Mr. Butler's Discourse. 



causes of that memorable revolution, which was the founda- 

 tion of its past and future greatness ; and to deduce from the 

 whole, an impressive moral and political lesson, salutary to 

 the future destination of the people."* He has published the 

 first and second parts of his work, (the former in 1824 and 

 the latter in 1826) containing in the whole, 428 pages, but 

 only bringing down the history to the close of the year 1632 — 

 a date but little more than twenty years after the discovery of 

 Hudson's river. He had free access to the documents in the 

 office of the secretary of state and in the library of the New- 

 York historical society. He appears also to have pursued, 

 with commendable anxiety, every other accessible source of 

 information ; and whoever reads his work, will find in every 

 page, proofs of extensive research and unwearied labor. He 

 has also, when he confines himself to the books and docu- 

 ments before him, the rare merit of minute accuracy in his 

 details ; and he always gives us the authorities on which his 

 statements are founded. His investigations in respect to the 

 settlement of the colony and its progress to 1632, comprising 

 a part of what he justly terms " the dark era of our history," 

 are particularly satisfactory ; especially when we consider 

 that no records of the transactions of this period are to be 

 found in our archives. On comparing this part of Mr. Moul- 

 ton's work with any other publication relating to the same 

 era, we are struck with the superior extent and value of 

 his researches ; and the intelligent reader, as predicted in the 

 advertisement of the author, is surprised, " not that so little 

 has been brought to light, but that by any process of unwea- 

 ried and elaborate investigation, it was possible, to present a 

 connected and consistent narrative of the rise and progress of 

 the colony in its infancy."! 



But though the work of Mr. Moulton, so far as he has 

 proceeded, is an invaluable repository of facts to which an- 

 tiquaries and historians may resort with profit ; truth and jus- 

 tice require us to say, that the great desideratum in our na- 

 tional literature — a compendious, entertaining and standard 

 history of New York, from its discovery to the present day, 



