Page:1898 NB Magazine.djvu/375

Eastward of the Harbour at the mouth of the St. John's River," thence running in an easterly direction 120 chains, thence northerly at right angles 160 chains "or until it meets the River Kennebeckacis," thence weslerly to the north east boundary of the former grant made in 1765. It would seem that the first actual survey was that made by Samuel Peabody about the first of March, 1784. Up to this time an exact delimitation of the bounds of their lands had appeared a matter of comparative indifference to Hazen, Simonds and White. There had been no neighboring land owners to dispute their claims. It is evident from the carelessness with which the bounds were described in the original grants, and from the fact that no plans were preserved^[1] at Halifax, that the importance of an exact survey had not been realized either by the grantees or by the surveyor general of Nova Scotia. The unlooked for arrival of some thousands of Loyalists, who came to St. John at the close of the American Revolution, speedily altered the condition of affairs. The lands in the vicinity of Portland Point assumed a value of which their owners had never dreamed. The claims of the original grantees were now closely scrutinized by the Loyalists who were naturally anxious to procure the most convenient and desirable locations.

Among those now interested in early St. John history there are some who believe the proper interpretation of the wording of the two grants of 1765 and 1770, to be that given by Messrs. Lauchlan Donaldson and Daniel Ansley in their report to the St. John Common Council in 1830 in which these gentlemen stoutly contended that "Red Head", as intended in the grants, was situate near the site of the present Intercolonial Railway station and not at Red Head on the east side of Courtenay Bay. We shall discuss this subject more fully in