THE DIVIDING LINE. 
95 
ing within the bounds or limits last before mentioned : with the fishing of all 
sorts of fish, whales, sturgeons, and all other royal fishes in the sea, bays, in- 
lets, and rivers, within the premises, and the fish therein taken ; together 
with the royalty of the sea, upon the coast within the limits aforesaid. And 
moreover, all veins, mines and quarries, as well discovered as not discovered, 
of gold, silver, gems and precious stones, and all other whatsoever ; be it 
of stones, metals or any other thing found or to be found within the province, 
territory, inlets and limits aforesaid. * * * * 
At the Court of St. James^ the ls^ day of March, 1710. — Present, the QueerCs 
most excellent majesty in Council. 
Upon reading this day at the board a representation from the right ho- 
nourable the lords commissioners for trade and plantations, in the words 
following: In pursuance of your majesty’s pleasure, commissioners have 
been appointed on the part of your majesty’s colony of Virginia, as likewise 
on the part of the province of Carolina, for the settling the bounds between 
those governments; and they have met several times for that purpose, but have 
not agreed upon any one point thereof, by reason of the trifling delays of the 
Carolina commissioners, and of the many difficulties by them raised in rela- 
tion to the proper observations and survey they were to make. However, 
the commissioners for Virginia have delivered to your majesty’s lieutenant 
governor of that colony an account of their proceedings, which account 
has been under the consideration of your majesty’s council of Virginia, and 
they have made a report thereon to the said lieutenant governor, who having 
lately transmitted unto us a copy of that report, we take leave humbly to lay 
the substanqe thereof before your majesty, which is as follows : 
That the commissioners of Carolina are both of them persons engaged in 
interest to obstruct the settling the boundaries between that province and 
the colony of Virginia ; for one of them has for several years been surveyor 
general of Carolina, has acquired to himself great profit by surveying lands 
within the controverted bounds, and has taken up several tracts of land in 
his own name, and sold the same to others, for which he stands, still obliged 
to obtain patents from the government of Carolina. The other of them is at 
this time surveyor general, and hath the same prospect of advantage by 
making future surveys within the said bounds. That the behavior of the 
Carolina commissioners has tended visibly to no other end than to protract 
and defeat the settling this affair : and particularly Mr. Moseley has used 
so many shifts and excuses to disappoint all conferences with the commis- 
sioners of Virginia, as plainly show his aversion to proceed in a business that 
tends so manifestly to his disadvantage. His prevaricating on this occasion 
has been so indiscreet and so unguarded, as to be discovered in the presence 
of the lieutenant governor of Virginia. He started so many objections 
to the powers granted to the commissioners of that colony, with design to 
render their conferences ineffectual, that his joint commissioner could hardly 
find an excuse for him. And when the lieutenant governor had with much 
ado prevailed with the said Mr. Moseley to appoint a time for meeting the 
commissioners of Virginia, and for bringing the necessary instruments to 
take the latitude of the bounds in dispute, which instruments he owned were 
ready in Carolina, he not only failed to comply with his own appointment, 
but after the commissioners of Virginia had made a journey to his house, and 
had attended him to the places proper for observing the latitude, he would 
not take the trouble of carrying his own instrument, but contented himself 
