With high regard, I am, Sir, Sincerely yours, JOHN ROMEYN BRODHEAD. John V. L. Pruyn, Esq., &c., &c., &c., Albany.

GENERAL INTEODUCTION.

The Public Records of the State of New -York are, chiefly, in the office of the

Secretary of State at Albany. They are as various in their character as they are voluminous in their extent. Most of them relate to and illustrate the History of the State ; and without them no accurate or detailed knowledge of that history can be gained.

Previous to the American Revolution the seat of the Colonial Government was the city of New-York, and the public records of the Province were kept there. They extended back to a very early period after the first settlement of the country. The most ancient of them were in the Dutch language ; and they related to the affairs of New Netherland, as New -York was called while it was a Colony and Province of the United Provinces, from soon after its discovery, in 1609, to its surrender to the English in 1664. These Dutch records, however, are incomplete. It is known that the early

Provincial authorities recorded their transactions with care ; but, unfortunately, with

the exception of some entries of lands, the oldest of which is in 1630, none of the records of Director Minuit's administration, from 1626 to 1632, nor of Director Van Twiller's, from 1633 to 1638, have been preserved. The series of papers, however, is tolerably complete during the time of Director Kieft, from 1638 to 1647, and of Director Stuyvesant, from 1647 to 1664. After the surrender of New Netherland, in 1664, the records of the Province of New-York were kept in English, and were preserved in much better condition than the fragmentary archives of the Dutch period. Those relating to lands and local