To the reader. The writer of the following sheets was prevailed upon to make them public, by the lady to whom they are addressed, who thought the conduct of Eliza, in some of the most trying circumstances of life, would afford a useful lesson for her sex, and whose amiable character deserved to be drawn from obscurity. Those who read only for amusement, will find themselves disappointed; if, in this little performance, they expect to meet with any of those surprising turns of fortune, so easily created by the imagination, but which the judgment can never realize. The history of Eliza is a narrative of facts, which gives the relator no claim to the merit of invention; if the public is pleased with her manner of relating them, her expectations will be more than answered.