I also send, an assignment of the copyright to the Rev. Mr. Harness, an old and much valued friend of my wife’s. The ‘Journal’ will be completed in about 60 pages more. . . . The public and the publishers here are very anxious for its appearance. A few proof sheets having been stolen from the printing office, found their way into the hands of some newspaper editor who, as a matter of course, instantly published them. As there were one or two remarks not very laudatory of the manners of the natives, their ire was raised at once to an extraordinary pitch; and taking it for granted that the whole book is to be abusive, they, the newspaper critics, have lavished their abuse in no small degree. This is rather comical, inasmuch as they are criticising what they have not read. However, they are determined to be beforehand. All this will turn out to the advantage of the publishers, for my countrymen never think of buying a book written about the country unless it abuses it. Indeed, unless a book contains a certain quantity of censure—the more the better—it would not pay for the printing, no matter how great its merit as a book might be.
