The letter from the commissioners to Markham, as before stated, was delivered to him in New York, and he immediately procured the instrument, which he sent in a sloop to New Castle, and made his way homeward by land to Burlington, where he took a boat for the remaining distance. Pending these movements on the part of the Deputy Governor of Pennsylvania, the Maryland commissioners had gone to New Castle, --out of "a curiosity to see yt Towne," as they said, --and when they got there they learned that the sloop having Col. Morris' astronomical instrument was at the landing. They, aided by the entreaties of the Dutch inhabitants of the place, persuaded Capt. Criger, himself a Dutchman, to permit them to make use of the intstrument. On Tuesday, June 27, 1682, it being a very clear day, the commissioners made several observations, and found that town was in thirty-nine degrees forty odd minutes north latitude. The next day Markham went to New Castle, where he learned that the Maryland commissioners had left the place the very night of the day they had used the instrument which the Governor of Pennsylvania had had so much trouble to procure. The following morning Markham sent William Haige to Herman's plantation, trusting that the Marylanders had gone thither, but before he got there they had renewed their journey southward. Markham thereupon wrote to Baltimore explaining his absence, and received in reply an intimation that in September he (Baltimore) proposed to send his commissioners again to meet him, and perhaps he might personally accompany them. On September 12th, Lord Baltimore sailed from Patuxent, reaching the Elk River on the 19th of the same month. There was no accommodation for his suite at Herman's, and after he had dispatched a message to Markham, who was then at Burlington, Lord Baltimore, with a number of persons, went to New Castle, from which place, on the evening of the 23d of September, he embarked in boats for Upland, reaching the latter hamlet that night. He lodged at the dwelling of Robert Wade, where Markham then dwelt. The following morning (Sunday) Markham (who had been informed that Baltimore was at New Castle, had hastened his return to meet him, and had reached home the same night that the Marylanders came to Upland) called on Lord Baltimore. The latter was accompanied by Col. Corsie, Maj. Seawell, Maj. Sawyer, four commissioners, and forty men "armed with carbines, pistols, and swords." The lord proprietary of Maryland, although Markham stated that it was the Sabbath, and not a day for the transaction of business, requested that his own as well as Col. Morris' instruments should be set up, so that it would be known how they agreed. Markham at length consented, it being understood that the degree of latitude should be ascertained the following day; but while the Pennsylvanians were absent one of Lord Baltimore's attendants took an observation, and reported that he found the latitude of Upland was thirty-nine degrees forty-five minutes. Next morning Baltimore desired to go farther up the river, as far as the fortieth degree, and, that ascertained, to follow that line westward as the boundary of the province. Markham, however, declined this proposition, stating that he (Baltimore) could have no claim on the river twelve miles northward of New Castle, because the king's grant to William Penn fully covered all the land on the Delaware above that point. Baltimore replied that he had nothing to do with the grant to Penn, but would be guided by the grant the king had made to him, many years before Penn's charter. The dispute thereupon waxed warm, during which Baltimore declared that he did not propose to bring the matter before the king and his Council, but designed to take his own wherever he found it; that if, as Markham asserted, New Castle was the centre of the circle, and a sweep therefrom must be had before the beginning of the direct line westward was established, "his Majesty must have long compasses." The interview terminated by Markham refusing to permit Lord Baltimore to ascend the river to make observations, and a demand from the latter that the Deputy Governor of Pennsylvania should furnish his reasons for his action in writing, a request which the latter immediately complied with.¹ The two Governors, however, agreed to meet at New Castle the next day, so that the point of forty degrees might be determined at the head of Chesapeake Bay.

In the afternoon of the 20th of September Lord Baltimore left Upland for New Castle, but before he stepped into the boat at the landing he spoke in a