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after perusing that instrument, the reading of the second Grant would have removed them. Here, when describing the starting Point, they begin with a "Red Head in a little Bay or Cove to the eastward of the Harbour at the mouth of Saint John's River. That Cove, in our opinion, is our upper Cove and Mill Pond; if not so they must prove that their Red Head is on "a little Bay or Cove," which they cannot do for it is on the Bay of Fundy.
Donaldson and Ansley very wisely remark, that all the uncertanty as to the bounds of the grants is the result of no plans explanatory of the lands intended to be granted having ever been produced from the office at Halifax and attached to the Grants. In that portion of their report submitted to the Common Council, January 28, 1830, they say, "Surely the petitions of the parties for the land, the minutes of His Majesty's Council, the orders of survey, the returns of that survey, and the office plans could still be found in Halifax and at once clear up the matter." This sanguine expectation was not to be realized for the committee in their second report, presented to the Common Council some months later, state with evident disappointment:
No plans of lands intended to be conveyed to the Grantees of either grant are to be found in Halifax; no application for the same are to be found, tho' the minutes of his Majesty's Council in Nova Scotia, prove that the lands were granted on such applications being read. No orders of survey are to be traced, nor any returns of survey, in short none of such documents as should be there are to be found; all of which appears to your committee very extraordinary, as also a circumstance connected with one of the Grants, viz.: That on such Grant, in the grant-book. there is an affidavit placed (taken before George Leonard, Esq. in 1784) fourteen years after the date of the Grant; which proves the loose manner in which the business was done.
The one small crumb of comfort resulting from a careful search in the offices at Halifax is contained in the brief paragraph which follows, to which, however, the committee evidently did not attach especial importance.