but also the deal boards, masts, yards & bowsprits, and all the larger sorts of ship timber for the King and all his Dominions: and taking one thing with another, I can demonstrate that all these commodities I have now named will be afforded cheaper to England, than they now are from forreign Countries. Deal Boards are what will turn to least account of any of the Commodities I have enumerated, yet a vessell wholly laden with them would make a saving voyage from these Plantations to England. The Deals brought from Norway are sold by tale, that is by the hundred, and the price is from 3£ 10s, to 5£ the hundred, their length from 10 to 12 foot, their breadth from 10 to 12 inches. In New Hampshire they sell their boards by the 1000 foot, 22 shillings per 1000 is the present price for such deale, the boards are rarely under 25 foot in length, and from 15 to 18 inches in breadth, and more free from knots than the Norway boards are, as they tell me here; when the deals are 2 inches thick they call 'em plank, and their rule is, to double their price, as the thickness of the board or plank doubles; for 2 inch deale they have £2. 4s per 1000 foot, and for 3 inch deale £3. 6s, and the advantages to the merchant or fraghter will be chiefly in the 2 and 3 inch deal plank for the decks of ships, and such plank as they saw in New Hampshire of 36 foot long and two foot broad, and upon occasion they can furnish plank that's longer and broader than even that. [P. 672.]

I desired Mr. Bridger to give me the prices of the principall ship timber, (as sold in the King's Yard at Portsmouth, where he serv'd his time) which are contained in the paper (marked F) but he told me he had put very moderate prices on the several sorts. And for instance he told me he had known 5 shillings per foot paid for great standards for a first and second rate man of war, which would be £15 per load, yet he has set down by £7 10s, per load in his said paper, which is but half a crown a foot. At the end of his memorial (marked D.) which answers my queres, he undertakes to save the King 2930£ 19s, in every ship load of masts, of what is paid to Mr. Taylor, and a ship making two voyages in a year from Pescattaway to England, the King will gain 5861£ 18s sterling, & two such ships of his own will gain him 11723£ 16s every year if the Navy will require so many masts.

That the masts, yards and bowsprits for the King's ships will be best and cheapest carryed home in ships of the King's own, is very clear and manifest. And I believe I shall as easily make it appear that the great and principal ship timber for building his ships of war, vizt beams, planks and compass timber (taking one

sort with another) will be sent home in the King's own ships, for very near half the prices those sorts of timber cost the King at this time in his yards. Mr. Bridger has estimated the building a hagboat in his said memorial (mark'd D.) and therein in his answer to my second quere, at 5625£ New England mony, the said hagboat to be of 500 ton, which said sume is over 4000 sterling, by Mr. Bridger's computation 600£ New England mony (which is no more than 420£ sterling) will purchase a load of ship timber, that in the King's yards in England will be worth 2000 sterling. And by Mr. Partridge's computation, the said cargo or load of ship timber will be worth 2500£ sterling in the King's yards. Mr. Bridger ought to be the better builder, but Mr. Partridge has had more experience in shipping and selling that sort of timber, but taking it at either of their estimates, 'tis plain 'twill be worth while for the King to carry home his principal ship timber, from New Hampshire in ships of his own; and a ship will make two returns in a year, between Pescattaway and England. The paper (marked G. G.) is an estimate by Capt. Belcher (an experienc'd man in those matters of this town) of the charge of wages, victualls, and wear and tear of a ship of 500 Ton.

[P. 673.]

I veryly believe all the Eastland Trade (except for flax and hemp) may be turn'd to these Plantations; and more than that, All the masts and scarcer sorts of ship timber for the use of all England, and the rest of the Dominions of the Crown, will be furnished from these Plantations cheaper than they now sell in England, taking one with another. And with a good regulation here will be a lasting store of all these things to the end of the world. This Province and New York abound with excellent ship timber of all sorts, and so does Conecticut Colony as well as New Hampshire.

And now my Lords I appeal to your Lordships whether the use and advantage I have propos'd by these Plantations to England, be not preferable to the selling almost all the lands in the Province of New York to Coll. Fletcher, and all New Hampshire, and a great part of this Province to Coll. Allen. I call it selling the lands of New York to Fletcher, because that whoever contrived that clause in his Instructions, which gave him an unlimited power in the disposition of those lands (and that directly contrary to precedent in other Governors Instructions) may be truly said to sell those lands, and therein to betray the King and Kingdom in a very high degree. I also call it selling New Hampshire and a great part of this Province to Coll. Allen, for that Mason under

whom Coll. Allen claims had no opinion of his own title, is very plain having offered to sell it for a 100£, as Coll. Pinchon's Deposition does so far make out, as to satisfie any indifferent man of the truth of it; tho' it would not be allow'd a direct proof in law, because the offer was not made by Mr. Mason himself, but by a third hand, viz Doctor Owen a Presbiterian Minister. Then for Coll. Allen's title I send your Lordship's Coll. Hutchinson's Deposition, tied up with Coll. Pinchon's, they are both members of His Majesty's Council of this Province, and both of good reputation and substance. I have reason above other men to believe Coll. Allen's title is insufficient & defective, having been much urg'd to be brib'd, to favour his claim and pretention. There was an offer made me of 10,000£ in mony, and that Coll. Allen should divide the Province of New Hampshire with me; but I thanke God I had not the least tempting thought to accept of the offer, and I hope nothing in this World will ever be able to tempt me, to betray England in the least degree. This offer was made me three or four several times; and I am able to swear to time and place, and besides I have some letters from a certain man that mention enough of the matter to corroberate my own Testimony. I presume your Lordships will not have the better opinion of Coll. Allen's title, for the easy terms on which I might have come in for an equall share, or dividend with him, of that whole Country. I will make it appear that the lands and woods claim'd by Col. Allen are much more valuable than ten of the biggest estates in England, and I will sale those ten estates at 300,000£ apiece one with another which is 3 millions. By his own confession to me at Pescattaway last summer, he valu'd the Quit Rents of his lands (as he calls 'em) at 22,000£ per annum, at 3d per acre, or 6d in the pound of all the improv'd Rents; then I leave your Lordships to judge what an immense estate the impro'd rents must be, which (if his title be allow'd) he has as good a right to, as to the foremention'd Quit Rents. And all this besides the Woods, which I believe he might very well value at half the worth of the lands. There never was I believe since the world began so great a bargain as Allen has had of Mason, if it be allow'd to stand good, that all this vast estate I have been naming should be purchased for a poor 250£, and that a desperate debt too, as Coll. Allen thought, as per Coll. Hutchinson's Deposition aforesaid appears. This I thought my duty to acquaint your Lordships of, that you take such timely order therein, as to your Lordships wisdom shall seem proper. The consequence of Coll. Allen's claim, may prove highly prejudicial to England, he pretends to a great part of this

Province; as far Westward as Cape St. Ann, which is said to take in 17 of the best towns in this Province next to Boston, the best improv'd land, and (I think Coll. Allen told me) 8 or 900,000 acres of their land. If Coll. Allen shall at any time goe about to make a forcible Entry on these lands he pretends to, (for to be sure the people will never turn tenants to him willingly) the present occupants will resist him and any force he shall bring, and the Province will be put into a combustion, and what may be the consequence of it I dread to think. Besides that, I fear in such a combustion all these Plantations would hold together, and take fire like a train from one end to t'other, I believe it would provoke the patientest of us all that after 50 or 60 years peaceable possession of an Estate in this Province, improv'd by our Fathers and our own industry, such a proprietor as Coll. Allen should drop out of the Clouds to oust us, as they Lawyers call it.

[P. 674.] "Tis most amazing to me how dust has been thrown so many years together formerly in the eyes of the King and the Nation, that the value of these Plantations to England has not been seen into. I will make it appear undenyably, that by a right management of these Plantations England shall imploy a 1000 stout ships of burthen and 20,000 seamen more than she now imploys, and besides other advantages these Plantations shall be forever secured in a dependence on the Crown, but more of this in another letter which I will shortly trouble your Lordships with, and which shall impart some observations of mine, on the Trade of these Provinces under my Government.

"A person in this town tells me he had advice from England that the Eastland Merchants began to be allarm'd at the talk that has been of late in London, of furnishing Naval Stores from these Plantations; and that it was believ'd they would oppose that design as much as in them lay. And also the specimens of tar and ship timber sent to England by Mr. Bridger from New Hampshire were not without Enemies that decry'd and rune them down; but your Lordship's wisdom and integrity will easily stem all sinister defamations.

""Tis highly necessary and reasonable your Lordships should prevent the intended cozenage of the Crown, in the countenance given to Gov. Allen's claim. I think I have sufficiently demonstrated the value that the lands and woods would be to a private man, but he would be a bold man that would estimate the value they would be to the Crown, for I take them to be above value or inestimable. And in plain English 'tis abominable that the Crown should be defrauded of the lands and woods in the Provinces of

New York and New Hampshire; and an Act of Parliament ought to pass, for the vacating all extravagant of lands by Fletcher, in the Province of New York and of all other Governors, and to put all those lands under a good regulation: The same Act also should vacate Coll. Allen's pretended title, and vest all the lands in New Hampshire in the Crown, with a saving for all the inhabitants for their lands which they have improv'd, paying a reasonable yearly Quit Rent to the Crown.

[P. 675.] "The wast of the woods in New Hampshire has been, and still is so very great, that Mr. Bridger assures me they are forc'd to go 20 miles up into the Country to get a good mast for the use of the Navy. I am told the inhabitants of New Hampshire, have taken in what tracts of land and woods they pleas'd, to which they have no better title than Coll. Allen has. I hope there will be a strickt inquisition into that, and that none of 'em shall be allowed any property in the woods, otherwise than as a common tenant right, viz. fire-boot, hedge-boot, and house and plough-boot. For there must be, in my opinion, such a course taken, as that all the King's subjects shall be allow'd to cut and carry away, such timber as they shall have occasion for, and that gratis, they to pay for the labor of cutting and carrying away only, but not for the timber, because that would discourage, and frustrate this good design, they should only pay for the planting of 4 or 5 young trees in the room of that cut down. And there ought to be a restraint on all persons on pain of paying a good fine, not to cut any tree that is mark'd for the use of the Navy. [P. 678.]

"Mr. Bridger tells me he has strip'd about 8000 pitch pines to make tar of, and some malicious people have gone and set fire to the woods, where those trees stood, and have burnt 'em down, his Memorial is (mark'd S.) Having signified by letter to Mr. Partridge, that I would not suffer him by any means to carry a ship load of timber to Portugall, and that I would send the King's ship to wait his loading his ship, who should have orders from me to seize and send her away when laden, to the King; he made a journey hither t'other day, and I have accepted of his bond in £3000, that his ship shall saile directly to England, where she shall give your Lordships notice of her arrival, and the King preemption of her load of ship timber at the market rates. This I thought absolutely the best way to secure the timber, since your

(1) Fire boot or botele-An allowance of fuel to which a tenant is entitled. (2) Wood for repairing hedges. (3) Wood sufficient for fuel and repairs of house; and for instruments of husbandry.-Web. Dic.