Sir:

The Commissioners appointed on her Majesty's behalf for settling the Boundarys between this Colony and Carolina, have reported to me, that notwithstanding the publick engagements of the late President and Council of Carolina, that no lands should be taken up within the contraverted bounds till they were finally settled and adjusted. Nevertheless great Tracts of Land have been surveyed and taken up in those parts by the Inhabitants of Carolina, and laid out by the Surveyor of that Province, and that the present Surveyor General of Carolina and his deputies still continue ye same encroachm'ts on her Majesty's property, although neither of them can be ignorant how far it is aimed on her Majesty's behalf, after having been privy to the proofs and examinations taken by the Comm'rs for settling the Boundarys. Wherefore, that I may remove the unreasonable pretences of such people who may fancy themselves to have acquired a Right to those Lands by their unwarrantable Encroachments, I think it necessary to acquaint you that I do in her Majesty's name assert her Right to all the Lands lying to the Northward of the mouth of Weyanoake Creek, now called Waycocon, and to the Northward of the Line w'ch according to ye Charter of the Proprietors of Carolina ought to be run in a due west course from thence to ye South seas. And I do further protest against the signing of Patents for any land lying to the Northward of that Line and Boundary. And for as much as I have lately issued a proclamation containing the former prohibition of making Entrys within ye disputed bounds by the Surveyors or Inhabitants of this Colony, it will not I hope be thought unreasonable that I expect the like prohibition to be made on the part of the Government of Carolina untill the determination of the present disputes concerning the bounds, w'ch I shal on my part endeavor to hasten as much as possible.