Government house, Fredericton,
N.B.,
Major Richardson, Montreal.
November 26th, 1839.
“Dear Sir;—I am favored
with your very interesting communication of the
2nd instant, by which I learn that you are the
brother of two youths whose gallantry and merits—and
with regard to one of them, his suferings—during
the late war, excited my warmest admiration and
sympathy. I beg you to believe that I am far
from insensible to the affecting proofs which you
have made known to me of this grateful recollection
of any little service I may have had it in my power
to render them; and I will add that the desire which
I felt to serve the father will be found to extend
itself to the son, if your nephew should ever find
himself under circumstances to require from me any
service which it may be within my power to render
him.”
“With regard to your very flattering
proposition to inscribe your present work to me,
I can only say that, independent of the respect
to which the author of so very charming a production
as ‘Wacousta’ is entitled, the interesting
facts and circumstances so unexpectedly brought
to my knowledge and recollection would ensure a
ready acquiescence on my part.”
“I remain, dear sir your very
faithful servant”
“(Signed) J. Harvey.
"
The “Prophecy Fulfilled,” which, however,
has never been seen out of the small country in which
it appeared—Detroit, perhaps, alone excepted—embraces
and indeed is intimately connected with the Beauchamp
tragedy, which took place at or near Weisiger’s
Hotel, in Frankfort, Kentucky, where I had been many
years before confined as a prisoner of war. While
connecting it with the “Prophecy Fulfilled,”
and making it subservient to the end I had in view,
I had not read or even heard of the existence of a
work of the same character, which had already appeared
from the pen of an American author. Indeed, I
have reason to believe that the “Prophecy Fulfilled,”
although not published until after a lapse of years,
was the first written. No similarity of treatment
of the subject exists between the two versions, and
this, be it remembered, I remark without in the slightest
degree impugning the merit of the production of my
fellow-laborer in the same field.
The author.
New York City, January 1st, 1851.
INTRODUCTORY
As we are about to introduce our readers to scenes
with which the European is little familiarised, some
few cursory remarks, illustrative of the general features
of the country into which we have shifted our labours,
may not be deemed misplaced at the opening of this
volume.
Without entering into minute geographical detail,
it may be necessary merely to point out the outline
of such portions of the vast continent of America
as still acknowledge allegiance to the English crown,
in order that the reader, understanding the localities,
may enter with deeper interest into the incidents
of a tale connected with a ground hitherto untouched
by the wand of the modern novelist.
