District of Pennsylvania, to wit : Be it remembered, That on the twelfth day of June, in the twenty-ninth year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1805, Jacob Johnson, of the said District, hath deposited in this Office, the Title of a Book, the Right whereof he claims as Proprietor, in the Words following, to wit: *The History of North and South America. From its "Discovery, to the Death of General Washington. By " Richard Snowden, Esq. In Two Volumes. Vol. I." In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, intituled, "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 also to the Act, entitled, "An Act supplementary to an Act, entitled, An Act for the Encouragement of Leang, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, an ks, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies he Times therein mentioned,' and extending the b thereof to the Arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other Prints." (L. S.) D. CALDWELL, Clerk of the District of Pennsylvania, PREFACE. TO furnish the Public with a cheap History of America, from its discovery, to its present state of civilization and importance, is an undertaking of such general utility, that the attempt, if it even fall short of complete éxecution, has a claim to a considerable share of indulgence. This is more especially the case, when the writer has to follow an historian of such great and just celebrity as Dr. ROBERTSON, in at least one half of the work. To compose such an Historical epitome as is desirable, from scattered materials, a difficulty of such magnitude, as wholly to discourage the attempt; and to abridge the pages of so great an original, where there is nothing superfluous, nothing the reader would wish omitted, is a design, which to many will seem to border on temerity. But this abridgement has been preferred, as it is attended with the least chance of disappointment; and to borrow is not dishonourable, when the obligation is candidly acknowledged. In what relates to South America, Dr. Ro BERTSON's History has therefore been implicit minent and characteristic events, has principal effort, and invariable purpose of tomizer: endeavouring as he progressed serve unbroken the connection and cor events; and in the whole, to present t with a brief, but interesting view, of o most important æras in the annals of the So far the writer travelled with pleas in tracing the subsequent part, the h North America, he has cause to regret his contemporaries, the absence of so ple faithful a guide....being obliged to colle als from different sources, none of which plete, of all the British settlements in No rica, from their first landing to their fir tion from the parent state. The settlement of these colonies bo at different periods, with charters of ince extremely variant, and with governmen tinct as their geographical boundaries, history of the British empire in America, ly complex and difficult. From this he ous mass, however, the writer has end with considerable labour, to educe a su those events that paved the way to the Revolution; and which will constitute duction to the future histories of the STATES. In that portion of the work which the confederation of the colonies, and |