HISTORICAL NEWS.

G. P. Putnam’s Sonswill soon publish ‘Life and Times of Augustus Adolph,’ by John L. Stephens; ‘The Works of Alexander Hamilton,’ including his contributions to theFederalist, by Henry Cabot Lodge; and a translation of the Marquis de Nadaillac’s work on ‘Prehistoric America.’

James R. Osgood & Co.will have ready in November, ‘Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife,’ by Julian Hawthorne, a book that will prove acceptable to many readers.

Harper & Brothersannounce ‘Indian History for Young Folks,’ by Francis S. Drake, and ‘History of the Four Georges.’

The Appletonshave ready the fifth volume of the newly revised edition of Bancroft’s ‘History of the United States’; the second volume of Mr. McMaster’s History of the People of the United States,’ and the ‘First Essays and Speeches of Jeremiah S. Black,’ edited by C. F. Black.

Mr. William O. Stoddard and Col. John Hayhave each prepared ‘A Life of Abraham Lincoln.’ Each of these gentlemen was President Lincoln’s secretary during the civil war and had exceptionally good opportunities for studying his life and character. Mr. Stoddard’s biography has just been given to the public from the press of Fords, Howard & Hulbert, and is an octavo book of 508 pages, with illustrations. The story of Mr. Lincoln’s life, though often told, is always new and interesting, and in the hands of Mr. Stoddard is so entertaining, so rich in anecdote and incident, and sparkles with so much humor, that it is invested with a greater charm than ever; while the book contains so much information that is of permanent value to the student of history that it cannot fail to receive an unusually cordial welcome.

Leopold Von Ranke, the eminent historian, is the author, and G. W. Prothero, the English editor and translator, of an important work on ‘Universal History,’ the first volume of which has just been published by Harper and Brothers. We quote fromHarpers’ Magazineas follows:

The entire work, when completed, will be a universal history of the world from the earliest historic period until our own day. Of this great undertaking he has completed four volumes, covering the earlier periods, and the volume now published relates to the oldest historical group of nations—the Egyptians, the Hebrews, the Assyrian and other Asiatic nations—and the Greeks. Every page is instinct with broad and philosophic generalization, and the statement of unexpected but most convincing facts and conclusions. Its style is perfect; the reader is delighted by the charm of its steadily flowing narrative, while he is instructed by its revelations of the origins and development of things which have exerted, and continue to exert, a powerful influence upon mankind, and have thus a universal interest and application. Those who are curious may here find the record of the first development of small independent communities into nations, of the first maritime expedition and the first systematic war by land, of the first endowment of the individual in society with those rights and immunities which are the foundation of all civil order, of the first tragic person in history, of the first establishment of the principles of hereditary monarchy and democracy, of the first conquering power which we encounter in the history of the world, of the first time that the power of money made itself felt in the internal affairs of an important community, of the first employment of mercenary troops, and a multiplicity of other “first things” in history, whose analogues, parallels and counterparts are traced by the great historian down through the centuries to our own day. The volume before us brings the history down to the struggle of Hellas and Carthage for the supremacy, and the rise of the new power, Rome, that was destined to vanquish both.

1.American Pioneer, volume one, 1842, contribution by Dr. S. P. Hildreth.

2. A portion of the cleared ground was planted with peaches, and the second or third year after, fine fruit was obtained from this orchard, probably the first in Ohio. One variety has been quite largely cultivated in Marietta and its vicinity, and named after its originator “the Doughty peach.”

3. Ellen D. Larned, in the History of Windham County, Connecticut.

4. Arius Nye, in Transactions of the Ohio Historical and Philosophical Society.

5. James R. Albach’s Annals of the West.

6. This village and Shawneetown, at the mouth of the Scioto, were the only exceptions to the abandonment of the upper Ohio valley noted above.

7. Gist, however, found, in 1750, the town on Whitewoman Creek, called Muskingum, “inhabited by Wyandots” and containing about one hundred families. This was undoubtedly an isolated government. As late as 1791, the Indian war being in progress, the different tribes were massed in what is now the northwestern part of the State, and their old abiding places, their favorite regions, were of course deserted. Delawares, Shawnees, Miamis, Mingoes, Senecas, Chippewas, and others, were upon the Maumee and its tributaries.

8. Some of the Delaware chiefs who visited Philadelphia during the Revolution spoke figuratively of having “placed the Shawnees in their laps.”

9. This information is derived from a communication in the Archaeological American, written in 1819, by Colonel John Johnston, then Indian agent, and located at Piqua, Ohio.

10. It was from the fact of these that the Indian village and the present town of Piqua, Miami County, derived their names. The name Pickaway, which has been given to one of the older counties of Ohio, but which was originally applied to the “plains” within its limits, is a corruption of Piqua.

11. William Henry Harrison and other eminent authorities pay the highest tribute to the valor of the Wyandot warriors, and give abundant proofs of their assertions.

12. The writer is indebted to ‘The Arthur St. Clair Papers’ for this information as well as for many other facts given in this article.

13. From William F. Poole’s article in theNorth American Reviewfor April, 1876.

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