cal, metaphysical, and theological learning, in addition to the works published during his life, affords ample proof of the extent and variety of his knowledge, and the strength, the acuteness and the versatility of his intellect."

Cadwallader Colden was the son of the Rev. Alexander Colden, minister of an obscure parish in Scotland, but was born on the 17th of February, 1688, in Ireland. Young Colden was destined by his father for the ministry and was sent to the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated in 1705. Not caring for his father's profession, he repaired to London and began the study of Medicine. Five years later he came to America and practised his profession in Pennsylvania for a considerable time. After a brief visit to England, he came to New York, where he formed the acquaintance of Governor Hunter, who offered him the position of Surveyor-General of the Colony. Thereafter emoluments and honors came upon him thick and fast. He was made a Master in Chancery, though why, it is hard to say. He was called to a seat in the Council, a body of gentlemen elected by the Crown,

and forming the upper legislative house in the Colony. Governor Hunter stood his friend, and it was owing to his support that a grant of two thousand acres of land in what is now the town of Montgomery, Orange County, was bestowed upon him. He received another grant of one thousand acres which he called the Manor of Coldengham. He was now one of the great land-owners of the Colony.

Shea, in commenting upon his rapid advance in influence and wealth, states that Colden "was unremitting and zealous in his labor, adhering firmly to the royal Governors -while others fought only to mimic the Capital in show and parade, Colden went to work to study the climate, geography, native inhabitants, civic and political interests of the Colony."

Cadwallader Colden was regarded as the best-informed man in the new world on the affairs of the British-American Colonies. Shea states that "he is spoken of as better versed than any other in the geography of the country, and his writings show that he was an early and careful observer of the climate and its influence on health.” That he

was highly regarded by the Indians may be seen from the fact that he was adopted by the Mohawks of Canajoharie.

This brings us to "The History of the Five Indian Nations." Mr. Shea says it was written "to lay more completely before the public the importance of the Five Nations-or Iroquois to the Colony of New York, as a barrier against the French and a means of controlling the West." There is no doubt that the book was written with a political motive, and it may have been necessary to teach the King and Council, Lords of Trade and other ruling powers, the real position, influence and power of the Iroquois Confederacy. But Colden was too well informed a man not to perceive that the day would come when every scrap of authentic information in regard to the Indians would be valuable. He had access to sources of information by reason of his official position not usually open to writers, of which he made remarkable use.

Colden wrote many political pamphlets, scientific studies, and other works besides his "History of the Five Indian Nations," none of which it will be necessary to allude to here. He was a very busy and industrious

man, and he lived to the protracted age of eighty-seven years. He died at Spring Hill, near Flushing on Long Island, on the 21st of September, 1776. His wife had predeceased him several years, having died at Fort George, in March 1762.

Mr. Shea calls attention to the remarkable fact that no life of Cadwallader Colden has been written. "It reflects little credit on New York," he says, "that none of her sons have endeavored to present to the million readers of the State the life of Cadwallader Colden, a man whose scientific and philosophical mind, insuring him fame in any field of life that he might have selected, was devoted for nearly half a century to the development, interests, and government of the Colony of New York. But his labors are almost forgotten, his learned works accessible to few, his manuscripts, though safe in the New York Historical Society, accessible to still fewer, and except to antiquaries and collectors his very existence almost a myth. No public monument, no college nor seminary of learning, recalls the memory of one who in electricity and other branches of natural philosophy was the valued associate of

Franklin, who corresponded with Linnæus, Gronovius, and Bartram on Botany, with eminent physicians in both hemispheres on the science of medicine, with the Earl of Macclesfield on Astronomy and Philosophy, whose reports to Government stand out amid the mass of tedious official documents by the freshness, vigor, and originality of their views, no less than by their scientific value as treatises." ROBERT WAITE.

NEW YORK, July, 1902.