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line from Watkins Point. Sir John Harvey, then Gov-
ernor and Captain-General of Virginia, with the advice of
the council, conceded the claim, and on the 14th of Octo-
ber, 1638, issued a proclamation declaring the boundary
to be on the Anancock, and commanding the inhabitants
of his colony not to trade with the Indians north of that
river. We discredit the allegation that this was a fraudu-
lent collusion between the Governor of Virginia and the
agents of the Maryland proprietary. It was a mutual mis-
take-a very gross one, to be sure-and not long persisted
in. It serves now only to show bow loose were the notions
of that time about these lines.
Soon after this (but the time is not ascertained) a similar
blunder was made westward of Watkins Point. This was
not a claim by Maryland below the true line, but by Vir-
ginia above it. Smith's Island lies out in the Chesapeake
bay, quite north of any possible line called for by the
charter. But the relative situation of that island being
misapprehended, Virginia took quiet and unopposed pos-
session upon it, and holds a large part of it to this day.
No willful transgression of the charter boundary took
place before 1661. Then rose Col. Edmond Scarborough,
the King's surveyor general of Virginia. His remarkable
ability and boldness made him a power in Virginia and
gave him great mental ascendency wherever he went. He
had no respect for Lord Baltimore's rights, and, when he
could not find an excuse for invading them, he did not
scruple to make one. At the head of forty horsemen, « for
pomp and safety," be made an irruption into the territory
of Maryland, passing Watkins Point and penetrating as
far as Ranoakin, where be arrested the officers of the
Proprietary and harried the defenseless people.
To justify this proceeding he referred to an act of the
Grand Assembly of Virginia, (passed without doubt by his
influence,) which declares Watkins Point to be above
Manbakin, authorizes the surveyor general to make pub-
lieatioo commanding all persons south of Watkins Point
to render obodiettce to His Majesty's Government of Vir-
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