J have the Honour of your Excellency's letter of the 9th Inst. before me, in which you are pleased to give me, the opinion of His Majesty's Council of your Government, that Connecticut River is the Eastern boundary of New-York Government, which would have been entirely Satisfactory to me, on the Subject of my Letter, had not the two Charter Governments of Connecticut, & the Massachusetts Bay, extended their bounds many miles to the Westward of Said River; and it being the opinion of Majesty's Council of this Government, whose Advice I am to take on these Occasions, that New Hampshire had an equal right to claim the Same extent of Western boundary's with those Charter Governments, I had in consequence of their Advice, before your Letter came to my hands, granted one Township due North of the Massachusetts-Line, of the Contents of Six Miles Square, and

534 CONTROVERSY RESPECTING THE

by measurement twenty-four miles, east of the City of Albany, presuming that this Government was bounded by the Same North and South line with Connecticut and the Massachusets Bay, before it met with his Majesty's other Governments. '

Altho' I am prohibited by his Majesty's Commission to interfere with his other Governments, Yet it is presumed that I should Strictly adhere to the Limits prescribed therein, and I assure you that I am very far from desiring to make the least incroachment, or Set on foot any dispute on these points. It will therefore give me great Satisfaction, if at your leisure, you can inform me by what Authority Connecticut and the Massachusetts- Government claim'd So far to the Westward as they have Settled, and in the mean time I shall desist from Making any further Grants on the Western Frontier of my Government, that may have the least probability of Interfering with your Government.