aver our acquiescence in all its details and all its positions. Some of his conclusions are too rigidly drawn. We believe there is a chain of evidence to arise from these same mounds and tombs, which is yet to tell us, in sounds and words, something more certain with respect to the tale of the early connexion between the races of the old and new world. But, so far as the information is before the public, this work brings down an epitome of its history to the close of 1841. And it is a work from the perusal of which no one, who appreciates the subject, can arise without being either gratified or instructed.

ART. III. Collections of the New York Historical Society. Second Series. Volume I. New York. 8vo. pp. 486.

IN no department of literature has a greater revolution taken place in the course of a few years, than in that to which this volume is a contribution. The new taste which has grown up should be fostered and encouraged, as tending to give us a national character; as meliorating the feelings of the community, warming their affections for the great and glorious deeds of their progenitors, and prompting to an imitation of their virtues, sacrifices, and devotion to the public weal. And it would seem, that, if "history may be regarded as the record of a series of experiments eliciting the social nature of man," accounts of the formation of our early settlements, and of the growth of this immense Empire of the West from the mere handful of adventurers who formed its beginning, must be of much greater value, than histories of those conquerors of nations, whose only glory was in the destruction of works of human art, and in drenching the earth with the blood of its inhabitants.

The encouragement of such historical studies has been regarded as in itself an evidence of the advance of a people in civilized life. "Here," says Southey, in his "History of Brazil," when speaking of one of the Captaincies,—"Here the first sugar-canes were planted, and here the first cattle were reared, and here the other Captaincies stocked themselves with both. Whether the honor of having introduced

them into Brazil be due to the founder of the colony, is not stated. A battle or massacre would have been recorded. He who thus benefits mankind in a savage age, is deified; in an enlightened one, he receives his due tribute of praise ; but in all the intermediate stages of barbarity and semi-barbarity, all such actions are overlooked."

The work before us, is the first volume in a new series of the Collections of the New York Historical Society; and is almost exclusively taken up with the annals of the Dutch Colonists, by whom the arts of civilization were originally planted on the banks of the Hudson."* It is true, that Chancellor Kent, in his "Anniversary Discourse," delivered before that Society in 1828, and which is included in this volume, describes the Dutch Colonial Annals as being of "a tame and pacific character, and generally dry and uninteresting." This was undoubtedly the case with most of those which were then known to the public, and of those only the worthy Chancellor was speaking; but we think that any person who will faithfully examine the work now under consideration, will arrive at the conclusion, that, however "pacific" may be their general character, they are far from being uninteresting.

The gentleman, by whom this volume is understood to have been prepared, † has discharged this duty faithfully. A more valuable collection of early historical documents has not been published at any time in this country; and, if its sale is in proportion to the merits of the production, the Society will have no reason to complain of having embarked in the expense of its publication.

As a frontispiece, we have a map of the New Netherlands, with a view of New Amsterdam (now New York), as it appeared in A. D. 1656. It is copied from the map of Vander Donck, and it appears from examination to be the same as the map drawn and published by Nicholas John Visscher, at Amsterdam, in 1659,- which latter is, however, upon a much larger scale. A small edition of Visscher's map has been republished in New York within the last seven or eight years. It is a great curiosity, and enables us to form some judgment of the strange ideas entertained by the early Dutch settlers in regard to the land in which their

*See Chancellor Kent's Anniversary Discourse, 1828. ↑ George Folsom, Esquire, of New York.

happy lot was cast. The map of Vander Donck only extends to the "Marquaa Kill," or the Mohawk River, and beyond that he has designated the country generally as "Quebecq," or the French possessions; while that of Visscher, on the contrary, extends the New Netherlands to the "Great River of the Canadas "; but yet, of that extended tract of country, he seems to have had no better idea than that entertained by his predecessor, for he gives us no names of places, rivers, or lakes, but merely fills up the space with figures of bears, deer, and other wild animals; and even the great lakes of Ontario, Erie, &c., are wanting, and in their places he has laid down two large rivers, running nearly parallel with each other. On both maps we find many names, retained at the present day, as "Kinder Hoeck," "Klaverrak," "Kats Kill," and others.

Another excellent and curious map of the whole country, claimed by the Dutch as the New Netherlands, is annexed to Lambrechtsen's valuable history of that country, published at Middleburg, Holland, in 1818, the outline of which is from the best map of Arrowsmith at that period, in which the old Indian and Dutch names are inserted from the ancient maps of Vander Donck and others; and those of headlands, bays, and islands, have also been compared with Arend Roggersen's "Marine Atlas."

The question of boundaries, and extent of territory, was always attended with great and serious difficulties from the first settlement of this country. Although the States-General of Holland, in the rules which they prescribed for the government of the West India Company in their foreign possessions, declared, that "the planters should be allowed to settle themselves freely on the coasts and along the banks of the navigable rivers, provided they satisfied the natives for the soil of which they took possession"--which condition was always rigidly adhered to, yet we cannot find that the Dutch Colonial Government, or their inhabitants, ever extended their purchases of land from the Indians beyond the "Marquaa Kill." But still, probably, after the rule "never to lose any thing by not claiming enough," they extended their colony on their maps up to the river St. Lawrence; and the English, after their conquest in 1664, made and insisted upon the same claim. The French, on the other hand, appear to have disregarded those claims, as made both by the Dutch and the VOL. LIV. - No. 115.

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English, and to have insisted, that the country belonged to them by right of discovery and possession. An examination of this claim of the French, and of the course they pursued to establish and perpetuate their dominion here, is a very interesting inquiry. In the first volume of Sanson's Great Atlas, published at Antwerp, in elephantine folio, about 1738, (we speak from recollection, not having the book before us,) is a map of North America, as published by the French geographer; which shows, that they claimed all the country from the Canadas proper to the Gulf of Mexico, and almost up to the gates of Schenectady, taking in all of Ohio, and the Northwestern States, a large part of Virginia, with the Southwestern States, and indeed all the Valley of the Mississippi.

That they truly entertained the idea of enforcing their claim to this immense tract of country, is evident, from the numerous forts and trading-posts which they erected, extending in a line from Montreal to New Orleans; and also from the numerous publications on that subject, both in France and England, from 1715 to 1765. And a grand scheme it was; which, if it had been sustained by the French government at home with men and treasure, as it merited, would have crippled the English colonies, and, in a comparatively short period of time, have formed such a cordon of towns and fortified settlements around them, as they could not have got rid of but by an immense exertion of the whole force of the British Empire, if possible to be done at all. About the year 1754, the result of this policy on the part of the French government in confining the English colonies to a narrow strip of land bordering on the Atlantic coast, became so apparent, that resistance could be no longer delayed; and this gave rise to the Congress of Albany, in 1754, the first ever held by the American colonies, and to the subsequent wars, which ended in the conquest of the Canadas. The proceedings of that Congress show, that the colonies had become thoroughly awakened to the overpowering necessity of arresting at once the progress of the French in America. After taking into consideration the situation of the English settlements, they represented to the Crown,

"that it was the evident design of the French to surround the British colonies; to fortify themselves on the back thereof; to take and keep possession of the heads of all the important rivers; to draw over the Indians to their interest, and,

with the help of such Indians, added to such forces as were then arrived, and might afterwards arrive, or be sent from Europe, to be in a capacity of making a general attack on the several governments; and, if at the same time a strong naval force should be sent from France, there was the utmost danger that the whole continent would be subjected to that Crown."

Numerous traces of French enterprise are still to be seen throughout the great valleys of the Ohio and the Mississippi, in their ancient settlements, and in the language, manners, and customs of the people. Fort Du Quesne, now Pittsburg, in Pennsylvania, was one of the most formidable of this line or cordon of forts and trading-posts. Another portion of it, still existing, is the village of Cahokia, in Illinois; in which is a church, built by the French settlers in 1698, having "battled with the storms of more than a century." The bell which hangs in its tower was brought from France more than a century and a half ago, and still, on every Sabbath morn, calls the people to the offices of praise and thanksgiving, as it has done for ages past. Numerous other instances might be cited, but it is needless; every traveller through that district of country can call them to mind.

It is a curious and valuable historical fact, not generally known, that Thomas Jenkins, Esquire, in 1763, submitted to the British ministry a project to prevent the emancipation of the American colonies, and to retain them for ever in their obedience to the crown. His first proposition was, the keeping on foot most of the troops then in America, which were soon after disbanded or recalled at the peace. The forts, which were scattered along the Indian frontier, and which were afterwards demolished or abandoned, were to be preserved. New ones were to be erected on the coast, ostensibly against the invasions of the French. The lands granted to the veterans were always to be within the precincts of a fort, which, on the frontiers especially, must very soon have formed respectable military townships. Jenkins was well acquainted with America, from a residence of considerable length in Pennsylvania and the Carolinas, and he also had some employment in the English army that conquered Canada; which enabled him to become conversant with the operation of the policy of the French; and it was