The publication of this Abridgment is the result of some investigation of the New York Indian trade in its international aspect made a number of years ago under the direction of Professor Edward Channing. In the course of that investigation I became impressed with the value of Wraxall's notes and obtained permission to have a copy of them made with a view to their publication. The publication has hitherto been delayed by stress of other work and would probably have been postponed still longer but for the disastrous fire of 1911 which destroyed so many of the New York archives, including the original from which this copy was made.<br><br>In the introduction I have attempted to set forth in general terms the character of the document and its relation to the history of the eighteenth century in order that the text and Wraxall's own notes might not be complicated by any added apparatus further than was absolutely necessary. I have also introduced there a number of illustrative extracts from various New York documents the originals of which have been in some cases wholly or partially destroyed. Where any of these have survived in whole or in part I have carefully compared my copies with them so far as this was possible, but, of course, in many cases the total destruction of the original made this out of the question. The latter was unfortunately true of the Abridgment itself, but the copy from which it is here printed was made under the personal direction of Mr. A. J. F. van Laer and Mr. Peter Nelson of the department of archives of the New York State library, which is a guarantee of the accuracy and care with which the work was done.