DEPARTMENT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH. 155 



corded by the government of the Tsar and published in 1917. The additional 

 notes now in hand are being translated into English, when necessary, and 

 will be available for publication in some later connection, perhaps in combina- 

 tion with a future report on Scandinavian archives. Appropriations for this 

 latter undertaking are not at present in sight, but negotia,tions are in progress 

 which may make it possible to attain an equivalent result with little cost to 

 the Institution. 



The archives of the Netherlands were inspected for the purposes of the 

 Department in 1919 by Mr. A. J. F. van Laer, archivist of the State of New 

 York, who in the spring of that year made an expedition to Europe with that 

 object in view. The engrossing duties of his official position, however, com- 

 bined with the state of his health since that time, have prevented him from 

 finishing the manuscript of his report on the numerous and important materials 

 for American history in Dutch archives. 



It remains to speak of the archives of the British West Indies. Search of 

 the island archives themselves has not yet become practicable, for want of 

 appropriations, except that excellent reports on those of Bermuda, the 

 Bahamas, and Jamaica have been prepared at various periods in former years 

 and are already in the possession of the Department. But, as was explained 

 in last year's report, the many volumes in the West Indian section of the Colo- 

 nial Office Papers, preserved in the Pubhc Record Office in London, are the 

 indispensable complement to the various series which are preserved in the 

 island archives. The one can not be suitably studied without the other, 

 either with respect to a proper understanding of the history of the British 

 colonial empire, inclusive of the Thirteen Colonies of the mainland, or with 

 respect to the important history of commerce between the West Indies on the 

 one hand and the mainland colonies or United States on the other. That 

 portion of the whole undertaking which consisted in the examination of the 

 West Indian "classes" of the Colonial Office Papers was attacked in advance 

 of any attempt to visit the archives of the island colonies, with the exception 

 of the three named above. 



It was reported a year ago that Mr. Bell had completed all parts of his 

 examination of these West Indian papers in London, down to the year 1775. 

 He has since presented, in excellent form, the inventory of American papers 

 thus obtained. The continuance of this survey from 1775 to 1815 was in- 

 trusted to the competent hands of Miss Lillian M. Penson, of London, an 

 accomplished student of West Indian history, who has also had the advantage 

 of sufficient supervision on the part of Mr. Bell, during recent months spent 

 in London, to insure a proper similarity of form between the two portions of 

 the work. There is, however, a marked difference between the two periods, 

 leading to a difference in the amount of matter involved. The interest of the 

 West Indian papers of the period from 1775 to 1815 is for our purposes mainly 

 confined to the contacts — military, naval, and commercial — between the 

 United States, or American citizens, and the colonies of Great Britain, with 

 which the United States was involved in two wars during the period named, 

 one occupying the first eight of these years, the other the last three, while the 

 years between, 1783-1812, were filled with commercial conflict and friction, 

 owing to the policy maintained by Great Britain in respect to commerce with 

 her colonies. Working, accordingly, on a somewhat lesser scale than that 



