.MTUzOA.MTcxNDI

271

and promising as great advantages for settlement & cultivation, as any in the State. The inhabitants on the territory, contiguous to our eastern boundary above the monument are fast increasing; and it cannot be many years before this enterprizing [enterprising] & prosperous people, who for so long a time, in consequence of their detached & remote situation, have been unable to avail themselves of the right of representation and the benefit of the laws of the State, will become sufficiently numerous to constitute a flourishing County. Small appropriations have heretofore been made for opening this road so far as it passes through the public lands, but it is understood not to be in such repair as to render it safe or convenient for travelling at all seasons for the year. Having recently been established as a post road, and being the great channel of communication between that part of the State lying on and west of the Penobscot river, and that watered by the branches of the St. John, it is very desirable that it be completed. The road from the Kennebec through the unsettled country to the north line of the State, is an important avenue, through which considerable trade is now carried on with the neighboring Province. If this road should be made and kept in good repair, that trade, at present limited in the variety of its character, would be increased, and an additional market would be opened for the produce of the fertile Country through which it passes. The value and importance of the tract of country lying within the jurisdiction of this State north east of the head waters of the Penobscot, have, until recently, been very imperfectly understood. From unquestionable information there remains no doubt that the lands bordering on the Aroostook river, and also on the main branch of the St. John, are of excellent quality, & that measures may soon be advantageously adopted for their settlement. The plantation at Madawaska, containing already between two and three thousand inhabitants, is in a flourishing situation. The soil is uncommonly productive, and almost every article raised in the northern States is there cultivated, successfully. A road leading from the east branch of the Penobscot, crossing the head waters of the Aroostook and meeting the St John at Fish