Hese volumes are designed to serve as an introduction to a series of Historical Collections which the writer expects hereafter to publish, relating to the early scotch-irish settlements in America. They are not in tended as a history of the scotch-irish people, for such a work would require more time and labor than have been expended upon the present undertaking. The subject is one, like that of the history of America itself, which must wait for some future gifted historian; but unlike the subject of American history in general, it is also one concerning which no comprehensive treat ment has ever been attempted. Such being the case, in order to enable the reader to understand the relation of the scotch-irish to American history, it has seemed necessary to make a brief general survey of the origin and old-world history of the race to which the scotch-irish belong. In doing this, it has not been his purpose to attempt even an outline sketch of the history of Scotland, but merely to condense and connect the record of its most important events, and indicate some of the principal writers upon different aspects of its history. The fact is, that the lack of acquaintance of many native-born Americans with the details of Scottish history is such that they require an elemen tary grounding even in the annals of its most noteworthy events. Such a primer the writer has undertaken to prepare. In doing so, he has found it advisable to compile, epitomize, and consolidate a number of the most compact of the sketches of Scottish history which have appeared in Great Britain, using for this purpose the writings of William F. Skene and of E. William Robertson, the Annals of Lord Hailes, the brief history of Mack intosh and, for the topographical and ethnographical description of Scot land of the present day, the works of the French geographer and traveller, J. J. E. Reclus, of which an edition in English has been published by Messrs. D. Appleton Company.