Smith’s History of the British Dominions in America was issued anonymously, and Grahame (ii. 253) says of it that it “contains more ample and precise information than the composition of Wynne, and, like it, brings down the history and state of the colonies to the middle of the eighteenth century. It is more of a statistical than a historical work.”
A History of the British Dominions in North America (London, 1773, 2 vols. in quarto) was a bookseller’s speculation, of no great authority, as Rich determined.[1602]
William Russell, the author of a History of America from its discovery to the conclusion of the late war [1763], London, 1778, 2 vols. in quarto, was of Gray’s Inn,[1603]—the same who wrote the History of Modern Europe, which, despite grave defects, has had a long lease of life at the hand of continuators. His America has had a trade success, and has passed through later editions.
A New and Complete History of the British Empire in America (London) is the running-title of a work issued in numbers in London about 1756. It was never completed, and has no title-page.[1604]
Jefferys’ General Topography of North America and the West Indies, London, 1768, has a double title, French and English. It is the earliest publication of what came later to be known as Jefferys’ Atlas, in the issues of which the plates are inferior to the impression in this book.[1605]
The special histories of two of the colonies deserve mention, because their authors lived during the war, and they wrote with authority on some of its aspects. These are Thomas Hutchinson’s Hist. of Massachusetts Bay,[1606] and William Smith’s History of the Province of New York.[1607] The latter book, as published by its author, came down only to 1736, though, being written during the war, he anticipated in his narrative some of its events. He, however, prepared a continuation to 1762, and this was for the first time printed as the second volume of an edition of the work published by the New York Hist. Society in 1829-30. In editing this second volume, the son of the author says that his father was “a prominent actor in the scenes described,” which are in large part, however, the endless quarrels of the executive part of the government of the province with its assembly. Parkman characterizes Smith as a partisan in his views. Smith acknowledges his obligations to Colden for “affairs with the French and Indians, antecedent to the Peace of Ryswick;” and while he follows Colden in matters relating to the English, he appeals to Charlevoix for the French transactions.[1608]
Two special eclectic maps of the campaigns of the war may be mentioned:—
Bonnechose, in his Montcalm et le Canada Français, 5th ed., Paris, 1882, gives a “Carte au théâtre des opérations militaires du Mr. de Montcalm, d’après les documents de l’époque.”
In L. Dussieux’s Le Canada sous la domination française (Paris, 1855) is a general map “pour servir a l’histoire de la Nouvelle France, ou du Canada, jusqu’en 1763, dressées principalement d’après des matériaux inédits conservés dans les Archives du ministère de la Marine, par L. Dussieux, 1851.”