va Scotia the promise of a grant of 5,000 acres of
unappropriated lands, in such part of the province as he should
choose, and it was under this arrangement he entered upon the marsh
east of the city of St. John (called by the Indians "Seebaskastagan")
in the year 1762 and cut there a quantity of salt marsh hay and began
to made improvements.

Mr. Simonds says in one of his letters: "The accounts which I gave my
friends in New England of the abundance of Fish in the River and the
convenience of taking them, of the extensive Fur trade of the country,
and the natural convenience of burning Lime, caused numbers of them to
make proposals to be concerned with me in these branches of business,
among whom Mr. Hazen was the first that joined me in a trial.
Afterwards, in the year 1764, although I was unwilling that any should
be sharers with me in the Fur trade, which I had acquired some
knowledge of, yet by representations that superior advantage could be
derived from a Cod-fishery on the Banks and other branches of
commerce, which I was altogether unacquainted with, I joined in a
contract for carrying it on for that year upon an extensive plan with
Messrs. Blodget, Hazen, White, Peaslie and R. Simonds."

Early in 1763, James Simonds and William Hazen engaged in a small
venture in the way of trade and fishing at St. John and Passamaquoddy.
They had several men in their employ, including Ebenezer Eaton, master
of the sloop Bachelor, and Samuel Middleton, a cooper, who was
employed in making barrels for shipping the fish. Among others in the
employ of Simonds and his partners, several seem to have had a
previous acquaintance with St. John harbor; Moses Greenough, for
example, was there in 1758, and Lemuel Cleveland in 1757, when he says
"the French had a fort at Portland Point where Mr. Simonds' house was
afterwards built."

The following is a copy of what is probably the first document extant
in connection with the business of Hazen and Simonds:--

Passamaquada, 26th July, 1763.

Sir,--Please pay unto Mr. Ebenezer Eaton the sum of Five pounds
one shilling & four pence Lawfull money, half cash & half Goods,
and place the same to the acct. of,

Yr. Humble Servant,
Jas. Simonds.

To Mr. William Hazen,
Merchant in Newbury.

The success of their first modest little venture encouraged Hazen and
Simonds to undertake a more ambitious project, namely the formation of
a trading company to "enter upon a