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ANNALS OF AMERICA,

FROM

THE DISCOVERY BY COLUMBUS IN THE YEAR 1492,

(54)

ΤΟ

THE YEAR 1826.

By ABIEL HOLMES, D. D.

MINISTER OF THE FIRST CHURCH IN CAMBRIDGE;
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

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HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

FROM THE LIBRARY OF
ERNEST LEWIS GAY

JUNE 15, 1927

DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, TO WIT:

District Clerk's Office.

BE it remembered, that on the second day of January, A D. 1829, and in the fiftythird year of the Independence of the United States of America, ABIEL HOLMES, of the said district, has deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as author, in the words following, viz.

"The Annals of America, from the discovery by Columbus in the year 1492, to the year 1826. By ABIEL HOLMES, D. D. Minister of the First Church in Cambridge; Corresponding Secretary of the Massachusetts Historical Society. suum quæque in annum referre. TACITUS."

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned:" and also to an Act, entitled, "An Act supplementary to an Act entitled, An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned;' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints."

JNO. W. DAVIS.

Clerk of the District of Massachusetts.

CAMBRIDGE:

HILLIARD, METCALF, AND COMPANY.

PREFACE.

A NEW WORLD has been discovered, which has been receiving inhabitants from the old, more than three hundred years. A new empire has arisen, which has been a theatre of great actions and stupendous events. That remarkable discovery, those events and actions, can now be accurately ascertained, without recourse to such legends, as have darkened and disfigured the early annals of most nations. But, while local histories of particular portions of America have been written, no attempt has been made to give even the outline of its entire history. To obtain a general knowledge of that history, the scattered materials, which compose it, must be collected, and arranged in the natural and lucid order of time. Without such arrangement, effects would often be placed before causes; contemporary characters and events disjoined; actions, having no relation to each other, confounded; and much of the pleasure and benefit, which History ought to impart, would be lost. If history, however, without chronology, is dark and confused; chronology, without history, is dry and insipid. In the projection, therefore, of this work, preference was given to that species of historical composition, which unites the essential advantages of both.

It has been uniformly my aim to trace facts, as much as possible, to their source. Original authorities, therefore, when they could be obtained, have always had preference. Some authors, of this character, wrote in foreign languages; and this circumstance may be an apology for the occasional introduction of passages, that will not be generally understood. While originals possess a spirit which cannot be infused into a translation, they recite facts with peculiar clearness and force.

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