The Sufferings and Escape of Capt. Chas. H. Brown From an Awful Imprisonment by Chilian Convicts

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
The cover image for this eBook was created by the transcriber from the title page of the original and is placed in the public domain.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
SOUTH AMERICA.
1. Front gate. 2. House in which Cambiaso and Garcia lived. 3. Rooms where Mr. Shaw and myself were first confined. 4. The room I was afterwards removed to. 5. Where Mr. Dunn, Capt. Avalos, and others were confined. 6. Where my crew were confined. 7. Gallows. 8. Tree where the woman and others were shot. 9. The platform. 10. Flag-staff. 11. Guns. 12. Officers’ house. 13. Cook and bake houses. 14. Gate to the yard where the cattle were kept. 15. Trees where Mr. Shaw, Capt. Talbot, and the passenger were shot. 16. Where they were burnt, with the governor. 17. Where the vessels’ papers were burnt. 18 to 44. Houses or huts for the soldiers and prisoners. 45. Calaboose. 46 to 49. Store houses. 50. Gate. 51. Sometimes used for calaboose. 52. Dog house.
BOSTON: HIGGINS AND BRADLEY, 20 Washington Street. 1855.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, BY CHAS. H. BROWN, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. GEO. C. RAND, PRINTER, CORNHILL, BOSTON.

The preface to a book is very often nothing more than a respectable cloak, allowed by the conventionalities of literature, in which an author may wrap his excuses and apologies for troubling the public with his lucubrations. This dressing up of excuses in order to introduce them into notice under another name, is a thing so tempting to poor human nature, such a pleasant little offering to self esteem and vanity, that it would be very hard if authors were to be debarred from a luxury in which all their fellow mortals indulge. Yet, if it be true that a good wine needs no bush, it is equally true that a good book needs no excuse; and in this age of ready writers, it is very certain that no excuse or apology can justify the publishing a bad one. To apologise for poor or careless writing, because there has not been time or opportunity to make it better, provokes the question, “What necessity was there for writing at all?”—a question not always easily answered.