Lily and the Totem, or, The Hugenots in Florida, A Series of Sketches, picturesque and Historical, of the Colonies of Coligni, in North America. 1562-1570. By the author of "The Yemassee"

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vi The experiment of Coligny, in colonizing Florida, is one of those remarkable inst:mccs in the early settlement of this country, which deserve the particular attention of our people. Its wild and dark events, its startling tragedies, its picturesque and exciting incidents, long since impressed themselves upon my imagination, 38 offering suitable materials for employment in romantic fiction, In the preparation of the work which follows, I have rather yielded to the requisitions of publishers and the public, than followed the suwstiona of my own taste and judgment. Originally, I com­menced the treatment of this material, in the form of poetry; but the stimulus to a keen prose:.~ution of tho task was wanting: not so much, perhaps, in consequence of my own diminished interest in the subject, as bccau.'IC of the indifference of readers; who, in all periods have determined the uaual direction of the writer. Hereafter, I may prosecute the experiment upon this history in still another fashion. I do not regard this work as precluding me from trying the mnlleability of its subject, nod from seeking to force it into a mould more grateful to the dictates of my imagina­tion. In abandoning the design, however, of shaping it to the form of narrative poetry, I may, at least, submit to the reader such portions of the verse n.s are already written. My purpose, as will be seen, by tho fragmentary pn.aaa.gcs which follow (in t11o Appe1ulix at the close of the volume) was to seize upon tho strong points of the subject, and exhibit the whole progress of tho action, in so many successive scenes i as in the plan adopted by Rogers in his "Colwnbus"-the one scene naturally forming the intro­duction to the other, and the whole, a complete and single his­tory. To these fragments let me refer you. With these, my original design found its limit; the spirit which had urged me thUB far, no longer quickening me with tbut impfl.tient cagorneRS whit'b EPISTLE DIZt'ICATORT. vii can alone jUBtify poetic ln.bors. The plan is one which I nm no longer likely to pursue. It will no doubt have a place of safe­keeping and harborage in some one of Astolpho's mansions. It need not be deplored on earth. I shall be but too happy if those who read the pcrfonnanee which follows, shall forbear the wish that it bad shared the same destiny. To you, at least, I venture to commend it with a very diff'erent hope. CHARLESTON, s. c., ~ May I, 1850. 5 Very truly yours, as ever, Tu£ AUTHOR.