He commenced his investigations in the archives at the Hague in the following summer ; and for nearly three years was diligently engaged in prosecuting his labors in the several Record offices of Holland, England and

XX GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

Trance. It was necessary, in the first place, to procure the official authority from the

proper departments of government, without which the documents the Agent was instructed to procure could neither he inspected nor copied. In Holland and in France,

the requisite permission was readily and liberally granted. But in England the official regulations were much more embarrassing.

When, at length, fairly engaged in his researches, the Agent found himself

surrounded with difficulties, which, though to some extent he had anticipated, he had no means of entirely overcoming. Among much that was altogether new and of invaluable importance to the American historian, there was also found in the archives,

especially of England, much that was more or less familiar. With the imperfect

memoranda which he had been able to make of papers already in possession of the State, the Agent was constantly exposed to the chance of copying duplicates and the more ;

so, as he was obliged to make his selections upon a prompt exercise of judgment, and without proper opportunities for comparison. All documents about which there was no doubt were at once selected for transcription ; and, on the other hand, such as were

positively known to be in existence at Albany, in a complete form, were passed by.