DEPARTMENT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH. 181 



sary for his purpose before sailing, so as to have his notes on the Foreign 

 Office material for the period from 1765 to 1783 in their final form. 



Meanwhile Mr. Doysie, from September 1, 1920, to July 15, 1921, 

 has examined about 450 volumes, cartons, or portfolios in the French 

 archives. In the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the 

 series "Spain" has been completed and the series ''England" nearly 

 completed. These two series are, apart from the various series 

 devoted specifically to America, the most important for our purposes 

 in the Foreign Office because of the American material which is to be 

 found in nearly every volume. Their examxination has, therefore, 

 been made with great care and in considerable detail. In the Depot 

 des Cartes et Plans de la Marine (Hydrographic Service) the series of 

 volumes and cartons in the "Grandes Archives" has been completed 

 and the examination of the series of portfolios containing maps has 

 been carried well toward conclusion. A large number of American 

 documents and maps, many of them of capital importance, have 

 been found in this depository, which had never before been examined 

 from the point of view of American history. A notable illustration 

 is furnished by the journal of a French emissary sent to traverse the 

 British colonies in 1765 to observe their state of mind, their spirit of 

 opposition to British measures of control, and their defenses. The 

 journal is of especial interest because it contains the only contempo- 

 rary account by an eye-witness of Patrick Henry's famous speech on 

 the Stamp Act, in the House of Burgesses, May 30, 1765. The 

 journal has been printed in the American Historical Review for July 

 and October, 1921. 



In the archives of the Ministry of the Colonies, now deposited in 

 the Archives Nationales, some twenty or thirty volumes of the "Cor- 

 respondance Generale, St. Domingue" (series C 9), have been re- 

 examined. In the archives of the Ministry of Marine, in the same 

 place of deposit, a substantial beginning has been made in the exami- 

 nation of the most important series of the ''Modern Archives" (those 

 for the period since 1789), series BB 4, "Campagnes," a series which 

 consists mainly of reports, despatches, etc., from officers on board 

 ships of war. It has been examined through volume 273 (1808). 

 Many documents have been described, relating to combats between 

 French and British vessels in American waters, to combats between 

 French and American vessels in 1800, to naval operations generally 

 in American waters, to convoys and supplies from the United States, 

 to the slave-trade, to the French expedition to retake possession of 

 Louisiana, and like topics. 



Mr. Leland's plan is, after arriving in Paris, to devote all his time 

 to completing the manuscript of the first of the three volumes of 

 which the Guide will be composed, the volume relating to manuscripts 

 in the libraries of Paris; then to complete the second volume, relating 

 chiefly to the Archives Nationales; and finally the third, relating to 



