Edgar Allan Poe 
Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, of Nantucket [PDF ebook] 
Comprising the Details of a Mutiny and Atrocious Butchery on Board the American Brig. Grampus, on Her Way to the South Seas, in the Month of June, 1827

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Upon my return to the United States a few months ago, after the extraordinary series of adventure in the South Seas and elsewhere, of which an account is given in the following pages, accident threw me into the society of several gentlemen in Richmond, Va., who felt deep interest in! All matters relat ing to the regions I had visited, and who were constantly urging it upon me, as a duty, to give my narrative to the pub lic. I had several reasons, however, for declining to do so, some of which were of a nature altogether private, and con cern no person but myself; others not so much so. One con sideration which deterred me was that, having kept no journal during a greater portion of the time in which I was absent, I feared I should not be able to write, from mere memory, a statement so minute and connected as to have the appearance of that truth it would really possess, barring only the natural and unavoidable exaggeration to which all of us are prone when detailing events which have had powerful influence in exciting the imaginative faculties. Another reason was, that the incidents to be narrated were of a nature so positively marvellous that, unsupported as my assertions must necessa rily be (except by the evidence of a single individual, and he a half-breed Indian), I could only hope for belief among my family, and those of my friends who have had reason, through life, to put faith in my veracity – the probability being that the public at large would regard what I should put forth as merely an impudent and ingenious fiction. A distrust in my. Own abil ities as a writer was, nevertheless, one of the principal causes which prevented me from complying with the suggestions of my advisers. Among those gentlemen in Virginia who expressed the greatest interest in my statement, more particularly in regard to that portion of it which related to the Antarctic Ocean, was Mr. Poe, lately editor of the Southern Literary Messenger.