COPYRIGHT, 1906, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

Printed in the United States of America

_All rights reserved. No part of this book
may be reproduced in any form without
the permission of Charles Scribner's Sons_




GENERAL PREFACE TO THE ORIGINAL NARRATIVES OF EARLY AMERICAN HISTORY


At its annual meeting in December, 1902, the American Historical
Association approved and adopted the plan of the present series, and the
undersigned was chosen as its general editor. The purpose of the series
was to provide individual readers of history, and the libraries of
schools and colleges, with a comprehensive and well-rounded collection of
those classical narratives on which the early history of the United
States is founded, or of those narratives which, if not precisely
classical, hold the most important place as sources of American history
anterior to 1700. The reasons for undertaking such a project are for the
most part obvious. No modern history, however excellent, can give the
reader all that he can get from the _ipsissima verba_ of the first
narrators, Argonauts or eyewitnesses, vivacious explorers or captains
courageous. There are many cases in which secondary narrators have quite
hidden from view these first authorities, whom it is therefore a duty to
restore to their rightful position. In a still greater number of