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NOTES.

(1) WILLIAM BURNET, the Governor to whom Dr. Colden dedicates his hiftory, and within whose province it was written and published, was a fon of the famous Bifhop of Salisbury.

He had been Comptroller of the Customs in London, a poft worth £1,200 per annum, but lofing heavily in South Sea fpeculations, effected a fort of exchange with Governor Hunter, hoping to retrieve his fortunes in America.

He was appointed Governor of New York and New Jersey in April, 1720 (N. Y. Col. Doc. v. 586), and publifhed his Commiflion in New York September 17, and at North Amboy, N. J., September 22.

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He at once became popular by his manners. man of sense and polite breeding," fays Smith, “ well-read scholar, fprightly and of a focial difpofition. Being devoted to his books he abftained from all those exceffes into which his pleasurable relish would otherwife have plunged him. He ftudied the arts of recommending himself to the people, had nothing of the morofenefs of a scholar, was gay and condescending, affected no pomp, but vifited every family of reputation, and often diverted himself in free converfe with the ladies."

He feems, indeed, to have found New York fociety and ladies fo pleafing that before he had been a year inftalled

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inftalled he married Anna Maria, daughter of Abraham Van Horn, an eminent merchant and fubfequently member of the Colonial Council.

As a Governor he was one of the best that ever vifited New York in colonial times. To limit the power of the French on the North and Weft he faw to be effential to the wealth and progrefs of New York. The French in Canada poffeffed great influence at the Weft through their extenfive trade, the goods being, however, frequently English fabrics furnished from the colony of New York. Burnet fought to break up this trade, and direct the energies of New York to the opening of direct channels of commerce with the Western Indians. With this view he erected a trading post at Oswego in 1722, attracted the Western tribes to join the Five Nations, exerted himself to defeat the French in their project of a fort at Niagara, and finally, in 1727, replaced his trading house at Ofwego by a fort.

"The exceffive love of money, a disease common to all his Predeceffors, and to fome who fucceeded him," fays Smith, “was a vice from which he was entirely free. He fold no offices, nor attempted to raise a fortune by indirect means; for he lived generously, and carried fcarce anything away with him but his books. These were to him inexhauftible sources of delight. His aftronomical obfervations have been useful; but by his Comment on the Apocalypfe he expofed himself, as other learned men have before him, to the criticisms of those who have not ability to write half fo well."-(Hift. Province of New York. London, 1757, pp. 172-3.)

He was fuperfeded by the appointment of John Montgomery, Efq., Governor of New York, Auguft

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12, 1727 (N. Y. Col. Doc. v. 823), and delivered the great feals to that gentleman April 15, 1728.

His removal from this congenial position was not his only affliction: about the fame time he loft his wife, and, thus bereaved and disappointed, proceeded to Bofton to affume the difficult poft of Governor of Massachusetts. "His fuperior talents and free and easy manner of communicating his fentiments made him the delight of men of fenfe and learning," fays Mr. Hutchinfon (Hift. of Maffachusetts, vol. ii. ch. 3); but this was not enough. His fhort career in Massachusetts was as unpleasant as that in New York had been agreeable. A long struggle with the General Court embittered his days, and the excitement produced upon him feems to have undermined his health. After adjourning the Court to meet in Cambridge in Auguft, 1729, he fell fick at Bofton, and died September 7, 1729. The Court which refused him a falary gave him a pompous funeral.

His iffue by his first wife feems to have been one fon, Gilbert; by Mifs Van Horn he had William and Thomas, a daughter, Mary, who married Hon. William Brown, of Beverley, Mass., and a child who died young.

His will, dated New York, September 6, 1727, alludes to his wife as dead; it was proved at Boston, September 25, 1729, his property amounting only to £4,540 4s. 3d.

A correfpondent of the Hiftorical Magazine (vol. viii, p. 398) states that he has two manuscript fermons-that preached in the chapel of the fort of New York on the interment of Mrs. Burnet, by Rev. Mr. Orum, unfortunately not dated, and that preached at the Governor's funeral in "the King's

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Chapple, in Boston, in New England, the 12th day of September, in the year 1729, by the Rev. Mr. Price."

(2) Canada.

(3) See Edition of 1747 (8vo, London), pp. 136, 186, 191, &c.

(4) It is not easy to say what French works are here alluded to, probably Hennepin and La Hontan. Of other French works bearing on Iroquois hiftory, Colden appears to have feen only de la Potherie. Champlain, the Jefuit Relations, Lafitau, and the Lettres Edifiantes were probably inacceffible at the time to one writing, as he did, at New York. But it is ftrange to fee how completely, fixty years after the English occupancy, the fixty years of Dutch rule, with all the writings of that period, were despised and ignored. The tract of Megapolenfis on the Indians, the works of Van Der Donck and De Vries, which would have given him much, are all overlooked. The only fpecial English works on New York publifhed prior to Colden's work, Denton, Woolley, Miller, give little direct information as to the Five Nations, and we can scarcely wonder at all abfence of allufion to them.

(5) Dr. Colden should have taken better care of thefe "Minutes of the Commiffioners of Indian Affairs." He appreciated their value, but finding them in a wretched condition, left them fo, fubject to utter lofs. Fortunately, in 1751, Mr. Alexander (thank him, all ye antiquaries of New York) "borrowing them for his perufal, had them bound up in

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four large volumes in folio."-(Smith's Hiftory of New York, p. 154, note.)

(6) European nations, as relics identical with those of America fhow, had their ftone and their copper age before reaching that when iron made progress rapid. Our Northern Indians were still in the ftone age, Mexico and Peru had reached that of copper.

(7) Hence a report of a speech of an educated French interpreter, fully converfant with the language, as miffionary or agent, would seem to be more trustworthy.

(8) The names of tribes and places here given fuggeft fome curious reflections. Neither English nor French names have prevailed exclufively. We have adopted the French terms Abenaki, Algonquin, Chicago, Detroit, Huron, Illinois, Iroquois, Lake Huron, Miami, Michilimackinac, Lake Ontario, Shawnee, here treated as words fo foreign to our fathers as to need explanation. One name, Illinois, was as new to Washington when he wrote his first diary, for, not catching it clearly, he made it out Ifles Noires, and tranflates it Black Islands-little foreseeing his own future or his country's; little dreaming that he was to be the first Prefident of a great Republic, and that that Illinois would one day fend, as his fucceffor in the city of his name, in his hold on the affections of the people, a grandson of one of the backwoodfmen of his own Virginia. few remarks will here be made on these names. ADIRONDACKS means tree-eaters.-(See Historical Magazine, vol. iv. p. 185.)

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