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either party afterwards? Our rendering may seem a strain
upon the words, but we infer from the paper and the
known facts of the case that the commissioners, instead
of meeting at Watkins Point, came together on the east
bank of the Pocomoke, from thence took a view of the
country on the other side, and thereupon erroneously con-
cluded that an east line running from Watkins Point
would cross the Pocomoke at the place near Holston's,
where they marked certain trees. This being satisfactory
to themselves, they proceeded, without further prelim-
inary, to mark the eastern end of the line between the
river and the sea.
Scarborough may have known that he was not on the
true line, but if so, he kept his knowledge to himself. It
is very certain that Calvert had full faith in the correctness
of his work. No doubt he lived and died in the belief
that the marks he assisted to make were on a due east line
from the westermost angle of Watkins Point, properly so
called. If any one thinks this a blunder too gross to be
credited let him remember by whom it was shared. Herr-
mann and all subsequent map-makers place the marks on
the straight line where Calvert thought it was. All the
public men of the colonies had the same opinion. The
error was not discovered, nor even suspected, for more
than a hundred years.
But it is urged that the call of the charter is for a
straight line; that commissioners were appointed to ascer-
tain where it ran; that they did ascertain it, and marked a
part of it; that their judgment being conclusive the whole
line is established as certainly as if it had been marked. So
far as this is a geometrical proposition it is undoubtedly
true; but mathematics cannot determine this case against
law and equity.
Their own description of the line they agreed upon is.
inconsistent with itself. They call it an east line from
Watkins Point, and give it an outcome by a course corre.
sponding with Holston's tree. If this be a straight line,
how shall we find it? If we begin at Watkins Point and
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