DISTRICT OF NEW-YORK, 88.

B the Independence States

E IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-third day of March, in

rica, ISAAC RILEY, of the said district, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words and figures following, to wit:

"Collections of the New-York Historical Society. For the year 1809. Volume I. Esti non prosunt singula, juncta juvent."

IN CONFORMITY to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies "of maps, charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copics, "during the times therein mentioned;" and also to an act, entitled, "An "act, supplementary to an act, entitled, an act for the encouragement of "learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the authors "and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and "extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and "etching historical and other prints."

CHARLES CLINTON,

Clerk of the District of New-York.

PREFACE.

CONFORMABLY to one of the profest objects of their institution, the New-York Historical Society have compiled the present volume, consisting of several journals connected with the discovery of NewYork, and a few documents relating to its civil and political transactions in the early stages of its settlement.

Events of this nature, so curious and interesting in the annals of every nation, can be traced with less difficulty, and ascertained with more precision, in the history of our country, than in that of almost any other. The first navigators who directed their course across the atlantic, were incited by curiosity to remark, and by the hope of renown to record, every circumstance and incident attending their first visit to the unknown coasts, and unexplored bays and rivers of America.

On their return to the countries from which they had sailed, their journals were sought for with eagerness, and the press was employed to preserve and diffuse the account of their discoveries. The journal of Henry Hudson, "who in the first ship, broke the unknown wave" of our wide circling bay and majestic river, has in this manner been fortunately preserved; and although not so minutely descriptive as our curiosity leads us to expect, yet is nevertheless sufficiently interesting to attract our attention, and certainly deserves to be perpetuated. The collection of