bay of Fundy, are the rivers Passamaquoddy and St. Croix, being about seventeen leagues N. w. from the gut or entrance of the bason of Annapolis. The river of St. Croix is the boundary between Nova Scotia and the territory of Sagadahock, or the duke of York's property, annexed to the neighbouring New England province of Massachusetts bay.

Extracts from a Treatise entitled The Beginning, Progress and Conclusion of the late War, printed in London, in the Year

1770.

FRANCE having by the treaty concluded at Aix La Chapelle, in October, 1748, obtained restitution of Cape Breton, her ministers soon formed and began to execute a design to divide and impair the British American empire, and to enable her farther to distress their trade and fishery by extending her territories from the river Canada through the main land to the Atlantick ocean, westward as far as the river Kennebeck, and eastward so as to include all the main land of Nova Scotia, leaving to the English only part of the peninsula; for the illustration whereof, with other matters, a map is hereto annexed. And although Nova Scotia has so often passed from nation to nation, the pretensions of France amounted to this, that Great Britain was to hold by the last cession made to her only a small part of the same country which had passed to France by former cessions. Having already observed that all Nova Scotia or Acadia, with its ancient boundaries, was ceded by the Utrecht treaty to Great Britain, let us here add that when this country was first named Nova Scotia, the following boundaries were given to it in the grant to sir William Alexander, to wit. All and singular the lands of the continent, and the islands in America within Cape Sable, lying in forty-three degrees north latitude, or thereabouts; thence along the coast to St. Mary's Bay, and thence passing northward by a right line across the gulfor bay now called Fundy to the river St. Croix, and to the remotest western spring head of the same; whence by an imaginary line conceived to run through the land northward to the next road of Ships river or spring, discharging itself into the great river of Canada, and proceeding thence eastward along the shores of the sea of the said river of Canada to the road, haven or shore, commonly called Gaspick, and thence southeastward [versus euronotum] to the islands called Baccalaos or Cape Breton, leaving the said islands on the right, and the gulf of said great river of Canada, and the

lands of Newfoundland, with the islands to those lands pertaining, on the left; and thence to the promontory of Cape Breton aforesaid, lying near or about the latitude of 45 degrees, and from the said promontory of Bape Breton towards the south and west to the aforesaid Cape Sable, where the perambulation began.

MESSAGE

FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES RELATIVE TO EASTERN BOUNDARY ON BRITISH TERRITORY. 18, 1790.

FEBRUARY

By the mail of last evening I received a letter from his excellency John Hancock, governour of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, enclosing a resolve of the senate and house of representatives of that commonwealth, and sundry documents relative to the eastern boundary of the United States.

I have directed a copy of the letter and resolve to be laid before you. The documents which accompanied them being but copies of some of the papers which were delivered to you with my communication of the 9th of this month,* I have thought it unnecessary to lay them before you at this time. They will be deposited in the office of the Secretary of State, together with the originals of the above mentioned letter and resolve. GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Boston, Feb. 10, 1790.

SIR,-At the request of the senate and house of representatives of this commonwealth, I have the honour to enclose you some papers evidential of the encroachments made by the subjects of the king of England upon the eastern frontier of this commonwealth.

If the papers transmitted do not give satisfactory proof upon this point, I wish that Congress would direct a mode in which a proper and speedy inquiry may be made.

A speedy investigation of this dispute may have a tendency to prevent a disagreeable contention which is likely

* See page 9 of this volume.

to take place between the people on the frontiers of the two nations. I have the honour to be, &c.

JOHN HANCOCK..

Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In Senate, February 1,

1790.

RESOLVED, That his excellency the governour be, and he is hereby requested, to write to the President of the United States, in behalf of this commonwealth, informing him that the subjects of his Britannick majesty bave made and still continue to make encroachments on the eastern boundary of this commonwealth, in the opinion of the legislature, contrary to the treaty of peace; and that his excellency be further requested to forward such documents as may be necessary to substantiate the facts.

Sent down for concurrence.

THOMAS DAWES, President pro tem.

In the House of Representatives, February 1, 1790.
Read and concurred.

DAVID COBB, Speaker.

A true copy.-Attest,

JOHN AVERY, JUN. Secretary.

REPORT

OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE RELATIVE TO THE MEDITERRANEAN TRADE. DEC. 28, 1790.

THE Secretary of State to whom was referred by the House of Representatives so much of the speech of the President of the United States to both Houses of Congress, as relates to the trade of the United States in the Mediterranean, with instructions to report thereupon to the House, has had the same under consideration, and thereupon makes the following report:

The loss of the records of the custom houses in several of the states, which took place about the commencement and during the course of the late war, has deprived us of official information, as to the extent of our commerce and navigation

VOL. X.

in the Mediterranean sea. According to the best which may be obtained from other sources meriting respect, it may be concluded, that about one sixth of the wheat and flour exported from the United States, and about one fourth in value of their dried and pickled fish, and some rice, found their best markets in the Mediterranean ports: that these articles constituted the principal part of what we sent into that sea that that commerce loaded outwards from eighty to one hundred ships, annually, of twenty thousand tons, navigated by about twelve hundred seamen. It was abandoned early in the war. And after the peace which ensued, it was obvious to our merchants, that their adventures into that sea would be exposed to the depredations of the piratical states on the coast of Barbary. Congress, too, was very early attentive to this danger, and by a commission of the 12th of May, 1784, authorized certain persons, named ministers plenipotentiary for that purpose, to conclude treaties of peace. and amity with the Barbary powers. And it being afterwards found more expedient that the negotiations should be carried on at the residences of those powers, Congress, by a farther commission, bearing date the 11th of March, 1785, empowered the same ministers plenipotentiary to appoint agents to repair to the said powers at their proper residences, and there to negotiate such treaties. The whole expenses were limited to eighty thousand dollars. Agents were accordingly sent to Morocco and Algiers.

Before the appointment of the one to Morocco, it was known that a cruiser of that state had taken a vessel of the United States; and that the emperor, on the friendly interposition of the court of Madrid, had liberated the crew, and made restitution of the vessel and cargo, as far as their condition admitted. This was a happy presage of the liberal treaty he afterwards concluded with our agent, still under the friendly mediation of Spain, and at an expense of be tween nine and ten thousand dollars only. On his death, which has taken place not long since, it becomes necessary, according to their usage, to obtain immediately a recognition of the treaty by his successor, and consequently, to make provision for the expenses which may attend it. The amount of the former furnishes one ground of estimate; but the character and dispositions of the successor, which are unknown here, may influence it materially. The friendship of this power is important, because our Atlantick as well as Mediterranean trade is open to his annoyance, and because we carry on a useful commerce with his nation.

The Algerines had also taken two vessels of the United States, with twenty-one persons on board, whom they retained as slaves. On the arrival of the agent sent to that regency, the dey refused utterly to treat of peace on any terms, and demanded 59,496 dollars for the ransom of our captives. This mission therefore proved ineffectual.

While these negotiations were on foot at Morocco and Algiers, an ambassador from Tripoli arrived in London. The ministers plenipotentiary of the United States met him in person. He demanded for the peace of that state, thirty thousand guineas; and undertook to engage that of Tunis for a like sum. These demands were beyond the limits of Congress, and of reason, and nothing was done. Nor was it of importance, as, Algiers remaining hostile, the peace of Tunis and Tripoli was of no value; and when that of the former should be obtained, theirs would soon follow.

war.

Our navigation, then, into the Mediterranean, has not been resumed at all since the peace. The sole obstacle has been the unprovoked war of Algiers; and the sole remedy must be to bring that war to an end, or to palliate its effects. Its effects may, perhaps, be palliated by insuring our ships and cargoes destined for that sea, and by forming a convention with the regency, for the ransom of our seamen, according to a fixed tariff. That tariff will, probably, be high, and the rate of insurance so settled, in the long run, as to pay for the vessels and cargoes captured, and something more. What proportion will be captured nothing but experience , can determine. Our commerce differs from that of most of the nations, with whom the predatory states are in habits of Theirs is spread all over the face of the Mediterranean, and therefore must be sought for all over its face. Ours must all enter at a strait only five leagues wide; so that their cruisers, taking a safe and commanding position near the strait's mouth, may very effectually inspect whatever enters it. So safe a station, with a certainty of receiving for their prisoners a good and stated price, may tempt their cupidity to seek our vessels particularly. Nor is it certain that our seamen could be induced to engage in that navigation, though with the security of Algerine faith that they would be liberated on the payment of a fixed The temporary deprivation of liberty, perhaps chains, the danger of the pest; the perils of the engagement preceding their surrender, and possible delays of the ransom, might turn elsewhere the choice of men, to whom all the rest of the world is open. In every case, these would be embar

sum.