[Sharpe to Baltimore.]

Annapolis the 20^th of Dec^r 1760.
My Lord
In the Letter which I had the honour to address to Your
Ldp the 14^th of Oct^r I acknowledged the Receipt of the
Articles of Agreement which your Ldp was pleased to enter
into the 4^th of Iuly last with the Proprietors of Pennsylvania
& I also intimated that Your Ldps Commissioners would
probably be able to meet the Pennsylvania Commissioners the
Beginning of the ensuing month & together with them pro-
ceed to carry the said Articles into Execution agreeable to the
Directions of the Commission which had been transmitted to
me. To what it was owing that the Commissioners did not
meet & proceed to Business before the 19^th of Nov^r Your Ldp
will learn from the Narrative continued which I now send to
M^r Calvert, & what was done by us after we did meet will
appear by a Copy of the Minutes of the Proceedings of the
Commissioners which I shall herewith transmit to be laid
before Your Ldp. As M^r Dulany declined going to meet the
Pennsylvania Commissioners because as he alledged his
Health was not thoroughly established & M^r Malcolm was so
sickly & infirm that he could not at such a Season venture
from home, I issued a Commission appointing M^r Ridout a
Commissioner on Your Ldp's behalf in the stead of Col^o
Tasker & in the room of M^r Malcolm I appointed M^r John
Leeds a Commissioner being of Opinion that his Knowledge
in the Mathematicks would in M^r Malcolm's Absence be of
Service to us as I really think it was, & tho he was but in an
ill State of Health when he went from home & was sensible
that he should suffer some Inconvenience thereby he did not
leave us till we all agreed to break up. Whether more able
Mathematicians may be of Opinion that the Plan or Scheme
which we have agreed to pursue in order to find the Course
of the Tangent & the Point of Contact is a more expensive
one than might have been followed if we could have had the
Assistance of able Astronomers & a proper Apparatus or