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With the charter in one band and the map in the other
it spay seem an easy task to run these lines. But there are
difficulties still. The map, though a marvelous produc-
tion, considering how and when it was made, is not per-
fectly correct. Smith could not see and measure every-
thing for himself nor always depend upon the observations
of others. With his defective instruments he could not
get the latitude and longitude truly. He laid down some
points and places in the wrong relation to each other and
some not unimportant to us he left out altogether. There
are inaccuracies here and there in the configuration of a
coast, the shape of an island, or the course of a river.
Unfortunately the style of his ffistory is so confused and
obscure that it throws no light on the dark parts of the
map. As a writer he had great ambition and small capa-
city; he could give some interest to a narrative of his own
adventures, but any kind of description was too much for
his powers. There is another trouble: scarcely any of the
places marked on Smith's map are now popularly known
by the names be gave them. Not only the names but the
places themselves have been much changed. Consider-
able islands are believed to have been washed aw:ey or
divided by the force of the waters. Headlands which
stretched far out into the bay have disappeared, and the
shore is deeply indented where in former times the water
line was straight or curved in the other direction. Add
to this a certain amount of human perversity with which
the subject was handled in colonial days and it is not sur-
prising that representatives of the two States have, with
the most upright intentions, failed to agree in their views
of it. We are to reach, if possible, the truth and very
right of the case.
The boundaries of Maryland are described in the charter
as beginning at Watkins' Point and running due east to
the sea, up the shore of the ocean and the Delaware bay,
to the fortieth degree of latitude-; thence westward, along
that degree, to the longitude of the headwater of the Poto-
mac; thence southward, to that river, and by it or one of
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