THE place of the present volume in the
series of Mr. Fiske's books on Amer-
ican history may best be indicated by
a few words from his preface to 11 "The Dutch
and Quaker Colonies in America." That work,
it will be remembered, comes next in order after
"The Beginnings of New England," and in
describing its scope Mr. Fiske remarks: "It is
my purpose, in my next book, to deal with the
rise and fall of New France, and the develop-
ment of the English colonies as influenced by
the prolonged struggle with that troublesome
and dangerous neighbour. With this end in
view, the history of New England must be taken
up where the earlier book dropped it, and the
history of New York resumed at about the same
time, while by degrees we shall find the histo-
ries of Pennsylvania and the colonies to the
south of it swept into the main stream of Conti-
nental history. That book will come down to the
year 1765, which witnessed the ringing out of
the old and the ringing in of the new, -- the one
with Pontiac's War, the other with the Stamp

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