Preface. ix

solicitude was to prevent any determination. As long as he could
hinder any observation from being taken, so long he could go on grant-
ing lands in Maryland, intriguing with the colonists, and trusting to the
chapter of chances and to his favor with the King, who, like all the
Stuarts, had no objection to give away what was not his to give, and
who considered solemn agreements and plighted faith only binding so
long as they suited his good pleasure. Penn had several conferences
with Baltimore, in which he tried to persuade the latter to carry his
southern boundary further south, and take a strip from Accomac, Vir-
ginia, as a compensation for a tract running from the Delaware river to
the meridian of the first fountain of the Potomac: not " robbing Peter
to pay Paul," as the adage goes, but suggesting that Paul do the
robbing and pay himself. Baltimore simply pointed to the express
language of the two charters, and insisted upon a joint determination of
the 40^th degree, and this Penn was resolved never should be made, if
he could prevent it. Of course, as the King had commanded them
both to settle their boundary, he could not refuse to measure; but
when appointments were made for meetings between Baltimore and
Markham, Penn's deputy, and Baltimore proceeded to New Castle,
Markham was sick, or he was in New York, and when, by an
unexpected visit he was caught, somebody had carried off the glasses of
the sextant.

To make sure of an outlet to the sea, Penn persuaded the Duke of
York to grant him land on the western side of the Delaware, every acre
of which belonged to Maryland, and not one inch of which was in the
Duke's patents, as Penn himself admitted; but that fact troubled
neither the Prince nor the Quaker. An order of the Privy Council in
1685, directed the claimants to divide the land ; and thus what is now
the State of Delaware was torn from Maryland by an unscrupulous
Prince and a royal favorite.

Unfortunately for Baltimore, who had gone to England to try to
counteract Penn's machinations, events occurred in the Province which
increased the disfavor with which he and Maryland were regarded by
the King.

The importance of having settlements made in the northern parts of
the Province had been apparent to Cecilius long before Penn's charter
was issued, and special inducements had been held out to settlers in that
region. Now that Penn was granting lands in Maryland, and warning
Herrman and other inhabitants not to acknowledge the Proprietary's
jurisdiction, it became more than ever urgent to protect the rights of