The writer of the following work is said to be a resident of the Miami country. After reading Captain Symmes's numbers, and hearing some of his lectures, he wrote the work, it seems, in the first place without the idea of publication; but afterwards corrected and enlarged it, and left it with a friend of Captain Symmes for publication, sometime in the autumn of the year 1824. The nett profits were then, as now, to be paid to Captain Symmes, towards enabling him to promote and establish his principles: but owing to the absence of the author, and other circumstances, it has remained unpublished till now.

The author has chosen to present the work anonymously; and has obtained the promise of Captain Symmes to forbear criticising it in manuscript,—reserving any remarks or corrections, he may wish to make, for future publication. Some errors of the press will doubtless be discovered; as (in the absence of both Compiler and Theorist) there was no proof-reader at hand, sufficiently versed in the New Theory, at all times, to detect them.

Cincinnati, April, 1826.