buting the results of their explorations to the
treasures of antiquarian and genealogical learning which accumulate in
these publications.

A source of investigation, especially indispensable in the preparation
of the present work, deserves to be particularly noticed. In 1647, the
General Court of Massachusetts provided by law for the taking of
testimony, in all cases, under certain regulations, in the form of
depositions, to be preserved _in perpetuam rei memoriam_. The evidence
of witnesses was prepared in writing, beforehand, to be used at the
trials; they to be present at the time, to meet further inquiry, if
living within ten miles, and not unavoidably prevented. In a capital
case, the presence of the witness, as well as his written testimony,
was absolutely required. These depositions were lodged in the files,
and constitute the most valuable materials of history. In our day,
the statements of witnesses ordinarily live only in the memory of
persons present at the trials, and are soon lost in oblivion. In cases
attracting unusual interest, stenographers are employed to furnish
them to the press. There were no newspaper reporters or "court
calendars" in the early colonial times; but these depositions more
than supply their place. Given in, as they were, in all sorts of
cases,--of wills, contracts, boundaries and encroachments, assault and
battery, slander, larceny, &c., they let us into the interior, the
very inmost recesses, of life and society in all their forms. The
extent to which, by the aid of WILLIAM P. UPHAM, Esq., of
Salem, I have drawn from this source is apparent at every page.

A word is necessary to be said relating to the originals of the
documents that belong to the witchcraft proceedings. They were
probably all deposited at the time in the clerk's office of Essex
County. A considerable number of them were, from some cause,
transferred to the State archives, and have been carefully preserved.
Of the residue, a very large proportion have been abstracted from time
to time by unauthorized hands, and many, it is feared, destroyed or
otherwise lost. Two very valuable parcels have found their way into
the libraries of the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Essex
Institute, where they are faithfully secured. A few others have come
to light among papers in the possession of individuals. It is to be
hoped, that, if any more should be found, they will be lodged in some
public institution; so that, if th