The rough notes that make up this story were given to me by the person who tells the story. For obvious reasons, I changed the names of the leaders and hereby confirm the guarantee I received that the originals of such people can survive if their discovery is deemed desirable. This change of names, a combination of several disparate, and sometimes almost illegible, memoranda and the reduction of mass to a consistent form is all that was required of me or would be allowed to me.
The expedition mentioned by the narrator in Labrador did not return and was not accurately traced. He does not undertake to prove that this has ever been claimed. But he avoids all the following has been said, and leaves humanity to accept the warning that he should have given him, or awaits proof of his sincerity, which, he believes, will lead to the end of the century.
