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 ORIGIN OF THE

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION.

F we had no contemporary information of the settlement, for instance, of the State of Massachusetts, and nothing but traditions, more or less probable, concerning it until the middle of the nineteenth century, when an account of that settlement was first written, we should scarcely be warranted in regarding such a narrative as veritable history. Its traditionary value would be considerable, and there its value would end.

This supposed case is parallel with that of the early account of the Anglo-Saxons and the settlement of England as it went on from the middle of the fifth to the middle of the seventh century. That which Bede wrote concerning his own time must be accepted as contemporary history, and for this historical information we venerate his memory; but the early settlements in England were made six or eight generations before his day, and he had nothing but tradition to assist him in his narrative concerning them. We may feel quite sure that he wrote his best. Many of the old chroniclers who copied from 1