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APPENDIX B. 



CHARTER IN FAVOUR OF SIR WILLIAM ALEXANDER, KNIGHT, OF THE LORD- 

 SHIP AND BARONY OF NEW SCOTLAND IN AMERICA. 



(Translated by the Rev. Carlos Slafter, A.M., of Dedhajii). 



JAMES, by the grace of God, King- of Great Britain, France and Ireland, 

 and Defender of the Faith, to all good men, clerical and lay, of his 

 entire realm, — greeting. 



Know ye, that we have always been eager to embrace every opiP'Ortunity 

 to promote the honour and wealth of our Kingdom of Scotland, and think 

 that no gain is easier or more safe, than what is made by planting new 

 colonies in foreign and uncultivated regions where the means of living and 

 food abound ; especially, if these places were before without inhabitants 

 or were settled by infidels whose conversion to the Christian faith most 

 highly concerns tlie glory of God. 



But whilst many other kingdoms, and not very long ago, our own 

 England, to their praise, have given their names to new lands, which they 

 have acquired and subdued ; we, thinking how populous and crowded this 

 land now is, by Divine favour, and how expigdient it is that it should be 

 carefully exercised in some honourable and useful discipline, lest it deteriocrate 

 through sloth and Inaction, have judged it imtportant that many should be 

 led forth into new territory, which they may fill with colonies ; and so 

 we think, this undertaking most fit for this Kingdom, both on account of 

 its promptness and activity of its spirit and the strength and endurance 

 of its men against any difficulties, if any other men anywhere dare to 

 set themselves in opposition ; and as it demands the transportation only 

 of men and women, stock and grain, and not of money, and cannot repay 

 at this time, when business is so depressed, a troublesome expenditure of the 

 treasures of this realm ; for these reiasons, as well as on account of the good, 

 faithful and acceptable service of our beloved Counsellor, Sir William Alex- 

 ander, Knight, to us rendered and to, be rendered, who first of our subjects, 

 at his own expense attempted to épiant this foreign colony and selected for 

 plantation the divers lands bounded by the limits hereafter designated : — 



We, therefore, from our Sovereign anxiety to propagate the Christian 

 faith, and to secure the wealth, prosperity and peace of the native suhjects 

 of our said Kingdom of Scotland, as other foreign princes in such cases 

 al .eady have done, with the advice and consent of our well-beloved cousin 

 and counsellor, John, Earl of Mar, Lord Erskine and Gareoch, &c., our High 

 Treasurer, Comptroller, Collector and Treasurer of our new revenues of this 

 our Kingdom of Scotland and of the other Lords Commissioners of our same 

 Kingdom have given, granted and conveyed, and, by the tenor of our present 

 charter, do give, grant and convey to the aforesaid Sir William Alexander, 

 his heirs or assigns, hereditarily, all and single, the lands of the Continent, 

 and islands situated and lying in America, within the head or promontory 



