Read it through once

The events themselves are strange enough. They are of such a nature that an honest man cannot invent them, and yet the people who heard them from me have always seemed disposed to treat them as if they were only good jokes; so that I finally concluded to put them down in this slow, sober way, and let them be judged by what merits they had. If they have any, time will tell. They are told without any attempt at embellishment or comment.