Entered according to Act of Congress, on the sixteenth day of August, in the year eighteen hundred and forty-eight, by WILLIAM MAXWELL, Secretary of "The Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society," on behalf of the said Society, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia.

PREFACE.

On the 29th of December 1831, some of the citizens of Virginia formed themselves into a society by the name of "The Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society." The general assembly of the state, by an act of the 10th of March 1834,* incorporated the society, and by a resolution of the 6th of February 1835, directed to be presented to it, a copy of the large map of Virginia, and such books and papers belonging to the library fund as the joint committee on the library might designate.†

A leading object of the society was to collect and preserve books and papers, both in print and manuscript, relating to the history of America, and especially of Virginia;-to make its library a repository of every thing of the kind as far as practicable. It was also contemplated to publish from time to time, the most valuable of its collections, so as to disseminate information of the matter thus acquired, and

* Sess. Acts 1833-4, p. 253, ch. 201. † Sess. Acts 1834-5, p. 254.

have the security against destruction or loss which a multiplication of copies, by printing, would afford. Accordingly, as early as 1833, the society published, in a pamphlet of 85 pages, some of the manuscripts collected by it.

Its operations were suspended from the 20th of February 1838 until the 18th of February 1847. Then through the efforts of a few gentlemen, prominent among whom was WILLIAM MAXWELL, Esquire, the society was re-organized. Its first annual meeting, under its new organization, was held on the 16th of January 1848. On this occasion an appropriate address was delivered by the president, WILLIAM C. RIVES, Esquire; and a report was made by the executive committee.

A part of "the plan of the committee," set forth in this report, "is to publish in chronological order, whatever matter relating to our history, it may deem worthy of publication. In preparing the matter for the press," the committee say,

a careful examination will be made, not only of Smith, Beverley, Stith, Burk, and other books with which a Virginian is familiar, but of other works, hitherto not accessible in this state. What is taken from each will be given in the language of the original author. It will be a leading object to prepare the matter with such fullness, that in each volume published by the society, may be found all that is of value in the period of our history, embraced by it. While, at the same time, it will be attempted to make