102 THE ROARING FORTIES 



vexatious incidents occurred from time to time. 

 The authorities of Maine and New Brunswick, 

 while professing to conform with exactness to 

 the agreement not to strengthen their respect 

 ive positions, were at no less pains to see that 

 their positions were not weakened. Settlers, 

 both British and American, and for the most 

 part of no very desirable character, drifted into 

 the region; local officials of the neighboring 

 jurisdictions extended their activities and ar 

 rested each other as intruders; lumbermen, 

 with or without color of right, plied their enter 

 prise in the rich forests of the no-man s-land. 

 In the summer of 1838 an unusually large force 

 of British lumbermen carried on extensive 

 operations on the Aroostook River. Ordered 

 off by an American official, they refused to go, 

 and assembled in considerable numbers to main 

 tain their position by force. The government of 

 Maine thereupon sent a strong body of militia 

 to enforce its authority, and the government 

 of New Brunswick responded by procuring the 

 despatch of a detachment of British regulars 

 to the neighborhood. 



No bloodshed resulted from this threatening 

 situation. Popular and official excitement, of 

 course, ran high along the border, and contrib- 



