510 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



The charter granted by Charles II. to William Penn, for the prov- 

 ince of Pennsylvania, was dated March 4, 1681. The grant was 

 bounded on the east by the Delaware River, "unto the three and 

 fortieth degree of Northern latitude, if the said river doth extend so 

 far northward ; . . . The said land to extend westward five degrees 

 in longitude to be computed from the said eastern bounds ; and the 

 said lands to be boundedon the north by the beginning of the three and 

 fortieth degree of northern latitude, and on the south by a circle drawn 

 at twelve miles distance from New Castle northward and westward, 

 unto the beginning of the fortieth degree of northern latitude, and then 

 by a staight line westward to the limits of longitude above mentioned." 



It thus is made plain, that Pennsylvania was a province of three de- 

 grees of latitude and five degrees of longitude, extending from the 

 fortieth degree, /. e., line 39°, to the beginning of the forty-third de- 

 gree, /. c, line 42° ; and in the absence of an interference with any 

 prior grant, doubtless no other position would ever have been enter- 

 tained. But in 1632, forty-nine years before Penn's charter, Charles 

 I. had granted a province to Lord Baltimore, named Maryland, under 

 the terms of which charter a very interesting controversy arose between 

 Penn and Lord Baltimore, whether Penn's charter carried him to the 

 parallel 39°, as he claimed it did, or only to parallel 40°, as claimed 

 by Lord Baltimore. But it was destined that our southern border 

 should be neither at parallel 39°, nor at parallel 40° ; although many 

 were the contentions and strifes among settlers along the Maryland 

 line, arising l)efore this controversy was determined by the running of 

 Mason and Dixon's line at 30°, 43', 26", in 1767, to a point two 

 hundred and forty-four miles from the river Delaware, and within 

 thirty-six miles of the whole distance to be run. This point was at the 

 second crossing of Dunkard Creek, near the southern boundary of 

 Greene county ; and by that point passed the Warrior Branch of the 

 old Catawba or Cherokee trail, along which traveled the war parties of 

 the northern and southern Indians. Across it the Indian escort of 

 the surveying party would not allow even an imaginary line to be 

 drawn. Thus, at the beginning of 1768 the southwest corner of Penn- 

 sylvania had not been found and marked, and the western boundary, 

 whether an irregular line or a meridian, was as yet unknown. 



But how the controversy with Virginia came about has not yet ap- 

 peared. For this we must go back to the Virginia charter, which ante- 

 dated both that of Maryland and that of Pennsylvania. 



