The object of this book is to give a complete yet concise view of a too-much-neglected phase of American origins. The author has especially tried to be impartial, avoiding as far as possible mere rhetoric, and allowing the facts to speak for themselves. As a book of this kind can have no real value unless it is reliable, authorities have been freely quoted, even at the risk of making the number of foot-notes larger than is perhaps suited to the taste of the general public.