159 



and winds — with some notices of its zoology and botany. 

 The second volume treats of the counties, cities, towns and 

 villages ; antiquities of New- York and of the western states ; 

 origin, manners, &c. of the aborigines ; discovery and set- 

 tlement of the country, and civil history to 1750. The 

 third volume brings down the civil history of the colony, 

 to the revolution — and of the state, from that time to 1829. 



It is evident from the slightest examination of this work, 

 that its author has bestowed much diligent and laborious re- 

 search upon the natural history of the state ; , and he has cer- 

 tainly collected many important facts, and recorded many in- 

 teresting observations, in reference to that branch of his sub- 

 ject ; but it is equally apparent, that the greatest portion of 

 his work is a mere compilation from other publications, that 

 much of it is inapplicable to New-York, and that many parts 

 are exceedingly imperfect. 



In his account of the colony of New-Netherlands, Mr. Ma- 

 cauley has intermixed, w ith abstracts from Smith, numerous 

 passages from the early history of New-England, and nearly 

 the whole of Mr. Wood's valuable notes on the history of Long 

 Island ; but he has given us little information, beyond the mea- 

 gre notices of Smith, concerning the condition or progress 

 of the colony. It seems never to have occurred to him to ex- 

 amine the Dutch records in the secretary's office, though they 

 have been placed, by the provident attention of the legisla- 

 ture, within the reach of all who are desirous to consult them. 



From the surrender of the colony to the English in 1664, 

 to the year 1732, Mr. Macaulcy abstracts largely from Smith; 

 though he has omitted some interesting details, and has bro- 

 ken up the paragraphs of his text-book into a series of insulat- 

 ed facts, resembling rather the arrangement of a chronologi- 

 cal table, than a connected narrative. From 1732 to 1747, 

 he follows in like manner, the continuation of Smith's histo- 

 ry, inserted in the Albany edition of 1814 ; from 1747 to the 

 close of the revolutionary war, the colonial and state laws, 

 Williams' history of Vermont, and Marshall's and Ramsay's 

 lives of Washington, are the only authorities consulted. Not 

 only have the documents in the secretary's office and the New- 

 York historical society, been wholly overlooked, but it i< 

 perfectly evident that even the printed journals of the colonial 



