New Hampshire claimed that her southern boundary line 

 began at the sea, at a point three miles north of the middle of 

 the channel of Merrimack river, and thence ran due west until 

 it met his majesty's other governments. 



The territory between these two lines, and in dispute, 

 embraced a part, but in most cases the whole, of the present 

 towns and cities of Chesterfield, Westmoreland, Walpole, 

 Charlestown, Claremont, Cornish, Swanzey, Keene, Surry, 

 Alstead, Acworth, Unity, Newport, Croydon, Marlborough, 

 Roxbury, Sullivan, Gilsum, Marlow, Lempster, Goshen, Suna- 

 pee, Springfield, Dublin, Harrisville, Nelson, Stoddard, Wash- 

 ington, Newbury, New London, Peterborough, Hancock, 

 Antrim, Deering, Windsor, Hillsborough, Bradford, Sutton, 

 Wilmot, Greenfield, Francestown, Henniker, Hopkinton, 

 Warner, Salisbury, Andover, Lyndeborough, Mt. Vernon, New 

 Boston, Weare, Webster, Boscawen, Amherst, Merrimack, 

 Bedford, Manchester, Gorlstown, Dumbarton, Bow, Concord, 

 Hooksett, and Pembroke. 



A glance at the map of New Hampshire shows that, if the 

 northern line of Massachusetts was where she claimed it to be, 

 the plantation of Penny cook, although upon her extreme fron- 

 tier, was clearly within her limits and jurisdiction. And if, on 

 the other hand, the line claimed by New Hampshire was the 

 true one, Pennycook was as clearly within the limits of this 

 province. 



Inasmuch, therefore, as this uncertainty must in no long time 

 be removed by an authoritative determination of the truce line, 

 Massachusetts may have been willing to have established on the 

 debatable ground a reliable colony of her own people, care- 

 fully selected for their fitness and friendly to her interests. At 

 all events her extreme care in their examination and admission 

 of the colonists which she sent to this new plantation is con- 

 sistent with this supposition. They were a picked body of 

 one hundred men, mostly from the old Massachusetts towns of 

 Andover, Bradford, Newbury, Haverhill, and Woburn, who 

 stood ready to occupy their new homes as soon as they could 

 be surveyed and made ready for their use. 



