degree of North latitude, but as this measurement was not made at the time various difficulties occurred in establishing the south-western boundary of the Colony. Those difficulties originated in the following circumstances.

In the year 1608, Capt. Henry Hudson, under a commission from King James I. of England, sailed in the employment of several London merchants in quest of a north-west passage to India, and having discovered Long Island Sound and the mouth of a large river opening into a spacious bay, he sailed into the same and having proceeded up the river about one hundred miles with his ship, he came to anchor opposite the place where the city now stands which bears his name. He spent several days trading with the Indians, and having given his own name to the river, returned into the Atlantic. Two years afterwards he made a second voyage in the employment of several merchants of Holland to whom he subsequently sold his right to the countries which he had discovered.

The Amsterdam West India Company having purchased Hudson's claim called the country the "New Netherlands," and built a Town on an Island at the mouth of the river which they called "New Amsterdam." In 1614 the same Company sent part of their Colony up the river where they built a Town on the western bank which they called "Orange." These two Towns were the first which were built by the subjects of any European nation within the present limits of the United States. Thus the whole country for a distance of

one hundred and sixty miles along the Hudson was in the possession of the Dutch and consequently came within the proviso mentioned in the Charter to the Plymouth Company which excepted such of the granted premises as were "then actually. possessed or inhabited by any other Christian Prince or State," for the Dutch had been in the occupancy of the country six years previous to the date of the Company's Charter.

In the year 1664 on the 12th day of March King Charles II. granted a patent to his brother the Duke of York and Albany of a large tract of country in America including Long Island, the territory of the New Netherlands and all the country westward to the Delaware Bay: his Majesty having declared that the Dutch had no right to countries first discovered by an Englishman. A war had broken out with the Dutch, and the Duke considered it a proper time to take possession of his territories. A fleet was accordingly fitted out under the command of Sir Robert Carr and Colonel Nichols, which proceeded to Boston, and having procured reinforcements from the Colonies appeared before the city of New Amsterdam which surrendered to the English on the 27th of August 1664, and the whole of the New Netherlands having followed the example of the capital, the two principal Towns received the names which formed the principal titles of their new proprietor: New Amsterdam taking the name of New York, and Orange that of Albany. The Dutch Colony of the New Netherlands, having by these events become

the English Province of New York, it became neeessary that the boundaries between that Province and the New England Plantations should be definitively settled. The Dutch, during the continuance of their Government, had extended their settlements as far eastward along the coast as possible, and when the first planters of the Connecticut Colony arrived, they found a company of the Dutch building a Fort on the banks of Connecticut River where Hartford now stands, in which they had already placed two pieces of cannon.*

They were forced to abandon the attempt to form settlements on Connecticut River, and were eventually driven back to their permanent settlements which then extended no farther than the neighborhood of West Chester; but hostilities were for many years kept up between them and the New England planters, and no definitive boundaries were ever agreed upon between them, which was of any longer duration than the continuance of peace and good understanding between the neighbouring planters of the respective Colonies.

To prevent the continuance of these hostilities, Commissioners were appointed on behalf of the Colony of Connecticut to confer with Col. Dungan, then Governor of the Province under his Grace the Duke of York, concerning the territorial limits of their respective Governments; and they were authorised to fix and determine the boundary line between the Colony of Connecticut and the Proy

*Trumbulk

ince of New York. Accordingly on the 28th of November 1683, it was mutually agreed "That the line should begin at Byram River where it falleth into the Sound at a point called Lyons Point: to go as the said River runneth to the place where the common road or wading place over said river is. And from the said road or wading place, to go North, north-west into the country ́as far as will be eight English miles from the aforesaid Lyons' Point, and that a line of twelve miles being measured from the said Lyon's Point according to the line or general courses of the Sound Eastward. Where the said twelve miles endeth another line shall be run from the Sound eight miles into the country North, north-west, and also that a fourth line be run, (that is to say) from the northernmost end of the eight miles line being the third mentioned line (which is to be twelve miles in length) a line parallel to Hudson's River, in every place twenty miles distant from Hudson's River shall be the bounds there between the said territory or Province of New York and the said Colony of Connecticut as far as Connecticut Colony doth extend northwards that is to the South line of the Massachusetts Colony. Only it is provided that in case the line from Byram's Brook's mouth North north-west eight miles and the line that is then to run twelve miles to the end of the third foremen tioned line of eight miles do diminish or take away land within twenty miles of Hudson's River, that then so much as in land diminished of twenty miles of Hudson's River thereby shall be added out of

Connecticut bounds unto the line aforementioned parallel to Hudson's River and twenty miles distant from it, the addition to be made the whole length of the said parallel line, and in such breadth as will make up quantity for quantity what shall be diminished as aforesaid."

This agreement was ratified on the part of Connecticut by the General Assembly in May 1684, and the lines having been run, were approved by Governors Dungan and Treat of the two Colonies, Feb. 24th. 1685.*

In this agreement which finally settled the boundaries between Connecticut and New York, nothing is said of the Charter limits of the Two Governments. The Duke's Charter included most of the present State of Connecticut, a great part of Massachusetts, a part of New Hampshire, the whole of Vermont, and the whole of New Jersey. The Connecticut Charter which was two years older than the Dukes, extended through the State of New York westward to the Pacific Ocean, but in the purchase from the Plymouth Company on which the Charter was founded, the Dutch settlements were excepted, and in consequence of this exception the Duke held the territories bounded by the line established by this agreement.

Having thus taken a full view of the Charter limits of Connecticut it is proper that we now consider those of Pennsylvania. On the 4th of March 1681, King Charles II. granted a Charter to

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