DEPARTMEINT OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH. II3 



IMuseum, or of any library into which manuscript materials come casually, 

 requiring therefore listing or individual treatment. Of the archives of the 

 executive departments, those of the ]«klinistry of Colonies (largely trans- 

 ferred of late to the Archives Xationales) and of the Ministry of Foreign 

 Affairs have been the chief objects of attention. In the latter archive, it may 

 be well to mention, search was, of necessity, by no means confined to the 

 series of volumes occupied with the diplomatic correspondence with the 

 United States. While these formed the staple of the work, American affairs 

 bulk so large in the series Angleterre, Espagne, Hollande, etc., at various 

 periods, that a considerable examination of these is likewise necessary. 



A merely preliminary report on the French archives would be without 

 value. So much has been published upon the American, especially the Cana- 

 dian, materials in French archives, though in no very systematic fashion, 

 that all the information a preliminary report would be likely to contain could 

 readily be extracted by the intending investigator from existing catalogues. 

 Without expecting to describe every volume or carton containing American 

 materials, Mr. Leland deems it essential, in order to prepare a work thor- 

 oughly worth while, to come as close as possible to indicating all such vol- 

 umes, selecting for examination those volumes or cartons which seem espe- 

 cially likely to give results, and being careful to leave no misleading gaps. 

 In the endeavor to give effect to this ideal he has been assisted by a small 

 but competent clerical force, and has received especial advantage from the 

 skillful and zealous aid of Mr. Abel Doysie. 



In recent months it has been possible to accomplish something in a direc- 

 tion in which, under the conditions prevailing when 'Mr. Leland first went to 

 France, it was not expected that any success could be obtained, namely, in 

 the examination of missionary and other ecclesiastical archives in Paris. 

 These will furnish useful additions to a volume which now abounds in 

 valuable materials, often hitherto unknown, upon the history of the French 

 colonies in America, and especially of Canada and Louisiana, the old North- 

 west and the old Southwest, upon the history of intercolonial wars and of 

 the American Revolution, upon the diplomatic history of the United States, 

 and upon that of its commercial and other relations with France during the 

 period of independence. 



In the last annual report of the Department the mission in Spain intended 

 to be confided to Mr. Roscoe R. Hill was described as well as it was possible 

 to describe it by way of prediction. Mr. Hill proceeded to Seville in January 

 and has been occupied ever since, with a small amount of clerical assistance, 

 in the heavy task of exploiting the materials for United States history in the 

 section of the Archives of the Indies called "Papeles procedentes de la Isla 

 de Cuba." The task has proved to be laborious to a degree much beyond 

 expectation. The unordered condition of this section of the archives as de- 

 scribed in last year's report made all quantitative estimates respecting the 

 work precarious. Just before Mr. Hill sailed word was obtained from Mr. 



8— YB 



