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tend to reduce them to an exact plan; I may however send you some hints which may enable you to make the maps far more exact than any hitherto published. When you have favored me (which I earnestly desire, as also the true boundaries of New-York Government in writing) with a copy of your map of New-York and the adjacent Indian countries I shall by that pattern be more capable of reducing my loose hints to some short intelligible method. In general, that you may not fall into the same mistake with former publishers, you are to observe that the lines or boundaries of our Provinces here at present are not exactly the same as laid down in the charters and grants but have been enlarged by consent; as for instance the Massachusetts heads Rhode Island and Connecticut Governments by a due East and North-west line according to the charters; this line by consent of Rhode Island is an East and West line without any variation allowed, and consequently to the prejudice of Rhode Island property, with Connecticut to some towns no variation allowed, to others nine degrees variation allowed so that it makes a sort of indented line. I presume the most natural easy and exact method of beginning a draught or map is by first laying down some certain fixed points accurately determined as to latitude and longitude, and the other principal parts laid down according to their exact distances and bearings from these invariable points will prevent any gross mistake. I know not what fixed points you may have collected for the Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland; Sir William Keith, I find by the Philosophical Transactions, has been at some pains to ascertain the latitude and longitude of Philadelphia; New York is in your own observation. Boston is accurately fixed by the observations of Mr. Robie (a Fellow and sufficiently practised in observing) at Cambridge College which is about three and a half miles West Southerly from Boston; Cambridge is in 42° 29′ North Latitude; its longitude he has endeavoured to determine by sundry observations with a twenty-four foot telescope. I shall only trouble you with the most exact which was of an Eclipse of the moon on the fif teenth of March, 1707, which Eclipse happened also to be observed at Paris by Cassini and De la Hire; by those

observations collated, Cambridge is 4h 55′ 50′′ West of Paris (subducting 9′ 40′′ London's westing from Paris) and consequently 4h 46' 10" from London; so that with sufficient exactness Boston may be fixed at 42° 25′ North latitude, and 4h. 45′ 57′′ west from the meridian of London, that is in west longitude 71° 29′ circiter. Thus Boston is 12′ 43′′ east from New-York or 3° 10' difference of longitude, that is to say Boston is circiter 142 geographical miles east, and 105 of the same north of New-York; and the nearest distance about 180 geographical miles, or 207 English; the common post road by its turnings, via Providence, New London, and New Haven, to New-York, is 265 miles (as I computed in my progress), but the nearest, though less used road, is via Mendon, Woodstock, Hartford and New-Haven to New-York; 254 measured English miles.

As to other helps we have a very exact draught of our most considerable river Merimack as it was surveyed three years ago by order of our government; I may send you a copy of it from the records; by it you will have a very exact map of New-Hampshire government (for by this survey we are in hopes to swallow up that petty government according to the letter of our charter) and of about one quarter part of the Massachusetts. Rhode Island and Connecticut governments are small. When you have their outlines (which I can send you with great exactness) as settled some years ago by consent of the several Assemblies, there will be no great difficulty in placing the rivers and towns. I could procure from the Secretarie's office plans of our several towns as they were when first granted, but the subsequent assemblies have made such considerable alterations in dividing, dismembering, uniting, &c. that they will not answer your design; I can however from my own travels give you in general their situation with respect to one another and the considerable rivers, which may be sufficient for a general map. — Our station ships, Captain Durel, a very ingenious draughts man, in his several cruises has made a very exact sea line (with the makings and bearings of the land which are not in your way) of our coast from Boston Bay to Canso near Cape Breton; but as he designs to make a present of it at

home, it is not proper for me to desire a copy of it here. Judge Dudley has for some years been hammering out a map of this country, but I fancy it will not make its appearance yet awhile; he pretends to be a sort of virtuoso; therefore communicates nothing freely to a friend, lest he should be prevented in the reputation of being the author. To conclude for this time, I wish I could with you sing Deus nobis hæc otia fecit; our labors in practice of Physic here are many and gains not much above a competency, and therefore cannot fall into sundry amusements which I could desire. - My duty to his Excellency Gov. Burnet, my humble service to Mr. Kennedy and all friends. I

am

Your most humble servant

WIL. DOUGLASS.

DEAR SIR,

Boston, February 17th, 1738.

Your country retreat has for some time deprived me of the happiness of your correspondence. Lest peradventure you may be now in town, I could not omit this opportunity of saluting you, by the hands of my good friend Dr. Clark, in his way to Philadelphia. You may remember that some years ago you proposed the forming a sort of virtuoso society, or rather correspondence. We have lately in Boston formed a medical society, of which, this gentleman, a member thereof, can give you a particular account. We design from time to time to publish some short pieces; there is now ready for the press number one, with this title-page.

NUMBER ONE,
MEDICAL MEMOIRS

CONTAINING

1. A miscellany. Practical introduction.

2. A history of the dysentery epidemical in Boston in

1734.

3. Some account of a gutta-serena in a young woman. 4. The anatomical inspection of a spina vertosa in the vertebræ of the loins in a young man.

5. Some practical comments or remarks on the writings of Dr. Thomas Sydenham.

Published by a Medical-Society in Boston, New-England.

When published I 'll take care to transmit you a copy; if you transmit to us anything serviceable in our design, we shall esteem it a great favour. My humble service to Mr. Kennedy and family. I am, Sir,

Your most humble servant

WIL. DOUGLASS.

CADWALLADER COLDEN, ESQ., New-York.

THE DUNSTER PAPERS.

[The originals of the following papers belonged to Henry Dunster, first President of Harvard College. The branch of the family in Pembroke, Massachusetts, having recently died out, they have come into the possession of Mr. Edward Swift Dunster, a member of the institution of which his ancestor was President, and he has kindly permitted them to be printed.

The first letter was copied by Rev. Samuel Sewall, of Burlington, Massachusetts, who is connected with the family by marriage, and his copy has since been compared with the original; and although a few words are obscurely written, it is confidently believed that an exact copy has been secured.

In the last volume of the Society's Collections, page 252, President Dunster in a letter to Ravius remarks, "Ego enim Lancastrensis sum." In addition to the internal evidence furnished by the following letter, Mr. Sewall has obtained information from Lancashire men now resident in Massachusetts, that Balehoult, sometimes called at the present day "Billy Holt," where this letter is dated, and where President Dunster was probably born, is in Lancashire; that it is not the name of an incorporated or publicly recognized town, but of a private gentleman's seat in Bury in that county.

Mr. Sewall remarks: "It is pleasant to observe the agreement of many political events and transactions mentioned in this letter, with the accounts given of the same in published accredited histories. But there are others referred to, which bear indubitable marks of the jealousy and prejudice with which every individual of the Court party in England was regarded at that day by the Puritans (excellent men as they generally were in most respects), and under the influence of which the actions and proceedings of the prominent men of that party were often misunderstood or unintentionally misrepresented. Who will believe at the present day, that the then Lord Deputy of Ireland (Strafford) conspired with the Papists, as here alleged, against his Protestant countrymen; or that the Bench of Bishops, among whom were such men as Joseph Hall of Norwich, meant at any time (as the author of this letter asserts) to take the life of Lord Say and Sele?"-EDS.]

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