Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/186

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176 Reviezifs of Books The bibliographical apparatus is defective; but the writer appears to have used diligently the official records, both printed and manuscript, including the commissions and instructions to royal governors, in process of publication by the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. For important parts of the colonial correspondence, the author acknowledges, as so many others must do. his obligations to the veteran Palfrey. The unofficial records seem to have been less thoroughly exploited. EvARTS B. Greene. Volumes . and 'I. of the Ecclesiastical Records of the State of Neiv York (published by the State under the supervision of Hugh Hastings, state historian, Albany, James B. Lyon, 1905. pp. xlix, 3447- 3800; lix, 3801-4413) cover the period from 1701 to 1810. The general plan of the work has already been outlined and discussed in this Review, Vni. 551-553. Owing to the characteristic reticence of the editor in omitting explanatory introductions to every volume since the first, we are left in the dark as to whether or no more are to follow. However, the following note is tucked away at the bottom of vol. VI., p. 4394: " with the political troubles then prevailing in Holland, the reference to New York and Xew Jersey is finally dropped in the minutes of the Synod of Xorth Holland ". This, and the fact that this volume con- cludes (pp. 4395-4413) with an "inventory" or catalogue of the old archives of the classis of Amsterdam, together with lists of the Dutch and French ministers and churches in the Middle Colonies before 1700 and lists of early graduates of Holland universities who came to America, would seem to indicate that the series is finished. If so, one has still to regret the absence of an index, a lack for which the careful analytical table of contents prefixed to each volume hardly compensates. Among the noteworthy extracts in the volumes before us are several relating to the foundation and early history of King's College (now Columbia University), and Queen's (now Rutgers) College, particu- larly William Livingston's fervid brief cited from the Independent Reflector against the evils of a sectarian college supported by public funds. Also a letter from the Reverend Gideon Hawley of Marshpee containing a narrative of his journey to Onohoghgwage in 1753 fur- nishes some graphic and picturesque details concerning the Mohawk Indians and their country and the hardships which beset a missionary of those times. The source of this letter is not mentioned, while its date, July 3, 1794, surely must be wrong. Although some items in the letters from the New York churches to the classis of Amsterdam, e. g., one of October 7, 1757, relating to a proposed plan of union with Prince- ton for educational purposes and another of October 8, 1778, containing references to the war, touch on questions of general moment, most of the new material in these, as in the previous volumes, will concern only those particularly interested in the Dutch Reformed Church. A. L. C.