ndo, as near as
possible, what I have helped to accomplish in the past.

In the first place, I desire to give the reader an idea of who I am,
as the reader is entitled to this knowledge, and in the second place
I want the reader to understand what I am, and in the third place to
understand why I am what I am, as there must be a reason for all
things.

My ancestors came from Sweden, but becoming tired of religions
warfare under Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, they settled in a
Catholic colony in Germany, in the southern part of the Dukedom of
Oldenburg, near the River Haase.

The reader, if he be a Protestant, is familiar with Protestant
affiliations, and I am led to believe belongs to one of the many
Protestant denominations, known under the head of Methodist, Baptist,
Christian, United Brethren, Presbyterian, Free Baptist, or some one
of the many other Protestant Churches. Therefore you can easily see
why it was that I became a Catholic, as I was taught it from my
infancy.

My father, like his ancestors, lived in Essen, Oldenburg. Essen is a
town of considerable trade in grain, in fine Oldenburg horses and
Holstein cows, in fact, it is a town noted for its fine stock.

The beautiful town of Essen has a considerable population. Two fine
rivers, which unite their rapid waters in its very midst, make it an
ideal spot to live.

My relatives were among the first and best families of the Dukedom.
These families were by name Dickmann, Meyer, Junker and Mohlenkamp,
who are at the head of the intellectual and material movements of
that place. They are all related by marriage and intermarriage to the
Fresenborgs. My parents had ten children. This, however, may not
interest the reader, so I will confine myself to my own biography.

The school to which I was sent was one of the leading schools and had
a world-wide reputation, especially of sending many scholars and
students to the gymnasium and afterwards to universities for
different branches of sciences.

It seems as though all of those who attended this school became
successful in their individual careers, as lawyers, doctors or some
other of the chosen avocations of life.

I was raised, I might say, under the walls of the free City of
Bremen, and was inspired with the idea of freedom, and this, perhaps,
may be the reason why, when I have come to be an old man, that I have
shaken off this eternal bondage of Catholicism and launched my boat
so late in life upon t