[237] Acadia is, and always was, a vague geographical term. The name when first used comprised the territory between latitude 40° and 46°.
[238] Cal. S. P., Col., 1632, p. 139.
[239] Acadia included Nova Scotia and more.
[240] The boundaries of New England were defined by the fortieth and forty-fifth degrees of latitude.
[241] Massachusetts, New Haven, Plymouth, Connecticut.
[242] The English always laid claim to the country as far north as the St Croix; the French, on the other hand, claimed it as far south as the Kennebec. This difference as to the true boundary of Acadia was one of the many points of friction between the two nations.
[243] It was recaptured by the Dutch in 1673 but restored to England by the treaty of 1674.
[244] The reader may also recall the case of Whalley the regicide, who fled to Massachusetts after the Restoration. See the Note to Scott's Peveril of the Peak, chap. xiv.
[245] Palfrey. History of New England, vol. iii. p. 434.
[246] The contingents were Massachusetts, 350 men; Virginia, 250; Maryland, 160; Connecticut, 120; Rhode Island, 48; Pennsylvania, 80; Virginia and Maryland commuted their obligations for a sum of money. Parkman. Frontenac, p. 408.