viii Preface.

faith to his good behavior, but admit that they-know not how to secure
him. The Court then passes sentence that the prisoner shall be ban-
ished beyond the sea. But later in the day the King of Choptank
comes before the Council to plead for a remission of the sentence, prom-
ising that he and his great men will take care that there shall be no
repetition of the offence by any of his subjects. His petition is granted,
the Indian is brought in, and, after having been told that the leniency of
his treatment is due to the King's intercession, he is released and
handed over to his people, to their great joy.

The colony had, however, other troubles. Fendall was still doing his
utmost to make mischief, trying to stir up sedition, and disseminating
the old story that the Catholics were in league with the Indians to
massacre the Protestants; but this cry was not potent enough to rouse
rebellion for several years yet.

The trouble with William Penn, which was so long to vex Maryland,
and to result in the robbery of a large part of her original territory,
here makes its first appearance. Charles II owed a debt of £16,000 to
the estate of the Admiral, Penn's father, and no doubt thought it an
easy way to get out of it by giving Penn a vast domain in America;
while Penn, doubtless, was well satisfied with this settlement of a des-
perate claim. According to his charter Penn's southern boundary was
to be the 40^th degree of northern latitude, which was the northern
boundary of Maryland, so that in all appearance there could be no
conflict between the two Proprietaries. The crown lawyers conferred
with Baltimore's attorneys on the subject, who made no objection, but
said that all danger of encroachment or dispute would be avoided if
Penn's southern boundary were declared to lie just north of the Susque-
hannough fort, which was understood to be exactly under the 40^th
degree.* Penn professed himself quite willing to have it so, but no
mention of this Susquehannough fort was inserted in the charter. His
boundary was fixed to begin twelve miles north of New Castle, thence
curving by an arc of a circle, to the 40^th parallel, which it was to follow
westward.

But when Markham, Penn's deputy, had taken some observations, he
found that New Castle was twenty miles south of the 40^th parallel, and
that the head of Chesapeake Bay did not fall within Pennsylvania at all,
as Penn had hoped it would and so told his colonists. Hitherto Penn
had been anxious to have the 40^th degree determined, but now his chief

* This fort was built by the Maryland militia in 1661 for the Susquehannoughs. It is placed
under the 40^th degree on Herrman's map of 1670.