PREFACE. 



As stated in the prefatory remarks to one of tlie earlier issues of the series of bib- 

 liographies of which this volume forms the fifth number, the writer undertook a 

 number of years ago the compilation of a work to be published by the Bureau of 

 Ethnology, which was to embrace within a single volume an authors' catalogue of all 

 the material relating to the native North American languages. With this purpose 

 in view he visited the principal public and private libraries of the United States, 

 Canada, and northern Mexico, carried on an extensive correspondence with librarians, 

 missionaries, and others interested in the subject, and examined such authorities, 

 printed and manuscript, as were accessible. The results of these researches were 

 embodied in a work entitled '' Proof-sheets of a Bibliography of the Languages of 

 the North American Indians, " the full title and description of which will be found 

 on page 403 herewith. The amount of material obtained was so much greater than 

 was anticipated that the volume proved cumbersome, and it was concluded to change 

 the style of publication and to issue a series of bibliographies each relating to one of 

 the more prominent groups of our native languages. Consequently but few of the 

 "Proof-sheets" were distributed, and these were confined to persons who it was 

 thought were in a position to aid in the preparation of the new series. New jour- 

 neys were undertaken, the national libraries of England, France, and a few of the 

 larger private collections in both of these countries were consulted, many of the 

 libraries of this country and Canada were rev^isited, other correspondents were 

 enlisted, much additional material was acquired, and the publication of the separate 

 bibliographies was begun. 



Of this series four numbers have been published, relating respectively, in order of 

 publication, to the Eskimauan, Siouan, Iroquoian, and Muskogeau families; this, the 

 Algonquian, is the fifth, and the next in contemplation includes the languages belong- 

 ing to»the Athapascan stock. 



The Algonquian speaking peoples covered a greater extent of country, perhaps, 

 than those of any other of the linguistic stocks of North America, stretching from 

 Labrador to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Churchill River of Hudson Bay to 

 Pamlico Sound in North Carolina ; and the literature of their languages is by far the 

 greatest in extent of any of the stocks north of Mexico, being equaled, if at all, by 

 only one south of that line, namely, the Nahuatl. Probably every language of the 

 family is on record, and of the more prominent, extensive record has been made. In 

 two, the Massachusetts and the Cree, the whole bible has been printed, the former, 

 by the way, being the first bible printed upon this continent. In two others, the 

 Chippewa and the Micmac, nearly the whole of the scriptures has been printed, and 

 portions thereof have appeared in a number of others. In the Abnaki, Blackfoot, 

 Chippewa, Cree, Delaware, Micmac, and Nipissing, rather extensive dictionaries have 

 been printed, and of the Abnaki, Nipissing, Blackfoot, Chippewa, Illinois, Massachu- 

 setts, Montagnais, and Pottawotorai, there are manuscript dictionaries in existence. 

 Of grammars, we have in print the Abnaki, Blackfoot, Chippewa, Cree, J^assachu- 

 setts, Micmac, and Nipissing, and in manuscript, the Illinois, Meuomonee, Montag- 

 nais, and Pottawotomi. In nearly every language of the family, prayer-books, hymn- 

 books, tracts, and scriptural texts have appeared, and several of them are represented 

 by school-books of various kinds, i. e., primers, spellers, and readers; and in one of 

 them, the Chippewa, there was printed in 1840 a geography for beginners. 



Ill 



