INTRODUCTION                                         xxxi

our efforts, and especially to the Librarian of Congress, Dr. Herbert Put¬
nam, who has extended to me every courtesy, and whose general letter of
introduction, given at my request to Dr. Wieder, has proved an open sesame
everywhere. I am also under lasting obligations to Mr. P. Lee Phillips,
Chief of the Division of Maps and Charts of the Congressional Library,
whose many contributions to cartographical knowledge are appreciated all
over the world, and whose forthcoming work on the Bibliography of
Cartography will be a boon to all students; as well as to Professor E. L.
Stevenson, Director of the Hispanic Society of America; to Mr. Letts,
Curator of Maps of the American Geographical Society; to Mr. Henry N.
Stevens, of London, the well-known authority on American maps; and last,
but not least, to Mr. Wilberforce Fames, of the New York Public Library,
who, since the beginning of this work, has given ungrudgingly of his time
and knowledge, and whose help, as well as that of his assistants, Mr. John
B. Elliott and Mr. William A. Elliott, I shall always gratefully remember
and appreciate.

In the preparation of the material relating to the Manatus Maps and the
Castello Plan, I have received much valued assistance from Dr. Wieder, and
from Mr. Victor Hugo Paltsits, Chief of the Division of American History
and Keeper of Manuscripts in the New York Public Library, and for four
years Historian of the State of New York; and especially from Mr. Clinton
H. Macarthy, and from Miss J. F. Macarthy, Location Expert and historian
of the Title Guarantee & Trust Company, who have devoted many months
of patient, expert, labour to this difficult task.

The Dutch Grant Map, in its final form, represents the result of re¬
searches carried on continuously over a period of more than two years by
Mr. Macarthy. In the difficult task of piecing together fragmentary items
of information, and deducing reliable conclusions from sometimes very
meagre, and often seemingly contradictory, facts, great patience and skill
were required; and the successful outcome of this work is in large measure
due to the enthusiastic co-operation and advice generously given at every
stage of the work by Miss Macarthy, whose wide experience and accurate
knowledge of all matters relating to land titles and conveyances on Man¬
hattan Island are unsurpassed.

In the preparation of the Check-list of Early New York City News¬
papers, I am chiefly indebted to Miss Emily Hickman, Professor of History in
Wells College, and to the many librarians, both in America and abroad,
who have generously contributed information regarding their files.

It seemed desirable that a work dealing primarily with the topography