The Pathfinder
or
The Inland Sea
By James Fenimore Cooper
PREFACE.
The plan of this tale suggested itself to the writer many
years since, though tbe details are altogether of recent in-
vention. The idea of associating seamen and savages in
incidents that might be supposed characteristic of the
Great Lakes having been mentioned to a Publisher, the
latter obtained something like a pledge from the Author
to carry out the design at some future day, which pledge
is now tardily and imperfectly redeemed.
The reader may recognize an old friend under new cir-
cumstances in the principal character of this legend. If
the exhibition made of this old acquaintance, in the novel
circumstances in which he now appears, should be found
not to lessen his favor with the Public, it will be a source
of extreme gratification to the writer, since he has an in-
terest in the individual in question that falls little short
of reality. It is not an easy task, however, to introduce
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