"The following poems were commenced in the time of the revolutionary war, in which the author took and active part, in defending the liberties of his country." From into

The opening poem is an acrostic dedicated to George Washington

Captain Moses Guest fought in the revolutionary war. His exploits are detailed in "Tales of our forefathers and biographical annals of families allied to those of McPike, Guest and Dumont" (1898) which is available online.

Guest was a New Brunswick native. During the Revolutionary War he commanded the party of Middlesex militia that captured John Graves Simcoe shortly after Simcoe's notorious raid into Somerset County in 1779. After the war Guest became a mariner and remained in New Brunswick until removing to Cincinnati in 1817. Many of Guest's poems concern individuals and events in New Brunswick and New Jersey. See Felcone, New Jersey Books, 744, for considerably more detail.

"Guest, a revolutionary soldier, came to Cincinnati in 1817 and gives some account of his residence there. His voyages were to the Georgia and the Carolina coasts" - Howes. During the Revolution Guest had served in the militia unit which captured the noted partisan, Col. Lincoln, as well as John Graves Simcoe, in New Jersey in October 1779. Many of the poems relate to the Revolution, e.g. Gen. Washington, Col. Simcoe's expedition, etc. The journal, which records three distinct travels, begins on page eighty-three, and describes trips to Cuba and the Bahamas in the 1780s, a trek from New Brunswick to Canada in 1796, and a trip from New Brunswick to Cincinnati in 1817. Felcone states that only some copies of the second edition include a plate.