OR, A NARRATIVE OF THE CAPTIVITY AND SUFFERINGS OF AN AMERICAN FEMALE UNDER THE POPISH PRIESTS, IN THE ISLAND OF CUBA; WITH A FULL DISCLOSURE OF THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. WRITTEN BY HERSELF. WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, BY SAMUEL B. SMITH, LATE A PRIEST IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. LONDON: JAMES S. HODSON, 112, FLEET STREET. 1837. CERTIFICATES RESPECTING THE CHARACTER OF THE AUTHORESS. THIS certifies that Rosamond Culbertson is a member of the Third Free Presbyterian Church in this city, in good and regular standing; that she possesses the confidence of her brethren and sisters in this church, and is cheerfully commended to the confidence of the Christian public in general. By order of the Session, New York, Dec. 16, 1835. N. E. JOHNSON, Mod. I have been acquainted with Rosamond Culbertson about two years, almost from the commencement of her religious experience. have the fullest confidence in her integrity and Christian character; and knowing also the circumstances under which the accompanying narrative has been written (the writer herself being brought several times to the brink of the grave), I can cheerfully commend her statements to the public, believing that they contain nothing but the truth. New York, De.. 15, 1835. ISAAC N. SPRAGUE, Pastor of the Fourth Free Pres. I have been acquainted with Rosamond Culbertson for six months past, during which time I have been her physician. I believe her to be a devoted Christian. I think there can be no question as to the truth of the narrative she has written. In December, 1835, she was very sick, and not expected to live from one hour to another; in fact, for several hours she was speechless, and I could but just discern that she breathed. When she revived, so as to speak, I asked her if what she had written in her narrative was true: she replied, "Yes; the truth, and no thing but the truth." J. A. WARD, M. D., New York, 241, Spring Street, N. Y. Dec. 18, 1835. Dear Sir, the Third Free Church of Since that time her walk Rosamond Culbertson united with this city on the 20th of June, 1834. and conversation, as far as I know or can learn, has been very exemplary, and worthy of her high vocation. I have seen her more or less frequently since she united with the church, both in seasons of health and sickness. At all times she has seemed to maintain the same unshaken confidence in the Saviour, and the same determination to live, as far as her influence might extend, for the promotion of truth and righteousness in the earth. In my opinion the most implicit confidence may be placed in her character for veracity and truth. Rev. Mr. Smith, New York, Jan 7, 1836. J. F. ROBINSON, Clerk of the Session of the Third To J. F. ROBINSON, Esq. Auburn, Jan. 2, 1836. You will not be surprised that I take a deep interest in the forthcoming work of Mrs. Culbertson, when you learn that it was undertaken at my particular suggestion. She had given many facts, relative to her past life, in conversations held at different times with my wife. These were reported to me, and so deeply impressed my mind, that I communicated a wish to have them committed to paper, fully impressed with the conviction that the time was not far distant when the public good would be promoted by having them published. The papers were accordingly prepared, and committed to the care of my wife. We read them with interest, and were astonished and afflicted at the " mystery of iniquity" which they revealed. Several months elapsed before my mind became settled as to the course which duty dictated in the case. At length I concluded to publish the Narrative, in successive numbers, in a newspaper, edited by the Rev. Mr. Smith, and entitled "The Downfal of Babylon;" but before arrangements for presenting them to the public through this medium, were completed, the design of publishing them in the form of a neat little volume suggested itself to my mind. Accordingly the subject was proposed to the Rev. Mr. Smith, and also to H. D. Ward, Esq. To the latter gentleman the papers were committed for his perusal, and with a view to their being prepared for the press. After this I saw them no more; but I am happy to learn, through your letter to me, that the work is soon to be presented to the public. My sole desire, next to the public good, in wishing this Narrative to take the volume course to the eye of the community, was, that the unhappy, and yet happy, because, in my judgment, redeemed Rosamond, might derive from it something to support her in the midst of those infirmities which, though self-induced, yet because penitently wept over, have awakened our tenderest sympathy. I hope, dear Sir, that as professed Christians have had the charge of this matter, the individual most deeply interested will, under no pretence of the claims of services rendered, or charity, be deprived of the entire avails of the book, after reasonable and even liberal charges are paid. It is true that, so far as my own impressions of facts, in regard to the subject of this Narrative are concerned, there was little that I had not long before fully believed to be true. Indeed, such are the views given by writers in her own communion of the abominations of the Romish church, that those who do not see and acknowledge them, must_blush to complain against the charge of voluntary blindness. The circumstance of the authoress living amongst us enhances the subject of her own story, the more so as she has experienced in her own person, and seen with her own eyes, the enormities and abominations of which she speaks. She names persons-gives dates and localities-speaks of circumstances and events of public notoriety, and all in a way of such honest and undisguised simplicity, as to force conviction upon the miud of the reader, all but in despite of the strongest prejudice. D. C. LANSING, Pastor of the Presbyterian Church. |