BOOK REVIEWS 237
note numbering in the texts of the
documents, especially in the later pages.
A useful chronology of communications
gives the dates of origin of docu-
ments and their variants and enclosures.
An extensive bibliography of other
materials consulted also has a calendar
of communications. The seal of the
company, here delineated for the first
time, is used as the frontispiece and
is stamped on the binding.
Many of the documents are valuable apart
from their connection with the
Ohio Company, for example, the journals
of Christopher Gist, with their
descriptions of the Ohio Valley in
1750-52, and an amazingly lengthy
letter of John Mercer to his son George,
which is a revealing account of
plantation life in Virginia in the
1760's.
The printing of all documents in
extenso has resulted in a good deal of
repetition. One encounters Gist's
journals in four different places, with
three of the texts of the first journal
complete. The minutes of the Logs-
town negotiations of 1752 appear four
times, to cite another example. This
is not a criticism but a note of
congratulations to the editor that a page-saving
commercial publisher was not in the
picture to order deletions and con-
densations. The scholar may be certain
that nothing of historical value has
been overlooked, and what is equally
important, gone unexplained. As Dr.
R. W. G. Vail comments in the foreword,
the scholarship of the editing is the
equivalent of more than one doctorate.
Ohio State University EUGENE H. ROSEBOOM
Communication
To THE EDITOR OF THE QUARTERLY:
The review of The Papers of Sir
William Johnson Vol. XI in the January
1955 issue of The Ohio Historical
Quarterly is much appreciated. However,
I would like to correct the impression
which is given in the last paragraph.
The reviewer writes: "The sources
of all the excellent illustrations are not
identified, however; and occasional
cross references to the preceding volumes
and other works like the Documentary
History of New York would have
been helpful to the researcher." On
the contrary, the sources for all of the
12 illustrations are given in the list
of illustrations, and in most cases below
the illustrations; and cross references
are given to preceding volumes of the
Johnson Papers and to Documents Relative to Colonial History of New
York, and to other works, where letters or documents are
mentioned in
the text. This has been the policy of
the present editor in both volumes X
and XI, and in volume XII which is to
follow.
University of the State of New
York MILTON W. HAMILTON
Division of Archives and History