Our present possessions in North America between the sea and the mountains appear, from many surveys and actual mensurations, as well as from all the maps and other accounts we have of them, to be at a medium about three degrees of longitude, or one hundred and forty miles broad, in a straight line; and they extend from Georgia, in latitude 32°, to the bay of Fundi, in latitude 45° (which is much farther both north and south, than the lands appear to be of any great value); which makes 13 degrees difference of latitude, or 780 miles: this length multiplied by the breadth 140, makes 109,200 square miles., This is not above as much land as is contained in Britain and Ireland; which, by Templeman's Survey, make 105,634 square miles. Instead of being as large as a great part of Europe then, as we are commonly told, all the lands we possess in North America, between the sea and mountains, do not amount to much more than these two islands. This appears farther, from the particular surveys of each of our colonies, as well as from this general estimate of the whole. Of these lands which we thus possess, both the northern and southern parts are very poor and barren, and produce little or nothing, at least for Britain. It is only in our middle plantations, Virginia, Maryland, and Carolina, that the lands produce any staple commodity for Britain, or that appear to be fit for that purpose. In short, it is only the more rich and fertile lands on and about Chesapeak bay, with a few swamps in Carolina, like the lands on the Missisippi, that turn to any great account to this nation in all North America, or that are ever likely to do it. This makes the quantity of lands that produce any staple commodity for Britain in North America incredibly small, and vastly less than what is commonly imagined. It is reckoned, that there are more such lands in Virginia, than in all the rest of our colonies; and yet it appeared from the public records, about twenty-five years ago, that there was not above as much land patented in that colony, which is at the same time the oldest of any in all North America, than is in the county of Yorkshire, in England, to-wit, {xv} 4684 square miles; although the country was then settled to the mountains. If we examine all our other colonies, there will appear to be as great a scarcity and want of good lands in them, at least to answer the great end of colonies, the making of a staple commodity for Britain. In short, our colonies are already settled to the mountains, and have no lands, either to extend their settlements, as they increase and multiply; to keep up their plantations of staple commodities for Britain; or to enlarge the British dominions by the number of foreigners that remove to them; till they pass those mountains, and settle on the Missisippi.