NOTE TO READER:

I completed these works early in 1984.

I was uncertain whether the computer analysis described in the chapter entitled RESULTS OF SOME COMPUTER ANALYSES OF THE VALIDITY OF THE BEALE CIPHERS had been explained clearly enough to be understood by someone without some background in the statistics of information theory. I finally decided in June 1988 to make this chapter public as it stands, with the idea that if anyone wants to understand it, it will be necessary to learn some statistics. I placed a copy of it then in the Bedford County Virginia public library.

However, the other two chapters are understandable without any mathematical background.

The chapter entitled SOME ANACHRONISMS IN THE JANUARY 4, 1822 BEALE LETTER explains my belief that, if the author of the letter wrote it in 1822, he used three words some twenty to forty years before anyone else had heard of them. This leads to my belief that the letter was not written that early.

The chapter entitled A COMPARISON OF WORD USAGE AND SENTENCE STRUCTURE IN THE 1822 BEALE LETTERS AND THE REMAINING TEXT IN THE 1885 BOOKLET ENTITLED "THE BEALE PAPERS" may provide an indication of who wrote the January 4, 1822 letter.

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