Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1841, by HARPER & BROTHERS,

In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York.

PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT.

IN continuing their series of AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY, the publishers believe that no work is more worthy of a place in it than the excellent one of BELKNAP, a new edition of which they now offer. The very frequent reference to it as an authority by more recent writers of American history, the uni. form acknowledgment of its singular accuracy by those who have had occasion to investigate anew the lives of those of whom Dr. Belknap has written, the correctness of his judgment, his candour, and the elegance of his style, render it unnecessary for them to say anything farther in commendation of these volumes. They were originally prepared with great labour, and with a scrupulous adherence to facts, and it is believed that the notes and additions to the present edition have been not less laboriously and faithfully made.

The publishers have omitted three sketches which were in the original work, viz., the lives of Cabot, Smith, and Hudson, for the reason that memoirs of the same individuals, somewhat more full, have been 414235

already published by them in former volumes of

their series.

The additions to the author's text, which has been exactly followed, are enclosed in brackets, and the notes of the editor are marked by brackets and the letter H. H. & B.

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

IN preparing a new edition of a work so highly esteemed for its exactness and impartiality, the editor has had a twofold labour. He has re-examined all the statements of facts made by Dr. Belknap, and compared them with the authorities he used, and with others which were not accessible when he wrote. It has been very seldom that he has found occasion to differ from Dr. Belknap, and that most frequently in cases in which documents recently discovered have thrown light upon subjects which the want of them rendered necessarily obscure. It is believed that no work has been published of such magnitude, embracing such a variety of persons and events, and extending over a period of more than six hundred years, in which so few, and those so unimportant, errors are to be found. The manuscript collections yet remaining, from which the work was originally written, prove a degree of care. ful diligence, and a discriminating and impartial judgment, which have been rarely exercised by the historical inquirer.

The second part of the editor's labour has been to add occasional illustrations and notes. These it was thought proper to make chiefly biographical. They have gradually swelled much beyond his original design; but it would have been more easy to make them larger than smaller. They have been prepared with much care, and it is hoped that they may not prove entirely unworthy of the excellent work to which they are added. In most cases he has given a reference to the sources on which he has relied, not for ostentation, but because some of his readers may choose to investigate and compare for themselves, and because his own statement might not have the weight of an authority.

F. M. H.

Northampton, Mass., May, 1841.