The Standing Committee of the Maine Historical Society are happy, after so long delay, to offer to its members and friends this second volume of the series of "Documentary History," under the generous auspices of the State. Though an annual volume was contemplated by the resolve of the Legislature, it soon became apparent that so frequent an issue could not be kept up with credit to the State or the Society. The long interval since the first volume appeared, however, has been occasioned not only by the labor necessarily connected with the work in hand, but mainly by the disastrous fire which destroyed the library of Dr. Woods and several rare volumes besides essential to the prosecution of his work as editor, as also what he had prepared as an Introduction to the Discourse of Hakluyt which was waiting only for his final revision for the press. Then followed the serious disarrangement caused by the calamity; and, after he had begun the unwelcome effort of recovering what had been lost, the physical infirmity which forbade literary labor, and, indeed, threatened the entire loss of the fruits of his diligent and successful research.