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DON ESTEBAN;

OR,

MEMOIRS OF A SPANIARD.

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.

1825.

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SHACKELL AND ARROWSMITH, JOHNSON'S-COURT, FLEET-STREET.

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PREFACE.

IN ushering into the world the following Memoirs, a word or two may seem requisite, to explain the motives which have induced the author to write and publish them.

Driven from his native country by the late disastrous political events, which still distract unhappy Spain, and severed from all his heart holds dear, the author found, in the sad inactivity of an exile's lot, too many inducements to ponder over his misfortunes and disappointments,

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not to seek some occupation which might tend to alleviate the recollection of them. He resolved, therefore, to re-trace on paper the events of his life; as well the pleasing images of early youth as the active scenes which he has witnessed and shared in for several years. And though this occupation has awakened some painful recollections, it has, nevertheless, been a real comfort and relief to him, by effacing, at least for moments, "the sad images of the present by the gentle dreams of the past."

This reason alone would perhaps be sufficient, to the sympathizing heart of an Englishman, to excuse the author for appearing in his foreign dress, inelegant as it may be, and, as he has reason to fear, faulty too. But he has another motive for printing what he has written, and one which

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