USA > New York > History of the state of New York. Vol. II, Pt. 1 > Part 23
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
198
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
Char. IV. way for a Post, which, in processe of tyme would be the 1672. King's best highway; as likewise passages and accommo- dation at Rivers, fords, or other necessary places."*
22 Jan. First post messenger from New York.
22 Jan.
Lovelace to
Lovelace is certainly entitled to the credit of having established the first post between New York and New En- gland. But the pioneer whom he intended to dispatch on New-year's day was kept back until the Albany news reach- 1673. ed the capital. He was then sworn, and instructed to be- have civilly; to inquire of Winthrop "how to form the best post-road ;" to mark trees "that shall direct passen- gers the best way ;" and "to detect, and cause to be appre- hended all fugitive soldiers and servants" who might run away from New York. By him the governor wrote again to Winthrop that the last ships from England to Maryland Winthrop. and Virginia brought "little tidings save the despair of a peace between the Protestant nations. Presses, both by sea and land, are very vigorously prosecuted. The Ilol- lander has absolutely lost three of their Provinces. They have disposed of all their men-of-war, and given liberty to all that will venture on privateering; in so much that forty saile, well fitted, are dispatched towards the West Indies. If so, it will be ligh time for us to beginne to buckle on our armour, and to put ourselves into such a posture of defence as is most suitable to our severall conditions. However, it will be absolutely necessary that in the first place, a good understanding be made and preserved amongst us, conform- able to Ilis Majestic's gracious care and good pleasure ; to which end I have erected a constant post, which shall monthly pass betwist us, or oftener, if occasion requires. I desire of you to favour the undertaking by your best skill and countenance. I have writt to you my more par- ticular desires in a former letter which this bearer brings likewise."i
Murder case at Al- bany. 27 Jan.
The delayed messenger from Albany brought news of the murder of a soldier there by two " North Indians," who were promptly arrested by Pynchon, at Springfield. Love- lace at once commissioned Salisbury to try them at a spe-
* Gen. Ent., iv., 243, 241: Barber and Howe's N. Y. Coll., 290; Val. Man., 1857, 542; Bolton, i., 130 ; iL, 321, 322 ; Maas. H. S., Trumbull Paper-, MSS. xx., 110; ante, 182.
t Gen. Ent., iv., 252, 253 ; Val. Man., 1857, 543, 511; Mass. H. S., Trumbull Papers, MISS. xx., 100; Hist. Mag., iv., 50. Massachusetts does not appear to have taken any steps re- epecting a post until 1677 : see Mass. Rec., v., 147, 145; Palfrey, ili., 306, 513.
199
FRANCIS LOVELACE, GOVERNOR.
cial court at Albany. The murderers were convicted and CuAr. IV. executed ; and the savages retained a lasting memory of the sure and swift justice of the English.# 1673.
Lovelace had given no attention to the duke's territory at Pemaquid. Massachusetts, however, had claimed juris- diction over that region; and after the Peace of Breda, the French insisted that Acadia extended as far west as the Kennebec River. Saint Lusson had visited Pemaquid after his return from the West, and found the colonists there apparently glad to come under French authority. Lovelace therefore wrote to them to send to New York " a 16 Febr'y. modell of such a government as shall be most conducing to orders Lovelace's about the happiness of that colony, both to its safety, traffic, and Pemaquid. increase of inhabitants; promising, upon the reception of that scheme, not only to invest you with ample power to exercise your authority both to ecclesiastick as civill af- fairs, but will be ready on all occasions to be assisting to you in the preservation of all your rights and interest against any sinister obstructions."+
At Martha's Vineyard affairs went quietly on under the government of Mayhew, and a code of laws was passed at 15 April. Martha's a General Court held at Edgartown. Nantucket, however, Vineyard " would not proceed" in the same way ; and Lovelace ap- tucket.
and Nag- pointed Richard Gardner its chief magistrate, in place of Coffin, with instructions. One of these was that the island should thereafter be known as the town of Sherborne.#
1672.
Meanwhile, Philip Carteret had succeeded in England. At the request of the proprietors of New Jersey, the Duke The die's of York wrote to Lovelace that the grants of Nicolls tolosder Baker and others being made after his own conveyance to Jury
. Gen. Ent., iv., 248-251; Col. Doc., iv., 994; Hist. Mag., iv., 50, 51. On the 25th of January, 1673, "Jo. Clarke," who appears to have belonged to the garrison of l'ort Jater, wrote by the same post to Salisbury, among other things, the following city news : "The other day we had like to have lost our hangman, Ben. Johnson; for he, being taken in divers thefts and robberies, convicted and found guilty, 'scaped his neck through want of another hangman to truss him up ; so that all the punishment he receaved for his 3 yeares' roguery in thieving and stealing (which was never found out 'till now) was only thirty-nine #tripes at the whipping-post, loss of an ear, and banishment. Capt. Manning had likewise two servants that he employed at his Island, taken with him in their villainy; but they being not found so guilty as he, came off with whipping and banishment. All this happen- ed about a fortnight since, but 'tis two months since they were apprehended."
* Gen. Ent., iv., 258, 250 ; Maine H. S. Coll., i., 130, 131; v., 6-8, 247, 243; Col. Doc., ix., 74. 75, 119, 265, 379, 433; Mass. Rec., iv. (ii.), 519; Charlevoix, ii., 256; La Potherie, IL, 120; Willianison, i, 410-442 ; Hutch. Mass., i., 325; ante, 111, 179.
: Thed+, i., 78; ilf., 57, 85-39 ; Col. MISS., xxiv., 92; Hough's Nantucket Papers, 42-5., 51; ante, 174.
200
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
Crap. W. Berkeley and Carteret, were void; and as the latter had 1672. promised to instruct their agents to assist the governor of New York, "I do desire you," he added, "and all others herein concerned, in like manner effectually to assist them in furthering the settlement and maintaining the quiet of these parts." The king also directed Berry, the acting gov- ernor, to notify all the inhabitants of New Jersey to yield obedience to the proprietors, who had " the sole power" un- der him .*
@ Ircem.
1673. & Vay. J' May. Wees Car- trfvt re-
When these documents were published by Berry, the in- surgents submitted. James Carteret retired with his young bride to New York, whence he soon afterward sailed for Virginia. Lovelace read in council the duke's orders about New Jersey, and supported the proprietors' authority there. Willis and Winthrop also wrote to Berry and Sir George Carteret in favor of emigrants from Connecticut to New Jersey, and recommended convenient townships as " best conducing to safety and the advancing of civil societies."+
Nes Jer-
J Jaly. 23 July.
March. istor is Votreb st. While Lovelace was at Anne Ilook's Neck, or Hutchin- New York son's Bay, on postal business, news came to New York that a Dutch squadron was coming from the West Indies to Virginia, and thence northward; and the governor was summoned back to the capital by express from. Manning. Seeing no enemy, Lovelace " slited" his subordinate's care, and said " this is one of Manning's 'larrums." Ile did not even prepare the fort to withstand an enemy, although he had received the contribution money. Soldiers were, how- 1 May. ever, summoned from Albany, Esopus, and Delaware, and nearly one hundred and thirty enlisted men were muster- May. ed. At the general training the volunteer and regular force amounted to three hundred and thirty. But soon afterward, Salisbury, with his men, were sent back to Al- bany, and the whole number left in garrison at Fort James did not exceed eighty.#
? ( June. Prixall- warorders.
The exportation of wheat, however, was prohibited, ow- ing to " these times of trouble." On account of the scar- city of wampum, it was directed that six white and three
· Col. MSS., xxii., 144; Eliz Bill, 35, 36, 37; Leaming and Spicer, 31-41; Whitehead, 5., 38; Hatfield. 14/-151 ; ante, 47, 84, 180.
t Coun. Min., I. (ii. ), 147 ; Gen. Ent., iv., 277; Eliz. Bill, 37, App. 31 ; Whitehead, 53, 50; Col. Doc .. ini , 200, 214; Ma-s. II. S. Coll., xxx., S4, 85; ante, 120, note.
$ Doc. Ifi.t., ill., 51, 57, 50 ; Bolton, i., 513; ante, vol. i., 334, 306, 595.
£
201
FRANCIS LOVELACE, GOVERNOR.
black beads should pass for a stuyver or penny, instead of CHAP. IV. cight white and four black, as formerly. The Duke's Laws 1673. were also ordered to be enforced in Esopus." 12 June.
Lovelace for some time intended to visit Winthrop, who 15 May. had recently lost his wife; and now, "having urgent occa- sions," he set out for Connecticut, leaving Manning, as 20 July. Lovelace usual, in charge of Fort James ; but " without any order to visita Win- " throp in repair the same for to make defence against an enemy." Connecti- Before the governor saw that fortress again, events occur- cut. red which he does not appear to have apprehended.t
The "Cabal" of Charles the Second had, meanwhile, been the only gainers by his war with the Dutch. Parlia- ment was asked by the king for assistance. Shaftesbury, 4 Febr'y. his chancellor, bitterly denounced the Dutch, whose com- and Charle, merce he described. in glowing rhetoric, as leading them baryon the Shaftes- to "an universal Empire, as great as Rome." Following Dutch. the key-note which Dryden had sounded ten years before, he compared Holland to Carthage, which England, like Rome, must destroy - " Delenda est Carthago." Both Charles and Shaftesbury spoke to little purpose. Parlia- ment suspected the orthodoxy of the Duke of York, and disliked the king's meretricious alliance with Roman Cath- olic France no less than his unjustifiable war with Protest- ant Holland. A supply was voted, but it was coupled with a condition to which Charles was obliged to give his reluc- tant assent. This was the " Test Act," which continued to 20 March. be an English law until the reign of George the Fourth. pith .T ... The En- It required all persons holding any civil or military offices a. in England. Wales, Berwick, Jersey, or Guernsey, to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy; publicly receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to the usage of the Church of England; and subscribe a declaration against the Romish doctrine of Transubstantiation. In consequence of this law, the Duke of York, who for some time had secretly been a Roman Catholic, candidly de- Effet of clared his religious faith, and in a flood of tears resigned the Test all the offices which he held under the crown, including Yot. that of lord high admiral of England. But as the Test
' Council Mia., ifi., 120, 145, 146, 153-157; S. Hazard, 405; Proud, i., 133, 134.
* Council Min , ili., 147; Trumbull Papers, xx., 104, 100; Mase. H. S. MSS. : Col. Doc.,
.4 , 128; Doc. Ilist., ill , 57, 50 ; Col. Rec. Conn., ii., 242; ELz. DiII, G.
202
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
Cnr. IV. Act did not extend to Scotland and Ireland, nor to the British Plantations, the duke's admiralty jurisdiction over 1673. them remained unimpaired."
Parliament again turned its attention to the American colonies. Their commerce had already been restrained by the Navigation Laws; but "the avarice of English shop- keepers" now required that commerce to be taxed. It was observed that the British Plantations enjoyed a profitable intercolonial traffic, and sold their commodities to foreign nations, " to the diminution of the customs and the naviga- tion of the kingdom." Parliament therefore enacted that sugars, tobacco, ginger, and certain other productions, when exported from any English colony, should pay the same duties to the crown as if they were landed in En- gland ; and that these duties were to be collected at such places and by such officers as the commissioners of the customs in England should appoint. This selfish measure "formed the seed-plot on which was raised the subsequent system of colonial revenue."+
During the first year of the war the United Provinces 1052. suffered terrible calamities. Although the Dutch had, a The century before, proved themselves the first soldiers in the world, they had, through a long interval of peace and pros- perity, become unused to military service on land. Their whole energies had been directed to commercial and naval enterprise. Jlolland seemed almost like a rich galleon, with De Ruyter for captain, and De Witt for pilot. One of the Pensionary's maxims had always been to foster the . Wie. 14 Ruyter, Ham of Or. sca rather than the land forces of the republic. The young Prince of Orange, on the other hand, chafed at his thraldom, and longed to be at the head of armies. It is
· Statute 25 Ch. II., cap. ii. ; Parl. Hist., iv., 405, 502-535; Kennett, iii., 2S ?- 294; Clarke's Jatro4 11., 1, 453; Burnet, i., 346-552; Rapin, ii., 665-671; Basnage, il., 395-390; King's Loke, 34: Evelyn, ii., Ss, SO; Anderson, ii., 527; Hume, vi., 405-472; Lingard, xii., 259- 20~, 203; Campbell's Chancellors, ili., 314-317: Col. Doc., ill., 239; Leaming and Spicer, 46; ante. 3. Ine Test Act did not extend to the English Plantations of its own force, be- catre they were not particularly named, or intended to be embraced in the statute: Col. D.c., HL, 535; Chahners's Ann., i., 240; Rev. Col., i., 173, 236; Blackstone, i., 108, 109; Ja- c. b, Iv., 4º1; v., 15, 160. It was first extended to the American Plantations by William III., in 16:9, of his own will, by clauses in the Royal Commissions and Instructions to the several Governor : Cel. Doc., iii., 623, 655; post, p. 264.
t 23 Charles IL., cap. vii. ; Anderson, il., 521, 522; Chalmers's Ann., i., 317, 320; Rev. Col., i., 125, 126. 152, 172; Kennett, ilf., 295; Holmes, i., 360 ; Bancroft, li., 44: Grahame, i., 92; Palfrey, fi., 35, 54, 279. Chalmers, and those who follow him, using the Old Style, erroneously date this net in 1012. The 25th year of Charles the Second was from 30 Janu- ary, 1673, to 20 January, 1074.
203
FRANCIS LOVELACE, GOVERNOR.
not surprising that while the Dutch fleets gloriously main- CuAr. IV. tained the honor of their flag against England, their militia, officered by incapable favorites, recoiled before the disci- 1672. plined veterans of France, led by Conde, and Luxembourg, and Turenne. Before Holland knew it, the Gallie Hanni- bal was at her gates. Louis established his court at July. Utrecht. Almost in despair, De Witt opened negotiations Utrecht. Louis at with France and England. But the humiliating terms they offered could not be accepted ; and spasmodic popular indignation broke out against the Pensionary and his broth- " Omnje er. Oranje Boven, De Witten onder! "Up with Orange Boren." -- down with the De Witts" -- was the cry .*
William Henry, Prince of Orange, was now in the William, twenty-second year of his age. "A young man without Orange. Prince of youth," he concealed under a cold exterior a dauntless soul. But he had been deprived of the stadtholderate en- joyed by his ancestors, and its duties were performed by the Grand Pensionary of Holland, John de Witt, who ad- ministered the government with great success until the war with France. "The people then began to murmur that their soldiers did not fight well because they were badly officered, and demanded that the Prince of Orange should be made captain general. This was done; and, at the Maleeop- popular cry of "Oranje Boven," William was appointed al and stadtholder. An army to protect the hearth was now a. more important than a navy to keep open the port. John de Witt resigned his office of Pensionary, and his brother
* Sylvine, i , 241; Hollandtsche Mereurine, 1672, 89-21; Baspage, il., 153. 196, 211-200. 283, 281; Le Clerc, ifi., 200 ; Wagenaar, xiv., 26-165; Davies, ilf., 91-108: Home. L. K1; Lavallée, ill. 220; Martin, i., 015-352; ante, p. 1-5. On the 20th of June, 1012, the partl. sans of the prince welcomed him at Dordrecht, in Holland, with the obl nati nal ewar, " Wilhelmus van Nassauwen" (ante, vol. i., p. 42), and by hoisting an Orange the Late a white flag, the upper one bearing the inscription in Dutch :
" Oranje boven, de Witten onder ; Die't anders meend, die staat den Donder."
Which may be rendered in English :
" Orange above, the Whites under ; Who thinks not so, be struck by thunder."
The Dutch word Wit signifies " White." De Witten, or the De Witts, therefore means "the Whites ;" and thus the Dordrecht flags, with their inscription, formed a popular donble pun. Although the words " Oranje Boven" were thus adopted as a popular cry by the partisans of William the Third in 1672, they were known and used long before by the Dutch pe ple. » ho applied them to their national flag, of which the upper stripe was orange, the middle one white, and the lower one blue (ante, vol. i., 19, note). These words were also shoute ! on the 15th of January, 1651, when the young prince was baptized at the Great Charch Is the Hague: ante, p. 2; Aitzema, ili., 551. 552; Basnage, i., 151; Le Clerc, ji .. 292 ; J. C. ¿ : Jonge, Oorsprong (1831), 52; Rey's Histoire du Drapeau (1837), ii., 519. 529; J. T .: Gouw, Oorsprong (1983), 44, 45; De Navorscher for 1554, iv., 62, 63 ; and for 1:51, vii .. .. ]
204
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
1672. The De
CHAT. IV. Cornelis was imprisoned. The Orangeists attributed the disasters of their country to the party which had lately governed it ; and a band of ruffians, bursting into the pris- Witts mur- on where John de Witt was visiting his brother, butchered dered.
20 August. them both on the "Plaats" before the Buitenhof at the IIague .*
William's magnaniin- ity.
In almost uncontrolled authority, William now showed the grandeur of his soul. To the desponding States he spoke encouragement. To the proposals of Louis and Charles he answered that, "rather than sign the ruin of the Republic and receive the sovereignty from the hand of its enemies, he would embark with his friends for Ba- tavia." To the suggestion that Holland was lost if he did not accept the terms of France and England, he replied, "There is a sure way never to see it lost, and that is, I will die in the last ditch !"+
The Dutch encour- aged.
The spirit of William roused his drooping countrymen. The Dutch remembered what their ancestors had done a century before. The sluices were opened, and the low lands became a vast lake, studded with cities and villages, rising here and there above the waters which washed their ramparts. Again the invaders were forced to retreat, and Holland was saved.#
28 May. Neval actions.
The Dutch navy was now commanded by De Ruyter 1673. and Tromp, who had been reconciled by the Prince of Orange. Prince Rupert took the place of the Duke of York in command of the English fleet, which, being joined by the French, attacked the weaker Dutch off the coast of Zealand. Tromp's division was almost overpowered by the French, when De Ruyter, who was conquering the English. magnanimously checked his own career and hastened to rescue his former rival. The battle was indecisive. An- other engagement followed the next week, and the English retreated to the Thames. Two months afterward, one hundred and fifty English and French ships were encoun- tered by seventy-five Dutch off the Helder. A terrible
4 June.
* Basnage, il .. 284-322; Temple, ii., 257, 258; Wagenaar, xiv., 106-193; Davies, ifi., 43, 107-118 ; Martin, 1, 352-357 ; Sylvius, i., 346-409; D'Estrades, iv., 223, 242 ; Macaulay, ii., 150; ante, 2.
t Burnet, i., 927. 531, 332 ; Kennett, iii., 292; Dalrymple, i., 53; Rapin, ii., 664; Basnage, ii., 256 ; Temple, ti .. 250; Home, vi., 465-467 ; Davies, ifi., 121-123; Mackintosh, 320; Ma- caulay, i., 219, 219 : il .. 182.
# Burnet, 1., 035-007 ; Temple, il., 200, 201; Davies, iii., 123 ; ante, vol. i., 442, 443.
205
FRANCIS LOVELACE, GOVERNOR.
conflict followed, in which, as a last exhibition of courage, Char. III. Hollanders and Englishmen rivaled each other in stubborn valor. From morning until night the churches were filled with praying Dutch Protestants, while the sound of rapid
1673. 11 August. Last battle between guns boomed over the low coast of Holland. At length the Dutch the English retreated, and De Ruyter and Tromp shared glish.
and En- with William of Orange the gratitude of their rescued fatherland .*
While the countrymen of Grotius were thus fighting for their hearths, a former province of the Netherlands was un- expectedly annexed to the Dutch Republic. Cornelis Evert- sen, a son of the famous admiral, had been sent out from 1672. Zealand with fifteen ships to harass the enemy in the West 1? Derein. Indies, which was effectually done. At Martinico he fell in with four ships dispatched from Amsterdam, under the Binckes. son and command of Jacob Binckes. Joining their forces, the two 1673. commodores followed Krynssen's track to the Chesapeake, where they took eight, and burned five Virginia tobacco 3} July. ships, in spite of the gallantry of the frigates which were to convoy them to England. As they were going out of the James River, the Dutch commodores met a sloop from At Virgia- New York, conveying Captain James Carteret, with his ia. bride, and Samuel Hopkins, of Elizabethtown, to Virginia. The master of the sloop, Samuel Davis, on being question- ed, stoutly insisted that New York was in a good condition of defense, with one hundred and fifty mounted guns, and five thousand men ready to answer the call of Governor Lovelace in three hours. But Hopkins bluntly told the truth. Davis's story was " altogether false ;" there were only sixty or eighty men in the fort, and thirty to thirty-six cannon on its walls; three or four hundred men might be raised in three or four days, and Lovelace was absent on a visit to Governor Winthrop in Connecticut. Upon Hop- kins's information, " all the cry was for New York." Car- Bracket teret and his young wife were set ashore in Virginia ; but des 1. Hopkins, with Davis and his sloop, were detained. In a few days the Dutch fleet, which, with three ships of war from Amsterdam, and four from Zealand, was now swelled Tr D.A by prizes to twenty-three vessels, carrying sixteen hundred blant.
Expedition
+
' l'asnage, il., 410-422; Sylvius, vill., 607-012; ix., 647-049; Davies, ifl., 197-132; Ken- Dett, ifl., 295, 226; Rapin, il., 671 ; Hume, vi., 473-476; Bancroft, li., 324; Martin, 1 , 325, .00.
206
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. III. men, arrived off Sandy Hook. The next morning they anchored under Staten Island .*
1673.
7 August. Manning's action.
The Dutch welcome their country- MICH.
2S July. The tidings of their approach were soon brought to Manning, at Fort James, who, finding that the wolf was this time really at the door, hurried off an express to meet Lovelace at New Haven. Volunteers were sought by beat of drum, provisions were seized, and the arms in the fort repaired. Orders were sent to the nearest Long Island towns to forward re-enforcements, but none came. The Dutch inhabitants, rejoicing at the approach of their coun- trymen, had already begun to make "threatening speeches." The fleet was soon crowded with sympathizing visitors from New Utrecht and Flatbush. Learning from them how weak Fort James really was, the Dutch commanders came up the bay, and anchored above the Narrows, in sight of the city. Lovelace's sheep and cattle on Staten Island af- forded them an acceptable "breakfast." Already New York was substantially restored to the Dutch. In vain did Manning continue beating the drums for volunteers. Few appeared, and those that did only spiked the guns at the City Hall.t
8 August. 20 July.
30 July. 9 August. Answer of the Dutch commo- dores to Manning's demand.
The situation of the capital now resembled that of New Amsterdam nine years before. All that Manning could think of was to procrastinate, in hope that the governor might return, or aid come from Long Island. Captain John Carr, of the Delaware, who was now in New York, was accordingly dispatched, with Counselor Thomas Love- Jace and Attorney John Sharpe, to demand why the fleet had come " in such a hostile manner to disturb Ilis Majes- ty's subjects in this place ?" The Dutch commodores re- plied that they had come to take the place, "which was their own, and their own they would have." Meanwhile Evertsen and Binckes had sent a trumpeter with their joint summons from the flag-ship "Swanenburgh," requiring the surrender of the fort. To this Manning promised a reply on the return of his own messengers. When they did re-
* Basnage, il., 450, 781, 782, 832, 834 ; Sylvius, ix., 660, 665; x., 23 ; xiv., 355; xv., 35, 94; Kok, vi., 52; xiv., 564; Davies, iii., 50, 162; Col. Doc., ii., 518, 527, 572, 579 ; ifi., 199, 200, 201, 204, 205, 213, 214; Hist. Mag., i. (ii.), 227, 209; Hutch. Mass., i., 284; Mass. I. S., Trumbull Papers, xx., 193; Lambrechtsen, $2; Grahame, i., 420 ; ante, 126, 200. There is. a portrait of Evertsen in Wagennar, xv., 304. See also N. Y. H. S. Coll. (15GS), 18-4.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.