Massachusetts saw her opportunity slipping, and decided to act. In May of the following year, the General Court voted that the northern boundary of the colony was a line running from sea to sea and passing through a point three miles north of the most northerly section of the Merrimack, sending out more “skilfull artists” to find the exact latitude.[605] Godfrey vigorously objected, recalling to Massachusetts the services he had rendered her in England when her charter had been questioned, and denying the validity of her new claim.[606] His protest, of course, was of no avail, and in May, 1653, Massachusetts sent a commission, headed by Bradstreet, forcibly to require the submission of the inhabitants at Kittery. After much debate among the settlers, they agreed to submit, provided their conditions were accepted. This, however, was “wholy denied by the comissioners, who told them they must first submitt to the government, and then they should be ready to affoord such liberties and imunities as they should think meete to graunt.”[607] To this demand, as illegal as it was arrogant, the settlers were forced to yield an unconditional assent; and Godfrey returned to England, to add another, in the day of reckoning, to the enemies of Massachusetts. The country was organized as the County of York, and the towns incorporated with the same privileges as Dover.[608] Later in the same year, the commission continued its journey, and Wells, Cape Porpus, and Saco were likewise forced to submit.[609] Five years later, in spite of repeated protests from Cleeve, the whole of Maine and Lygonia were absorbed as far as Casco Bay, and the process of annexation was complete.[610] Of the principalities that Mason and Gorges had spent their fortunes to acquire, not a foot was left to their heirs. Footnote 605: _Massachusetts Records_, vol. III, pp. 274, 288. Footnote 606: The answer of Massachusetts and Godfrey's second letter are in Hazard, _Historical Collections_, vol. I, pp. 564 _ff._ Godfrey's protest, stating that £35,000 had been spent in settling, and that Massachusetts had recognized the lawful jurisdiction of the settlers for the past 20 years, is in Baxter MSS., _Doct. Hist. Maine_, vol. IV, pp. 15 _f._ Footnote 607: _Massachusetts Records_, vol. IV, pt. i, p. 123. Footnote 608: _Ibid._, pp. 123-26. Footnote 609: _Ibid._, pp. 158 _ff._ Footnote 610: _Ibid._, pp. 175, 250, 312, 357, 360.