DEPARTMENT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH. 177 



to the materials for United States history in Dutch archives, and in 

 April proceeded to the Netherlands for that purpose. Although the 

 Dutch archives are voluminous, and, b}'' reason of the federal character 

 of the old Republic, less centralized than those of most European 

 countries, and although three months was therefore a short time for 

 the preparation of even a preliminary survey such as our system con- 

 templates, yet certain considerations made the available time seem 

 not inadequate. 



The Dutch archives are exceedingly well arranged. Their officials 

 are exceptionally helpful. Mr. van Laer, a Dutchman by birth, was 

 already familiar with the archives, and with the portions of American 

 history (New Netherland, etc.) to which they chiefly relate. More- 

 over, much time would be saved by reason of the fact that, 75 years 

 before, John Romeyn Brodhead, as historical agent of the State of 

 New York, had made a careful search of Dutch archives, and in his 

 report printed in 1845 had presented itemized lists of the documents 

 relating to New Netherland then found in those repositories. 



During Mr. van Laer's three months in the Netherlands he received 

 every desirable courtesy from the officials of national, provincial, and 

 municipal archives, of the archives of the House of Orange, and of 

 those of various religious bodies. He returned late in August, with a 

 rich store of notes additional to those of Brodhead, and is now pre- 

 paring his report. 



Students of American colonial history are agreed that its study ought 

 to include a much fuller consideration of the history of the British 

 West Indies than has hitherto been customary. On the one hand, 

 the commercial relations between the island colonies and those of the 

 mainland form an important part of the economic history of the 

 latter. On the other hand, the history of the British Empire in 

 America and of its administration can not be rightly understood 

 except by taking into the student's view not the continental colonies 

 alone, but the whole series of dependencies, continental and insular 

 alike. At times the island colonies were a more important element in 

 the Empire than those of the continent. To study the ''Old Thirteen" 

 alone is a false method. It is to import into the history of our colonial 

 period a distinction which did not then exist, and in so far to distort 

 and mutilate that history. 



Accordingly, it had been resolved that the archival materials for the 

 history of the British West Indies deserved early treatment at the 

 hands of this Department, and the more so as it was not to be expected 

 that these now small communities should each be able to put into 

 print the original materials for its early history (which some of our 

 richest States have done to but a small extent), or that they should do 

 it in so uniform a manner as to serve the needs of those who wished to 

 study, not a single island, but the Empire as a whole. 



