The Lumber Trade in Neiv England. 121 



eral, to get permission for Jafifrey to hold court on the Maine 

 side. But to oppose the king's interest, according to Dunbar, 

 Governor Belcher prevailed upon the old judge to depute an- 

 other man, who had always appeared in opposition to the king.^ 

 In 1732, Dunbar wrote again, that he was completely discour- 

 aged by the behavior of the Admiralty. The loggers scorned 

 the king's officers; offenders were tried by friends equally 

 guilty; and Judge Byfield himself was interested in Cooke's 

 saw-mills.- Colonel Westbrook, the undertaker for masting 

 the navy, was carrying on a large lumber trade. Everywhere, 

 private interest was set before the king's service. "English 

 acts require English hearts and hands to execute them," wrote 

 the surveyor.^ There were, probably, two sides to this, as to 

 most stories, and it looks as if the behavior of even English 

 officials frequently left something to be desired. Belknap, in 

 his "History of New Hampshire,"* says that Dunbar, who had 

 been a colonel in the British service, used to go to the saw-mills, 

 seize and mark great quantities of lumber, with the air and 

 manner to which he had been accustomed in his military capac- 

 ity. He abused and threatened the people, and then wrote to 

 the Board of Trade about the impertinence of the loggers and 

 their threats against his life. "That class of men," says Bel- 

 knap, "are not easily intimidated, and he was not a match for 

 them in that species of controversy which they have denom- 

 inated 'swamp law.' " 



One incident, which happened about the year 1736, is de- 

 scribed by Dunbar himself to the Board of Trade as a riot at 

 Exeter in which an attempt was made upon his life. He com- 

 plains bitterly of the indifference of Governor Belcher, who was 

 his enemy, toward the affair.^ The circumstances are described 

 by Belknap as follows.'' Dunbar sent his men to seize some lum- 



^Col. Dunbar to the Board of Trade, B. T. New Eng., Z: 222. 



2Col. Dunbar to the Board of Trade, B. T. Letters, Aug. 25, 1732. 



^Ibid. 



*Belknap, "History of New Hampshire," Ch. XVL 



^Memorial from David Dunbar, B. T. Plants. Gen., N: 26. 



«Belknap, "History of New Hampshire," Ch. XVI. 



