Preface.
In writing this book my desire has been to draw an exact copy of the
picture which is indelibly stamped on my own memory. I have carefully
avoided exaggeration in everything of importance. All the chief and
most of the minor incidents are facts. In regard to unimportant
matters, I have taken the liberty of a novelist--not to colour too
highly, or to invent improbabilities, but--to transpose time, place, and
circumstance at pleasure; while, at the same time, I have endeavoured to
convey to the reader's mind a truthful impression of the _general
effect_--to use a painter's language--of the life and country of the
Fur-Trader.