94 Correspondence of Governor Sharpe.

Letter Bk. IV

speak of: In my last Letter I told you that the Surveyors
were again at a Stop by reason that the Line they had been
last running at the Distance of Sixty Miles from the Middle
Point passed 150 feet & six Inches westward of the Point thro
which according to the Calculations made (on a Supposition
that the Line run last Summer was truly straight) it ought to
have passed. On Receiving such Information M^r Ridout D^r
Steuart & M^r Barclay (the Rest of our Comm^rs being unable
to attend) set off for the Place where the Surveyors were ;
expecting to meet there some of the Penns^a Commissioners
(it having been agreed at our last meeting that a quorum of
the Commissioners on each part should upon receiving such
Notice from the Surveyors as is abovementioned immediately
repair to the spot) but on receiving from the Pennsylvania
Gentlemen the second Day after they had been there a Letter
informing them that they would meet them some Days after-
wards our Gentlemen returned home in which I think they
did right for this is not the first time some of us have gone
from home on such an Errand & been obliged in the same
manner to return without it, & as we could not by any means
agree to extending any farther a Line which deflects so much
to the Westward as that if it were to be continued it would
probably fall almost as much to the Westward of the Extremity
of the Radius as the other last year did to the Eastward of it,
I do not see what Advantage would have arisen from the
Commissioners meeting at the Sixty Mile Post, but if they
had I dare say the Pennsylvania Gentlemen would have been
extremely urgent for continuing the Line up in hopes that the
Proprietors would agree to its being established as a Boundary
rather than be at the Expence of making farther Trials.
According to our last Adjournment we are to meet at New-
castle the 15^th of next Month before which time I hope to
receive from you those Prescriptions of D^r Bevis's that you
mention, but it would give me greater Pleasure to receive a
Letter from you advising me that His Ldp & the Proprietors
of Pennsylvania had agreed to send out a Mathematician of
Capacity & Integrity to finish the Business. You observe that
it would have been better if the Commissioners had not
suffered the Surveyors to go down again last October to the
Middle Point but really I do not know how our Gentlemen
could have refused absolutely to do so, when the Pennsylvania
Commissioners insisted on it since the Line which had been
before run up was not the Tangent required, the Line so run
having terminated almost half a Mile Eastward of the supposed
Tangent point nor do I know if the Pennsylva^a Commissioners
should at our next Meeting insist upon our sending the Survey-
ors down to run up another Line whether it would be in our