72 Correspondence of Governor Sharpe.

Letter Bk. IV

indeed a great part of our Wheat Flour & other produce is
now carried the price there being always higher than in Mary-
land owing to the vast Trade carried on from thence to the
West Indies & other Parts ; As the Merchants there can
always load their Vessels at once they can afford to give more
for the Cargoes than Merchants in this Province can give,
because ours must be a long time collecting a Cargo for even
a small Vessel there being no Town or Port in Maryland
where any considerable quantity of Country Produce can be
purchased at once or together. This being the Case & no
Probability of an Alteration for the better, since the only
means to remedy the Evil would be to restrain the whole
Trade of the Province to one or two Ports a Scheme not
likely to be relished by the Assembly, it is not improbable
that when the Dividing Tangent Line shall have annexed to
the Pennsylvania Territories the Lands which lye at the Heads
of the abovementioned Rivers the Phila^a Merchants will pur-
chase those Lands & build Store Houses thereon for the
Reception of such Produce as may be carried thither from- this
Province & by sinking or clearing the Chanells of those
Rivers to their Heads (where the Water is at present but
shallow) make them navigable for at least small Craft, & as
the Jurisdiction of this Government will not extend thither
were they to carry & lodge in such Houses even our Tobacco
no Seizures could be made by Maryland Officers ; & as the
Heads of those two Rivers are but a very few Miles distant from
the Heads of some Creeks which make out of Delaware I do
not think it unlikely that sometime or other the Philadelphia
Merchants with the Assistance the Legislature of Pennsylvania
may give them will have a Canal cut thro the Istmus for the
more ready Conveyance of our Produce to the Phila^a Markett,
for the Scheme they are now prosecuting to make the River
Scuilkill which abounds with Rocks navigable, & some other
Schemes they have carried into Execution is sufficient to shew
the enterprising Spirit of that People. You will sec by the
Instructions which the Commissioners have given the Sur-
veyors that if the Line which the latter are now ordered to
run as a Tangent should deviate from the Extremities of the
Offsetts to be made from the Line last run more than in the
Proportion of Two feet in a Mile the Surveyors are to desist,
& return their Minute Books to Governor Hamilton & Myself,
in which case we shall presume that some Error has been com-
mitted in running the last Line as well as the former or Meridian
Line & shall I suppose refer & submit it to His Ldp & the
Proprietors of Pennsylvania whether they will have any more
Attempts made to describe the Tangent Line or not. In case
of such Reference His Ldp may perhaps on consideration of