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for having the true line traced and marked on the ground
between Watkins Point and the sea. To 'do this Colonel
Scarborough was appointed a commissioner on one side,
and Philip Calvert on the other. But, instead of closing
the controversy as their respective constituents intended,
their work was done so imperfectly that it has been a
principal cause of error and misunderstanding ever since.
Their instructions, as recited by themselves, required
them to " meet upon the place called Watkins Point."
That they did meet there does not appear, but they say
that, " after a full and perfect view of the point of land
made by the north side of Pocornoke bay and the south
side of Anuamessex, we have and do conclude the same
to be Watkins Point, from which said point, so called, we
have run an east line, agreeable with the extremest part of
the western angle of said Watkins Point, over the Poco-
moke river, to the land near Robert Holston's, and there
have marked certain trees which are continued by an east
Jine to the sea," &c. ; and they agreed that this should be
received as the bounds of the two provinces 11 on the
eastern shore of the Chesapeake bay." Whosoever shall
try to get at the sense of this document will find himself
-1t perplexed in the extreme." What was it that they con-
cluded to be Watkins Point? Not the whole body of the
territory between the Annamessex and the Pocomoke;
nobody understands it in that way. Not Point Ployer; for
they both knew, and one of them swore, it was not there.
Did they actually run any line west of the Pocomoke ? If
yes, they must have known with perfect certainty where
the true line would cross the river; and in that case what
was the necessity for founding a mere conclusion about it
upon the lay of the land between the two bays? If it was
then ascertained by actual demonstration with the com-
pass that a western extension of the marked line would
strike Watkins Point, why does it not strike that point
now, instead of terminating where it does, far above, at
the Annamessex? Again, why was it not marked? Why
was it never recognized, acknowledged, or claimed by
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