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Confiding on the faith of the government, captain Campbel went home to Isla, sold his estate, and shortly after transported, at his own expense, eighty-three protestant families, consisting of four hundred and twenty-three adults besides a great number of children. Private faith and public honour loudly demanded the fair execution of a project so expensive to the undertaker and beneficial to the colony; but it unfortunately dropped, through the sordid views of some persons in power, who aimed at a share in the intended grant; to which Campbel, who was a man of spirit, would not

consent.

Captain Campbel afterwards made an attempt to redress himself, by an application to the assembly here, and then to the board of trade in England. The first proved abortive, and such were the difficulties attending the last, that he left his colonists to themselves, and with the poor remains of his broken fortune, purchased a small farm in this province. No man was better qualified than he, for the business he had engaged in. He had a high sense of honour and a good understanding; was active, loyal, and of a military disposition: for upon the news of the late rebellion in Scotland, he went home, fought under the duke, returned to his family, and soon after died, leaving a widow and several children, who still feel the consequences of his disappointments.

Mr. Van Dam finished his administration on the 1st of August, 1732, when William Cosby, esq. arrived with a commission to govern this and the province of New-Jersey. The history of our public transactions, from this period to the present time, is full of important and entertaining events, which I leave others to relate. A very near relation to the author had so great a concern in the public controversies with colonel Cosby, that the history of those times will be better received from a more disinterested pen. To suppress truth on the one hand, or exag

gerate it on the other, are both inexcusable faults, and perhaps it would be difficult for me to avoid those extremes. Besides, a writer who exposes the conduct of the living, will inevitably meet with their fury and resentment. The prudent historian of his own times will always be a coward, and never give fire till death protects him from the malice and stroke of his enemy.

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APPENDIX.

THE HISTORY OF NEW-YORK.

CHAPTER I.

A GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY.

THE province of New-York, at present, contains Long Island, Staten Island, and the lands on the east side of Hudson's river, to the bounds of Connecticut. From the division line between that colony and the Massachusetts Bay, northward, to the line between us and the French, we claim an extent to Connecticut river.* On the west side of Hudson's

* The grounds of this claim are contained in the following report of a committee of council, to governor Clinton, on the 2d of March, 1753, which was drawn up by Mr. Alexander.

"May it please your Excellency,

"In obedience to your excellency's order in council, of the 3d day of July last, referring to a committee thereof, the petitions of Robert Livingston, jun. Esq. and of the owners of a certain tract of land called Westenhook, complaining of new claims and encroachments made upon their lands by the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay, and also the surveyor-general's and the attorneygeneral's reports on the said two petitions: the committee having maturely weighed and considered of the same, humbly beg leave to report to your excellency:

"1st. That they apprehend the claims of Massachusetts Bay to the manor of Livingston, or the said tract of land called Westenhook, cannot be well founded; because they find that the Dutch claimed the colony of New Netherland, as extending from Cape Cod to Cape Cornelius, now called Cape Henlopen, westward of Delaware Bay, along the sea coast, and as far back into the country as any of the rivers within those limits extend; and that they were actually possessed of Connecticut river, long before any other European people knew any thing of the existence of such a river, and were not only possessed of the mouth of it, where they had a fort and garrison, but discovered the river above a hundred miles up, had their people trading there, and purchased of the natives almost all the lands on both sides of the said river.

"2dly. That governor Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor of the said province, by his letter dated the 2d of September, 1664, new stile, in answer to a letter from governor Richard Nicholls, of the 20-30th August preceding, demanding the surrender of all the forts and places of strength possessed by the Dutch, under his (governor Stuyvesant's) command, writes as follows:-Moreover it's without dispute, and acknowledged by all the world, that our predecessors, by virtue

river, from the sea, to the latitude of 41° lies New-Jersey. The line of partition between that province and this, from that latitude to the other station on the Delaware, is unset

of the commission and patent of the said lords, the States General, have without controul, and peaceably (the contrary never coming to our knowledge) enjoyed Fort Orange about forty-eight or fifty years, and Manhatans about forty-one or forty-two years; the South river forty years, and the Fresh river about thirty six years.' Which last mentioned river, the committee find to be

the same that is now called Connecticut river.

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3dly. That the said Dutch governor Stuyvesant did, in the year 1664, surrender all the country which the Dutch did then possess to king Charles the second, and that the States General made a cession thereof, by the treaty of Breda, in the year 1667: that the Dutch reconquered part of this province in 1673, and surrendered and absolutely yielded it to king Charles the second, in 1673-4, by the treaty of London; and that in the year 1674, king Charles granted to the duke of York all the land between Connecticut river and Delaware Bay; the whole of these lands being part of the former colony of New Netherland. 4th. That the duke of York in his several commissions to major Edmund Andross, on the 1st of July, 1674, and to governor Dongan on the 30th of September, 1682, among other descriptions of the boundaries of this province, mentions all the land from the west side of Connecticut river to the east side of Delaware Bay that their majesties, king William and queen Mary, by their commission bearing date the 4th day of January, in the first year of their majesties' reign, appointed Henry Sloughter to be governor of the province of NewYork and territories depending thereon; the boundaries whereof to Connecticut river, on the east, were notorious by the grant and other commissions aforesaid, and many other grants and commissions relating to the same.

"5th. That the committee apprehend Connecticut river continued the east bounds of this province until the 28th of March, 1700, when, by king William's confirmation of an agreement between this province and Connecticut, the western bounds of that colony were settled at twenty miles from Hudson's river; and they cannot find any other alteration in the eastern bounds of this province, and have no reason to believe any other was made before or since that time.

"6th. That king James the first, by letters patent bearing date the 3d of November, in the eighteenth year of his reign, granted unto the council of Plymouth, from forty to forty-eight degrees of north latitude inclusive, in which there is a recital to this purpose:-Now for as much as the king has been certainly given to understand, by divers good subjects, that have for these many years frequented those coasts and territories, between the degrees of 40° and 48°, that there are no other subjects of any christian king or state, or by any authority from their sovereigns, lords, or princes, actually in possession of any the said lands or precincts, whereby any right, claim, interest, or title, may or ought, by that means, to accrue or belong to them,' &c. And also a proviso in these words :'Provided always, that the said lands, islands, or any of the premises, by the said letters patent intended or meant to be granted, were not then actually possessed or inhabited by any other christian power or state.' Which patent the committee conceive could not vest any thing in the grantees, by reason of the said recital and condition upon which it was granted; part of the premises being then actually possessed by the Dutch, and most of the said colony of New Netherland being within the bounds thereof.

"7th. That the council of Plymouth, by their deed dated the 19th of March, in the third year of king Charles the first, granted to Sir Henry Rosswell and others, part of what was supposed to be granted by the said letters patent, which grant from the said council of Plymouth the committee take to be void, as founded upon the said void patent.

8th. That he, the said Sir Henry Rosswell, and others, obtained a grant and confirmation thereof from the crown, under the great seal of England, dated the 4th of March, in the fourth year of king Charles the first, within which grant and confirmation the province of Massachusetts Bay is included, which grant and confirmation was adjudged void in the high court of chancery of England, in the year 1684. And the committee are of opinion, that nothing to the westward of Connecticut river could pass by that grant and confirmation;

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