A ? there are sundry Advantages, which accrue tothe Reader, as well as to the Writer, in Quoting Au-thorities, and it is a J nslice due from one Author toanother, 1 have been very exact in Discharging thisDuty, and have not defgnedly omitted the mentioning&f any one Author I am beholden to . I must here, ne-vertheless, give my Reader one necessary Caution,which is, that tho’ they should, sometimes {andespecial-ly in the\Y. and V. Books) find some Relations exact-ly agree with those of any known Writer, if his Namebe not given in the Margin, they are mt taken fromhim, but from his Author, and we have both happen'dto fish in the fame Brook. It may, perhaps, be ob-jected, that I have not always mentioned the particu-lar Places or Pages of my Authors ; But this ObjeSti-on lies againjl such Wirks only as are written in theNature of Annals, where 1 thought it was absolutelyjuperfiuous : For, in other Treatises, which may pro-perly be called Collections of Pieces, without any Chro-nological Connexion, such as Hackluyt, Purchas, Har-ris, and the like, I have always given the Book,Chapter, and Page.

I would here, however, be understood of printedWorks, and Manuscripts which I have found in theCottonian and other Libraries: For with Regard toother Manuscripts, Private Memoirs, Letters andJournals communicated by Friends, and Wdl-wijhersto this Undertaking, it cannot be expected I should,nor would it always be proper to name them : But Imust not, therefore upon this Occafion, omit, to tendermy most grateful Acknowledgments to many worthy Gen-tlemen, and, in particular to the ingenious WilliamJones, Efq\ for the Communication of a great Num-ber of curious Manuscripts, Original Journals andscarce FraCls. Fof the Modern Part of this History,I have singular Obligations to acknowledge, to seve-ral noted and brave Commanders, and particularly,with the deepefl Sense of Gratitude, to some Persons ofthe highest Quality, and in the most distinguished Posts,who tho' they have communicated some very valuablePieces, have more Modesty than to let the Wmid knowtheir BenefaBors, and verify a just Observation, thatthey most decline Praise, who most delerve it.

O f such Materials is this Wnk compiled, and uponthis Footing I have brought it down to the PresentTime. How 1 have succeeded, I willingly submit tothe candid Judgment of the unprejudiced Reader.

The whole Wirk is divided into fix Books, for theContents of which I refer to the Summary, Where Ihave descended to an Infinite Number of Particulars,and, that I might do so, have made Use of as manyAbridgments as I pofstbly could ; Tho I hope none butwhat the Context will render intelligible. The Sub-divifon of the first Book is into Reigns, and of the otherfive, into certain Periods of Time, Tears, or fingleExpeditions.

The Notes, in the three first Books, contain chief-ly Remarks upon Authors, and their different Senti-ments, and Relations of Falls, which, however, when

the Difference" is in Chronology, is generally reBi^dby the Foedera. To these are added juch other Objer-vations, as I judged might be most agreabie to theReader. In theje Notes, likewise, as well as, occaf'onally, in the Work itself, I have inserted Gbfervuti'ons on the State, Force and 0economy of the Rr.yalNavy, in different Reigns. In the Notes to the threelast Books, as I was willing to give my Readers all theVariety, and all the SatisfaBion, I pofibly caulswithout Swelling this Work too far beyond the BoundsIpropos’d, they will find, besides the Articles above’mentioned, great Additions to the Hi y ory in the IexUwhich is here extended, for the Sake of bringi g dgreat Quantity of Matter within a narrow Compajs.

As my chief Aim, next to a Search after '1 ruth,has been to display the Honour due to my own Co <?rtry, the Navigation of the Antients has no Place in mjHistory. I did, indeed, intend to have given the ReadAan Epitome of it, in an IntroduBory Discourse ; But,as this SubjeB has been already pretty much exhaust'ed, in almost every Form, and I could not have allots’ed many Sheets for it, I wholly laid astde that Design,and have substituted, in the Room os it, what I LavsReason to believe will be much more acceptable to tbtReader.The NavalTransactions of other Nations, be ifas foreign to my Desgn, I have, likewise, wholly 9’mitted j As I have, also, the uncertain Relations ofthe Naval Affairs of Britain, before the Conquest,

It will be necessary to inform my Readers, that Jhave, every where, made Use of the Old Stile, {wkePthe contrary is not mentioned) and, for the fake of V'niformity, have reduced Foreign Relations to the jaAAccount of Time ; For the fame Reason, I begin nifTear always with the first of January, and not, Asome of our Annalists do, with the five and twentiethof March. An Uncertainty in these two Points hAoften given me a great deal of Trouble,in Consulting ofother Authors. I have frequently been oblig'd to find outthe Truth by comparing of Circumstances, and I haAdone it with so much Care, that I hope I have not often mifs’d my Mark.

I have already mention’d y that the Reader wiflfind, in this History, a particular Account of theRije, Progress, and Settlement of our several Colonsand Plantations in America. To conclude this Partof my Work, I have, in the latter Sheets of it, give#as circumstantial an Account, as I pofstbly could, ofthe Infant Colony of Georgia, to -which I have addedsome cursory Remarks on that great and generous Uti’dertaking, and thereby farther ascertained the MaX’im, with which I began this Preface, and with wh0I shall end it, viz. That Trade akd Navigationare the Strength, Wealth and Gloryo?the British Nation.

1 have divided this History p into two Parts, fofthe Sake of binding it in two Volumes, with a Title'page to thesecond Part: However, I have continued,the Pages in Succession, thro' both Parts, for the Be'nefit of those who may chuse to bind them in one ,