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In Two Volumes.
By ALEXANDER HEWATT
The author of the following performance presents it to the public, notfrom any great value he puts upon it, but from an anxious desire ofcontributing towards a more complete and general acquaintance with thereal state of our colonies in America. Provincial affairs have only oflate years been made the objects of public notice and attention. Thereare yet many, both in Great Britain and America, who are unacquaintedwith the state of some of these settlements, and with their usefulnessand importance to a commercial nation. The southern provinces inparticular have been hitherto neglected, insomuch that no writer hassavoured the world with any tolerable account of them. Therefore it ishoped, that a performance which brings those important, though obscure,colonies into public view, and tends to throw some light upon theirsituation, will meet with a favourable reception.
As many of the inhabitants of the eastern world will find themselveslittle interested in the trifling transactions and events here related,such readers will easily discover in what latitude the author wrote, andfor whose use his work was principally intended. They will also soonperceive, that this history, like that of Dr. DOUGLAS respecting anorthern settlement in America, is only a rough draught, and far frombeing a finished piece; and the author will frankly and candidlyacknowledge it. The case with respect to him is this, to which he mustbeg the reader's attention. Having been several years a resident atCharlestown in South Carolina, he was at some pains to pick up suchoriginal papers and detached manuscripts as he could find, containingaccounts of the past transactions of that colony. This he did at firstfor the sake of private amusement; but after having collected aconsiderable number of those papers, he resolved to devote such hours ascould be spared from more serious and important business, to arrangethem, and form a kind of historical account of the rise and progress ofthat settlement. For the illustration of particular periods, he confessesthat he was sometimes obliged to have recourse to very confusedmaterials, and to make use of such glimmering lights as occurred; indeedhis means of information, in the peculiar circumstances in which hestood, were often not so good as he could have desired, and even fromthese he was excluded before he had finished the collection necessary tocomplete his plan. Besides, while he was employed in arranging thesematerials, being in a town agitated with popular tumults, militaryparade, and frequent alarms, his situation was very unfavourable for calmstudy and recollection.
While the reader attends to these things, and at the same time considersthat the author has entered on a new field, where, like the wilderness hedescribes, there were few beaten tracks, and no certain guides, he willform several excuses for the errors and imperfections of this history.Many long speeches, petitions, addresses, &c. he might no doubt haveabridged; but as there were his principal vouchers, for his own sake, hechose to give them entire. Being obliged to travel over the same ground,in order to mark its progress in improvement at different periods, it wasno easy matter to avoid repetitions. With respect to language, style andmanner of arrangement, the author not being accustomed to write orcorrect for the press, mus