INTRODUCTION

THE present volume covers the period extending from the public
reading to the Patriot troops in New York of the Declaration of
Independence, on July 9th, 1776, to the celebration, in September-
October, 1909, of the 300th anniversary of the arrival of Henry Hudson,
and completes the Chronology, and the Iconography, with the exception of
the Index volume, which will also contain the Bibliography and the Addenda,
the latter including reproductions of the more important views, etc., which
have come to light since the publication of the earlier volumes, and the com¬
pleted Landmark Map, showing the original grants above Wall Street and
their later sub-division. It is expected that this final volume will be issued
early in the Autumn of 1927.

The author is keenly conscious of the many short-comings of his work,
of which perhaps the most regrettable is its voluminousness. He realises, alas
too late, that, without very serious loss, the material which now fills six almost
unwieldy volumes might have been condensed into four volumes of only mod¬
erate thickness. The wide extent of the field covered, and his own inexperi¬
ence, especially in the early stages of the work, explain, although they do not
excuse, this prolixity. A modicum of consolation, to both author and reader,
is to be found in the fact that this very prohxity may sometimes save the student
the labour of consulting a quoted authority, or supply some helpful side-light or
some hint which would have been lacking if further condensation or the more
drastic elimination of seemingly unimportant details had been insisted upon.

Although many regrettable errors in the earlier volumes have been cor¬
rected, and some serious omissions supplied, the author realises that errors still
exist, and fears that it will not prove possible to discover and to correct all
of them in the final volume. For these, and for all other short-comings, he
asks the indulgence of the reader. Doubtless many of the remaining errors
could have been corrected by further and more searching proof-reading, but