Introduction Penhallow's History of the Indian Wars is one of the rarest books of its class. When it first appeared it doubtless was read by some who may have been able to recall the setting up of the first printing press in New England; to most of its early readers the impressions of that first press were familiar objects. Though we may thus associate the book with the earliest of New England imprints, its age alone does not account for the scarcity of surviving copies, for many older books are more common. Its disappearance seems better explained by the fact that matters concerning the Indians were, excepting possibly religious controversies, of the greatest interest to the readers of that time and that such books as these were literally read to pieces; they were issued moreover in only small editions for relatively few readers, as there were probably not 175,000 people in the New England Colonies in 1726. Here, moreover, the facilities for the preserva- tion of printed matter were in general poor; too often in the outlying settlements the leaky cup- board was the library and the hearth with its flickering pine knot was the study. At the writer's elbow lies a copy of Penhallow's rare History, the mutilated survivor of a fireplace
