_That a Stranger should presume (though with Sir ~William Berkly~’s
Commission) to go into those Parts of the ~American~ Continent where
~Englishmen~ never had been, and whither some refused to accompany him,
was, in ~Virginia~ look’d on as so great an insolence, that our Traveller
at his Return, instead of Welcom and Applause, met nothing but Affronts
and Reproaches; for indeed it was their part, that forsook him in the
Expedition, to procure him discredit that was a witness to theirs;
Therefore no industry was wanting to prepare Men with a prejudice against
him, and this their malice improved to such a general Animosity, that he
was not safe in ~Virginia~ from the outrage of the People, drawn into a
perswasion, that the Publick Levy of that year, went all to the expence
of his Vagaries. Forced by this storm into ~Maryland~, he became known to
me, though then ill-affected to the Man, by the stories that went about
of him: Nevertheless finding him, contrary to my expectation, a modest
ingenious person, & a pretty Scholar, I thought it common Justice to give
him an occasion of vindicating himself from what I had heard of him;
which truly he did with so convincing Reason and circumstance, as quite
abolished those former impressions in me, and made me desire this Account
of his Travels, which here you have faithfully rendred out of Latine
from his own Writings and Discourse, with an entire Map of the Territory
he traversed, copied from his own hand. All these I have compared with
~Indian~ Relations of those parts (though I never met with any ~Indian~
that had followed a Southwest-Course so far as this ~German~) and finding
them agree, I thought the Printing of these Papers was no injury to the
Author, and might prove a Service to the Publick._
William Talbot.
[Illustration: A MAP OF THE WHOLE TERRITORY TRAVERSED BY JOHN LEDERER IN
HIS THREE MARCHES.]