THE HISTORICAL MAGAZINE, AND NOTES AND QUERIES CONCERNING THE ANTIQUITIES, HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF AMERICA. VOL. V. NEW YORK: CHARLES B. RICHARDSON & CO., 1861. PREFACE. THE HISTORICAL MAGAZINE closes its fifth year amid scenes which will occupy no inconsiderable space in the future history of the country. The attempt to overthrow the American government, and the energy and devotedness called forth by the patriotic feeling of the people to uphold it, form a spectacle almost without a parallel. It has not been within the scope of the Magazine to chronicle the history fast making around us: its province is the past. It is rather a Retrospective Review than a journal of current events. The convulsion caused by the civil war, and felt by all commercial operations, has not been without its effect on the HISTORICAL MAGAZINE. It has not indeed prostrated or crippled it, but it has prevented much that it had hoped to accomplish during the year. We begin the new volume with confidence; but in view of the loss of subscribers in parts to which the mails no longer reach, we appeal to our friends to extend as much as may be its circulation in loyal parts. The list of sub. scribers should in all justice be much greater than it has ever been, and a little effort would accomplish much. During the year we have given many articles of value, relating to various parts of the country, embracing the Indian nations, their language and manners, early colonial history, and the era of the Revolution. We shall hereafter frequently give in full early tracts of an historical character which, like Lithobolia, have become so |