The work primarily begun to beguile the tedium inci dent to the author's loss of sight was partly published in the galveston-dallas News, where it seemed to attract ia votable notice; in so much that we were repeatedly urged to put it in book form for preservation. The extreme age of the author, he being then 89, rendered it expedient to hasten the work. Sixty years was a wide gulf for a single memory to span, and being away in California where he had neither the benefit of old associations to refresh his memory, nor the advantages of extended historical re search to assist him on doubtful points, and his death oc curring before the final revision was completed, it is quite possible there may be slight errors. For these, if they exist, we beg the readers' indulgence.