Produced by Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by the Library of Congress) Transcribers Notes 1. The original spellings of words have been retained. 2. Typos or suspected typos have been noted by [_sic_.]. 3. The long "s", which appears as an "f" with the right part of the cross missing, has been replaced with "s". 4. Lines joined with brackets in the original have been indented three additional spaces. 5. Quote marks at the beginning of successive lines have been changed to the modern convention of one opening double quote and one ending double quote at the end of the quoted text. 6. Footnotes appear as lower-case letters in parentheses. They are alphabetical from (a) to (oo) and have been grouped at the end of the book. _S H E A' S_ _EARLY SOUTHERN TRACTS._ _No. II._ THE Sot-weed Factor: Or, a Voyage to MARYLAND. A SATYR. In which is describ'd The Laws, Government, Courts and Constitutions of the Country, and also the Buildings, Feasts, Frolicks, Entertainments and Drunken Humours of the Inhabitants of that Part of _America_. In Burlesque Verse. By _Eben. Cook_, Gent. LONDON: Printed and Sold by _D. Bragg_, at the _Raven_ in _Pater-Noster-Row_. 1708. (Price 6d.) We have no means of knowing the history of Master "Ebenezer Cook, Gentleman," who, one hundred and forty-six years ago, produced the Sot-Weed Factor's Voyage to Maryland. He wrote, printed, published, and sold it in London for sixpence sterling, and then disappeared forever. We do not know certainly that Mr. Cook himself was the actual adventurer who suffered the ills described by him "in burlesque verse." Indeed, "Eben: Cook, Gent." may be a myth--a _nom de plume_. Yet, there is a certain personal poignancy and earnestness about the whole Story that almost forbid the idea of a secondhand narrative. Nay, I think it extremely probable that it was "Eben: Cook, Gent." or, some other equally afflicted gentleman assuming that name, who-- "_Condemn'd by Fate to wayward Curse, Of Friends unkind and empty purse_,"-- fled from his native land to become a Sot-Weed factor in America.[1]