Emigrant Labor. 61 



his will as having been acknowledged by Mr. Harley and the 

 Treasury, but never paid.^ 



The contract system had proved a feeble substitute for inde- 

 pendent labor, for the Palatines were not slaves to be driven to 

 work by overseers. And yet they were placed in the position of 

 serfs, in that they had fettered themselves to the land by a con- 

 tract which rated their holdings in terms of labor.^ It was 

 originally intended that, after the settlements had begun to 

 flourish and the manufacture of stores had begun to yield a 

 profit above the debts and expenses of the Palatines, the surplus 

 should be distributed among them as a sort of dividend.^ But 

 as that state of afifairs never came to pass, there was little to en- 

 courage any enthusiasm for the work which they had been 

 forced to undertake against their will. 



Conditions not more favorable, perhaps, but different in char- 

 acter, affected the settlement of the lands between the Kenne- 

 bec and St. Croix Rivers — a project in the interests of the pro- 

 duction of naval stores which was suggested about the year 

 '^7^Z> when some disbanded officers and soldiers petitioned the 

 government for a grant of land.* It was represented that the 

 land near the mouth of the Kennebec was excellent, abounding 

 in fine timber for ship-building and masts for the royal navy, 

 while the soil was deep and suitable for hemp. Thomas Coram, 

 the philanthropist, who as a merchant had spent some time in 

 Taunton, Mass., interested himself in the scheme and with sev- 

 eral other gentlemen renewed the petition on behalf of the sol- 

 diers, in February, 171 5."' He proposed to build a royal town, 

 to be called Augusta, with dwellings for five hundred small fam- 

 ilies. The total cost of the undertaking was estimated at 

 £60,000. The wood which would be destroyed in clearing the 



^Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. XXVIII. 



^Kapp. "Die Deutsche im Staate New York," p. 108. 



^Cf. p. 44. 



^Petition of disbanded soldiers to Board of Trade, B. T. New 

 Eng., T: 50. 



^Proposals offered by Thomas Coram, B. T. New Eng., Entry 

 Bk. H, February 10, 1715. 



