Note OP-1 — PREFACE TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION.

The publisher owes it to truth, and to Colonel Pike, to state that he very much doubts whether any book ever went to press under so many disadvantages as the one now presented to the public. Some of those disadvantages must be obvious to every man who reads the work; but there are many others of a nature not sufficiently interesting for publication, yet of sufficient magnitude to retard the work, embarrass the publisher, and impose more anxiety than has fallen to his lot in the various books which he has published. It is, however, confidently believed that, notwithstanding all those circumstances, the Journal and its Appendixes will be found particularly interesting and pregnant with important information.