It is a curious thing that at my age  —  fifty-five last birthday  —  I should find myself taking up a pen to try to write a history. I wonder what sort of a history it will be when I have finished it, if ever I come to the end of the trip! I have done a good many things in my life, which seems a long one to me, 
owing to my having begun work so young, perhaps. At an age when other boys are at school I was earning my living as a trader in the old Colony.