Had New Haven retained its independence, who shall say how far the skillful state-craft and firm guidance of her Eatons, Newmans, Goodyears and Leetes might have carried her western bounds? But in 1662 came the royal charter of Connecticut, bounding her "East by Narragansett River, commonly called Narragansett Bay, where the said river falleth into the sea; and on the North by the line of the Massachusetts plantation; and on the South by the sea and in longitude, on the line of the Massachusetts Colony, running from East to West, that is to say, from the said Narragansett Bay on the East, to the South Sea on the West part, with the islands thereunto adjoining."

The English had by this time their settlements across the Byram river, and a letter has been preserved, written by Gov. Stuyvesant in 1663, urging some friendly termination of the differences as to the jurisdiction over "East Dorfe, by the English called West Chester, that the parties may live in peace in the Wilderness, where so many barbarous Indians dwell." But, the next year, came the surrender of New Amsterdam to the Duke of York, whose patent included "all that island or islands commonly called by the general name or names of Meitowax, or Long Island, situate and being towards the west of Cape Cod, and the narrow Highgansetts, abutting upon the main land between the two rivers, there . . . . known by the names of Connecticut and Hudson's river; and all the land from the west side of Connecticut river to the east side of Delaware Bay."

It is obvious that this grant, under which the Colonies of New York and New Jersey were afterwards constituted, covered much which was also in the Connecticut patents.

In those days, the geography of North America was hardly as well understood at London, as that of Central Africa is now; nor apparently did the Crown officers, in making out a new patent, trouble themselves to inquire as to what had been already granted by former conveyances. Long Island, for instance (not to mention the claim of Connecticut to it), had been long before granted to the Earl of Stirling; and the Duke

of York found it necessary to give him three hundred pounds for a release of his title.

The Dutch were as ignorant as the English of the real extent or bounds of the territory to which each was laying claim. In Van der Donck's Description of New Netherlands (1656), he says:

"Many of our Netherlanders have been far into the country, more than seventy or eighty miles from the river or sea-shore. We also frequently trade with the Indians, who come more than ten and twenty days' journey from the interior, and who have been farther off to catch beavers, and they know of no limits to the country, and when spoken to on the subject they deem such enquiries to be strange and singular. Therefore we may safely say that we know not how deep or how far we extend inland. There are, however, many signs which indicate a great extent of country, such as the land winds, which domineer much, with severe cold, the multitudes of beavers and land animals which are taken, and the great numbers of water fowl which fly to and fro across the country in the Spring and Fall seasons. From these circumstances we judge that the land extends several hundred miles into the interior."

The Eastern boundary of the Connecticut charter would seem to be plain enough, but Rhode Island, which obtained a charter in 1663, bounding her west on the "Pawcatuck River, alias the Narragansett River," immediately called it in question.

In fact, the Pawcatuck falls into the Sound some twenty-five miles west of the Narragansett, and makes no bay; but, owing to an ill-advised concession of the agent of this Colony, the grant was worded as it was, and she finally, in the next century, yielded her original claim.

Rhode Island was unfortunate in the rivers from which her boundaries were derived, on the north as well as on the west. Like Connecticut, she was bounded northerly on the south line of Massachusetts, and this line was, by the Massachusetts charter, to be three miles south of the most southerly part of the Charles River. Massachusetts asserted that the "most southerly part of the Charles River" was the most southerly part of any run of water which was an affluent of the Charles River. A brook was found, named Mill brook, which ran into the Charles River from Whiting's pond, lying towards the south; and into the south end of this pond ran a smaller

brook, called Jack's Pasture brook, and the spring head of this, they claimed-and after two hundred years of controversy, the claim was finally allowed-was the most southerly part of Charles River.*

The evacuation of New Amsterdam and the transfer of its claims to the king's brother, brought a speedy determination of the Western boundary of Connecticut. Commissioners were appointed from each Colony in 1664, and soon agreed that the Southern bounds of Connecticut were the sea, and that Long Island belonged to the Duke. The west boundst were to be "the creeke or ryver called Momoronock, which is reported to be about 12 myles to the east of West Chester, and a lyne drawne from the East point or syde, where the fresh water falls into the salt, at high water mark, N.N.W. to the line of the Massachusetts."

This adjustment of differences, while it ended the pretensions of Connecticut to run to the Pacific Ocean (so far as the southeastern portion of the territory of New York was concerned), and terminated her jurisdiction over Long Island, where Southampton, Easthampton, Setauket, and other towns had long acknowledged her authority, yielded also the claim of New York to extend to the Connecticut river, and thus confirmed to Connecticut the title to five considerable towns along the Sound. Governor Nicolls of New York wrote to the Duke soon afterwards, justifying the decision as required by the priority of the Connecticut patent, and adding "that to the east of New York and Hudson's River, nothing considerable remains to your Royal Highness, except Long Island, and about 20 miles from any part of Hudson's River. I look therefore upon all the rest as empty names, & places, possesst 40 years by former grants, and of no consequence to your Royal Highness, except all New England could be brought to submit to your Royal Highness's Patent."

The Commissioners of Connecticut, however, had made a

* Rhode Island vs. Massachusetts. 4 Howard's U. S. Supreme Court Rep., 591.

+1 Boundaries of N. Y., p. 25.

better bargain than the Governor supposed. From Tarrytown to Newburgh, the Hudson takes a course not far from N.N.W. and it would seem that the New York Commissioners-not long from England-thought that the N.N.W. line, laid down in their final agreement, ran parallel to the river, and about twenty miles from it. In fact, however, as it is probable the Connecticut Commissioners, who were old inhabitants, well knew, this N.N.W. line crossed the Hudson near West Point, and, if projected, reached a point not far from where Utica now is. Connecticut pushed her settlements to the edge of this line, claimed jurisdiction over Rye, and complained loudly of grants of territory on the east side of the Hudson, made by the New York government.

In 1683, Andros was succeeded by Governor Dongan, who at once notified Connecticut that he was not satisfied with the old agreement of 1664, and desired a new convention on the subject. She appointed Commissioners to treat with him, and in a fortnight's time, a wholly new boundary was created.

This was to

"begin att a certain brook or river called Byram brooke or river, which river is between the towns of Rye & Greenwich; that is to say, at the mouth of the said brooke, where it falleth into the Sound, at a Point called Lyon's Point, which is the eastward point of Byram river, & from the said point to goe as the said river runeth, to the place where the common road, or wading place over the said river, is; and from the said road or wading-place to goe N.N. W. into the country soe farr as will be 8 English miles from the aforesaid Lyon's point."

Another eight mile, N.N.W. line was then to be run parallel to the first, beginning twelve miles farther eastward on the Sound, and a line connecting their northern ends was to bound Connecticut, on the side of Westchester. From the eastern. end of this North line, another line was to be run, parallel to the IIudson and twenty miles distant from it, until the bounds. of Massachusetts were reached. But how could a line well be drawn, at once parallel to the Hudson, and in every place twenty miles distant from it? Obviously its course, following the constant, through slight bends in the river, would be of . such an irregular and "zig-zag" character, as to make it quite

unsuited for a permanent boundary between two States. To meet this difficulty, it was agreed to begin by taking two points, one on the Massachusetts line, and the other where Connecticut meets Westchester County, each just twenty miles from the Hudson, and connecting them by a straight line: then the area which was east of this line, and yet within the twenty miles, was to be ascertained; and, finally, a new line drawn, parallel to the first, but so far east of it as to include, within a long and narrow parallelogram, a number of acres precisely equal to that outside of this first line, and, yet, less than twenty miles from the river. The eastern side of this parallelogram, or "equivalent tract," as it was called, was to be the final boundary between the States. Subsequent surveys fixed its area at a little more than 60,000 acres; and in 1684, the southern portion of the boundary, as agreed upon, was marked by what were designed to be permanent monu

ments.

The Commissioners who conducted these negotiations on the part of Connecticut, had secret instructions to get Governor Dongan "to take up with as little as may be ;" and that "as to the rise of our line at Momarronoke, you are to declare there could be no mistake between the Commissioners [in 1664] about that, and therefore endeavor to hold that bound." Justice, however, was plainly on the side of New York, and the concessions made to her on this occasion were practically unavoidable. As the Commissioners wrote to the selectmen of Rye on their return from "Yorke,” “ we were loath to have parted with you, and would have been glad to have continued you in this government; yet the providence of God hath so disposed that by our agreement with Governor Dongan, we were forced to part with you, & could not help it." They succeeded, however, in making it a part of the settlement that the tax rate of Rye for 1683 and all arrearages of taxes levied by Connecticut for previous years should be paid into her treasury.

It was for years Governor Dongan's hope that the whole of Connecticut might be annexed to his province. In his Report