PREFACE.

Intimations that the scheme of connecting the northern and southern
French possessions in America by a cordon of fortified posts enveloping
the British colonies was about to be carried out, and the certainty that
a short time would bring about the final struggle for the possession of
North America, kept the minds of far-seeing men in a state of constant
anxiety. The news, therefore, of the establishment of a French post
at Crown Point in British territory, within three days' march of Albany,
was very alarming, and emphasised the importance of keeping the
Iroquois tribes friendly to the British as a counterpoise to the Algonkin
tribes, or " Canada Indians," as they were called, on whom the French
placed much reliance.

Other troubles there were in abundance; among the rest that old
grievance of the over-production of tobacco, and its consequent low
price. Attempts had been more than once made to restrict the pro-
duction, but without success. Now some of the people took the law
into their own hands; and bands of men rode about cutting down the
growing plants, so that militia had to be held in readiness to put a stop
to such proceedings.

The boundary troubles with Pennsylvania also took on an acute
form. Although the fortieth parallel of north latitude had been fixed
by the charter as the northern boundary of Maryland, William Penn
had seized a strip some fifteen miles wide lying south of this boundary,
and held on to it with obstinate tenacity. His sons followed their
father's policy; and a matter so simple as the determining a parallel of
latitude gave rise to a prodigious chancery suit where the whole issue
was so tangled up with chicanery and its usual adjuncts that no man
could foretell the issue.

While this suit was pending, gangs of Pennsylvanians, if not at the
instigation, certainly with the connivance of the Pennsylvania authori-
ties, and under their protection, made forays into Maryland, burning
settlers' houses and haling the inhabitants to jail.

To remedy this state of things, Charles, Lord Baltimore, came over
in the winter of 1732 and remained a few months, but effected nothing,
and the troubles continued until 1738, when they were partially checked