Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 8.djvu/67

 PROVISIONAL ARTICLES WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 1782. 55 ship between states: it is agreed to form the articles of the proposed treaty, on such principles of liberal equity and reciprocity, as that partial advantages (those seeds of discord) being excluded, such a beneficial and satisfactory intercourse between the two countries may be established, as to promise and secure to both perpetual peace and harmony. ARTICLE I. His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz. United smc, New-Hampshire, Massachusetts-Bay, Rhode-Island and Providence ¤¢l·¤¤<>Wl¢dg€d Plantations, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pensylvania, Dela- l,;;? 2e3ds?,; ware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, South—Carolina, and Georgia, dgpggdgut to be free, sovereign and independent States; that he treats with them as such; and for himself, his heirs and successors, relinquishes all claims to the gouvernment, propriety and territorial rights of the same, and every part thereof And that all disputes which might arise in future, on the subject of the boundaries of the said United States, may be prevented, it is hereby agreed and declared, that the following are, and shall be their boundaries, viz. ARTICLE II. From the north·west angle of Nova-Scotia, viz. that angle which is Boundaries formed by a line, drawn due north from the source of St. Croix river to °S’°bl‘Sh°“· the Highlands; along the Highlands which divide those rivers, that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence, from those which fall into the Atlantic ocean, to the northwesternmost head of Connecticut river, thence down along the middle of that river, to the forty-fifth degree of north latitude; from thence, by a line due west on said latitude, untill it strikes the river Iroquois or Cataraquy ; thence along the middle of said river into lake Ontario, through the middle of said lake untill it strikes the communication by water between that lake and lake Erie; thence along the middle of said communication into lake Erie, through the middle of said lake untill it arrives at the water-communication between that lake and lake Huron; thence along the middle of said water-communication into the lake Huron; thence through the middle of said lake to the water-communication between that lake and lake Superior; thence through lake Superior northward of the isles Royal and Phelippeaux, to the Long Lake; thence through the middle of said Long Lake, and the water-communication between it and the Lake of the Woods, to the said Lake of the Woods; thence through the said lake to the most north-western point thereof, and from thence on a due west course to the river Missisippi ; thence by a line to be drawn along the middle of the said river M issisippi untill it shall intersect the northernmost part of the thirty-tirst degree of north latitude. South by a line to be drawn due east from the determination of the line last mentioned, in the latitude of thirty-one degrees north of the Equator, to the middle of the river Apalachicola or Catahouchi; thence along the middle thereof to its junction with the Flint river; thence strait to the head of St. Mary’s river; and thence down along the middle of St. Mary’s river to the Atlantic ocean. East by a line to be drawn along the middle of the river St. Croix, from its mouth in the Bay of Fundy to its source, and from its source directly north to the aforesaid Highlands which divide the rivers that fall into the Atlantic ocean, from those which fall into the river St. Laurence; comprehending all islands within twenty leagues of any part of the shores of the United States, and lying between lines to be drawn due east from the points where the aforesaid boundaries between Nova-Scotia on the one part, and East- Florida on the other, shall respectively touch the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic ocean; excepting such islands as now are, or heretofore have been within the limits of the said province of Nova-Scotia.