If I know myself, it will also be my last.

Under these circumstances, I beg that such of my young fellow-citizens as may happen to come upon this narrative (and I am not ambitions to have the number large) will kindly forbear to criticise it; for it will not bear criticism.

Such of the facts and incidents of our voyage as I have thought would be of interest I have tried to write out.

Strictly nautical terms and phrases I have sought to avoid: first, because I believed them of no great interest to the general reader; second, because, with this my first sea-trip, I have not become adept enough in their use to "swing" them with the fluent grace of your true-going, irresistible old salt; and from any other source they are, to my mind, unendurable.
In the plan of education we have marked out for ourselves, it has not been our intention to become sailors.

We would merely use the sea and its ships as a means of conveyance in our scheme of travel.
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