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

transactions, however, are generally far more perfect than those affecting the political

history of the Province. This was, no doubt, owing to the practice which prevailed, to a great extent, with the British Colonial Governors, of retaining in their own personal custody the correspondence between themselves and their superiors in

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vi GENERAL INTRODUCTION. England. But the chief cause of the deficiencies in the public records of New -York may be traced to the vicissitudes which marked its annals in the transfer of sovereignty from Holland to England, and iu the assumj^tion of sovereignty by the Colonists in the Revolution. Upon the full organization of the State government the city of Albany became the capital, and the Colonial and Provincial records -- other than those the relating to

municipality of the metropolis -- which had formerly been kept New-York, were in

removed thither. The pressing concerns of a new and impoverished Commonwealth for a long time prevented much thought being given to those silent and fading memorials which recorded the events of the earlier days of the State. Yet, there were many who looked upon historical inquiry in its true light, as an