The year 1704 was memorable also because it gave birth to the first newspaper in the colonies, the _Boston News-Letter_. Only a few copies were printed each week, and each copy contained but four or five square feet of print, and the first number contained but one advertisement--that of the man who printed it. When Madam Knight’s journal was published in New York by Mr. Theodore Dwight, in 1825, the editor knew nothing of the diarist, not even her family name; hence it was confidently believed by many that the journal was merely a clever and entertaining fiction. In 1852, however, Miss Caulkins published her history of the town of New London, and contradicted that belief, for she gave an account of the last days of Madam Knight, which were spent in Norwich and New London. Madam Knight’s daughter married the Colonel Livingston who is mentioned in the journal, and left no children. From a descendant of Mrs. Livingston’s administratrix, Mrs. Christopher, the manuscript of the journal was obtained for publication in 1825, it having been carefully preserved all those years. In _Blackwood’s Magazine_ for the same year an article appeared, entitled _Travelling in America_, which reprinted nearly all of Madam Knight’s journal, and which showed a high appreciation of its literary and historical merits. In 1858 it was again printed by request in _Littell’s Living Age_, with some notes of Madam Knight’s life, chiefly compiled from Miss Caulkins’ _History of New London_, and again provoked much inquiry and discussion. Recently a large portion of the journal has been reprinted in the _Library of American Literature_, with many alterations, however, in the spelling, use of capitals, and punctuation, thus detracting much from the interest and quaintness of the work; and most unnecessarily, since it is perfectly easy to read and understand it as first printed, when, as the editor said, “the original orthography was carefully preserved for fear of introducing any unwarrantable modernism.” The first edition is now seldom seen for sale, and being rare is consequently high-priced. The little shabby, salmon-colored copy of the book which I saw was made interesting by two manuscript accounts of Sarah Knight, which were inserted at the end of the book, and which are very valuable, since they give positive proof of the reality of the fair traveller, as well as additional facts of her life. The first account was in a fine old-fashioned, unpunctuated handwriting, on yellow, time-stained paper, and read thus:--