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Preface

This work is now given to the public with the hope not
only of furnishing, [in a cheap and convenient form, to] the
thousands of new=comers who are annually flocking to our
[new] Territory, and to others, in a cheap and convenient form a large amount of useful
information, which it would be difficult for them to obtain
from any other source; but also to preserve for the use of
the future historian many interesting facts which might
otherwise soon be forgotten and lost. The author is
fully sensible of its defects, and omissions, [may have occurred]
but hopes that due allowance will be made, when it is
considered that this is the first attempt of the kind relative
to a country more than twice the extent of the great
state of New York, which has been made public. Many
parts of the country are but thinly peopled and but little communication
exist between them and other settlements, so that