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White in securing for themselves the greater part of the marsh lands east of the city in 1784, as related in the story of "The Contest for Sebaskastaggan,"^[1] it is doubtful whether anything further would have been heard of the original dispute at Newburyport. The circumstances that led Mr. Simonds to affix his signature to the document were, according to his own statement, that he was removing his family to St. John and there having been already some little delay he was exceedingly anxious to sail as soon as possible. His anxiety was increased by the fact of his having left some tenants at St. John with a stock of cattle who needed his attention. Moreover it was of vital importance in the interests of the Indian trade that the goods on board the Eunice should be delivered as speedily as Under these circumstances after a short possible. though heated altercation, he at length signed the contract being urged by the master of the vessel to make haste as the tide was falling and in a little they might not be able to cross the bar. He quitted the store in such a hurry that he left behind him a bundle of his clothes and his invoices.

Hazen and Jarvis seem to have been convinced that the Company was very largely in arrears to them at the time the second contract was signed, and they fixed the sum of indebtedness at £3,135, but this sum was disputed by Simonds, and the liquidation that ensued in the Chancery suit seems to have shown that Hazen and Jarvis were mistaken. The statements of the parties, however, are so conflicting, that it is difficult to get at the truth of the matter. James Simonds says that it was not to him a matter of supreme importance in 1767 whether Hazen and Jarvis continued in the business or not, as he deemed "such a crowd of