| :exactly like the original; and that the use of abbreviated
words does not impair the validity of the instrument.
Moreover, that part of the charter which definesthe bound-
aries of the province speaks, not equivocally, but in terms
so clear and apt that the intent is readily perceived. It
remains to be seen whether we can apply the description
to the subject-matter by laying the lines on the ground.
To that end it is necessary to aacertain bow the geography
of the country was understood by the King and Lord Bal-
tiniore at the time when the charter was made.
In the great litigation between Penn and Lord Balti-
more a bill drawn up by Mr. Murray, (afterwards Lord
Mansfield,) or by some equity pleader under his immediate
direction, avers in substance that Charles I and the miii-
ietera whom he consulted on Lord Baltimore's application
had the map of Capt. John Smith before them when the
boundaries of the colony were agreed on. This was neither
denied nor admitted in the answer of the defendant, who,
being third in descent from the applicant, had no personal
knowledge about it. But we take the fact to be certainly
true, not only because we have the assertion of it by Penn
and his very eminent counsel, but because it is well know n
that Smith's map was the only delineation then extant of
that region, anal his History of Virginia, to which the map
was prefixed, had .been before, and continued for a long
time afterwards, to be the only source of information con-
cerning its geography. Besides, a comparison of the map
with the charter will Aow by the similarity of names,
spejling, &c., that one .must have been taken from the
.other.
The editions of Smith's History, published by himself
in 1,6.12 and 1629, have been produced, with the map there-
to prefixed. Besides, we have one printed in 1819 by
:a.uthority .of Virginia from the same plate used by Smith
ha.ruself tw.o hundred years before, and found, by a curious
,&c~eident, ,iwa promiscuous heap of cold metal which had
been imporxed from England to some town in Pennsyl-
vaRJAI
|
