me if, for the honour of his Country as well as for his own, we boast of One among us; who, inspired with zeal for the succession of that Illustrious House, even in the joys of youth, twice brake away, viz., in 1704 and 1708, and passed a double Ocean, that he might with rapture see, and in his Country's name express the ardour of their vows to that most important Family; in which, under heaven, all the welfare of three mighty Nations, and even of all the Protestant States and kingdoms in the world, as well as the liberty, religion, and felicity of these Colonies and Provinces were involved. A celebrated instance, peculiar to himself alone, that I presume no other American can pretend to; and, for the fatigue and pains, I suppose no other subject of the whole British Empire: which redounds to the glory of the land that bred him, that parted with him and received him with applause; and the happy consequence whereof, at the hand of his Country, he now enjoys.

May that blessed Family remain on the throne! and prosper as long as the sun endures! May they spread their branches to every state and kingdom roundabout! and therewith extend the British happiness! May these Plantations flourish, under their benign influence, to the end of time!

May your Excellency enjoy their smiles, till the last hour of life! and thereby, with the Divine

grace and blessing, long lengthen our tranquility, and advance our welfare!

May your Honours, now taking your turn to rise and shine in the exalted places of your wise and pious Predecessors, follow their bright examples! preserve the dear Deposita resigned to your faithful trust! and transmit them safely to your successors! In all your counsels, may you look to future as well as present generations ! whom you may see depending on your care and wisdom, as we, unborn, depended on the care and wisdom of those before us! and may you ever keep in view the principal and noble ends of these Religious Settlements! So will you be, with our dear Forefathers, an eternal excellence, and the joy and praise of perpetual generations.

Your Excellency's and Honours'

Most obedient humble servant,

THOMAS PRINCE.

Boston, Nov. 24th, 1736.

THE PREFACE

relating the rise, design, and progress of this Composure.

NExt to the Sacred History, and that of the Reformation, I was from my early youth instructed in the History of this Country. And the first book of this kind put into my hand was the "New England Memorial" composed by Mr. Secretary Morton, being the history of Plimouth Colony from the beginning to 1668. Governor Thomas Dudley's Letter to the Countess of Lincoln informed me of the beginning of the Massachusetts Colony. Mr. William Hubbard's and Mr. Increase Mather's narratives of the Indian Wars in 1637, 1675, and 1676; with Mr. Cotton Mather's History of the Indian Wars from 1688 to 1698, gave me a sufficient view of those calamitous times. Mr. Matthew Mayhew's account of the Vineyard Indians; Mr. Increase Mather's Record of Remarkable Providences; Mr. Cotton Mather's Lives of Mr. Cotton, Norton, Wilson, Davenport, Hooker, Mitchel, Eliot, and Sir William Phipps, increased

B

my knowledge: and much more was it advanced upon the coming out of the last-mentioned author's "Ecclesiastical History of New England," in folio in 1702.

Yet still I longed to see all these things disposed in the order of Time wherein they happened, together with the rise and progress of the several Towns, Churches, Counties, Colonies, and Provinces through this country.

Upon my entering into the College,* I chanced, in my leisure hours, to read Mr. Chamberlain's Account of the Cottonian Library, which excited in me a zeal of laying hold on every book, pamphlet, and paper, both in print and manuscript, which are either written by persons who lived here, or that have any tendency to enlighten our history.

When I went to England, I met with a great variety of books and pamphlets, too many here to name, relating to this country, wrote in ancient times, and which I could not meet with on this side of the Atlantic.

Among others, in "A History of New England, from 1628 to 1651," printed, in quarto, London, 1654, I found many particulars of the beginning of our several Churches, Towns, and Colonies, which appear in no other writer. The running

* Harvard