So many writers have already dealt with the history of the district forming the subject of the following chapters, that some justification must be attempted for going over the ground again.
One of two different objects, it seems to me, ought to be kept in view in compiling a summary of the history of any province. On the one hand, a writer may devote himself to collecting and repeating the traditions lingering among the people, and transcribing events from the narratives of former chroniclers, without making too searching inquiry into the evidence on which they rest. On the other hand, he may venture to reject such local lore as will not endure critical analysis, and, working in the light of the research which during the last two centuries has been so patiently and fruitfully directed on the records of the past, apply himself to sift what is authentic from what rests, only on hearsay, and confine himself to preparing what shall be a concise and trustworthy, even though it may be a dry, narrative of such events as are capable of historic proof.
