Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1888, by the

PIONEER AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

PREFACE.

It is with satisfaction that the Committee of Historians of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society presents to that Society and the public generally the eleventh volume of Historical Collections, believing that it will be found of unusual interest. It comprises, first, the address of the president, and the reports of the other officers of the Society, given at the Annual Meeting of 1887, from which may be learned the origin, the objects and the progress of the Society. Following these are the memorial reports, which embody much of interest in the lives of early pioneers. The papers which succeed these were nearly all read at the same meeting, and such articles as "The Ordinance of 1787," "The Constitution of the United States," "Recollections of Early Explorations" and the articles on the boundary disputes, together with the sketches of men who contributed much towards making our commonwealth all that it is at the present time, cannot fail to be of great value as well to all who are interested in "the greatest study of mankind" as to the future historian.

The latter half of the volume is occupied by another installment of the "Haldimand Papers," which contains a wealth of information relative to the very early history of localities now embraced within the boundaries of Michigan and other portions of the Northwest. These papers are already attracting considerable attention from litterateurs in different parts of the country, and those published in Vol. 9, were frequently referred to by William Frederick Poole, L. L. D., librarian of Newberry Library, Chicago, in his article on "The West" in Vol. 6, of the "Narrative and Critical History of America," edited by Justin Winsor, librarian of Harvard University. They are for the most part arranged chronologically, and reference to any given period is thereby made easy. A part of the papers published under this head, those comprised in the series "Q," belong strictly to the "Colonial Office Records," but for convenience in arrangement have been classified with the Haldimand Papers proper.