeditated
and involuntary plagiarisms as can scarce be guarded against by any one
who has read and written a great deal. The original manuscripts are all
in existence, and entirely written (horresco referens) in the Author's
own hand, excepting during the years 1818 and 1819