application could construct from them a map of our county, in 1729, showing where all the inhabitants owning land lived at that time. The correspondence as to the early taking up of land, finding of min- erals, conflicts of claims, the move- ment and activities of the Indians, etc., is also preserved in the

- son & Dixon line. An Early Visitor. But though Capt. John Smith like- ly did not actually explore what is now Lancaster county soil, it seems morally certain that a Frenchman named Eitienne Brule, in 1615 or 1618, did travel through the Susquehanna river valley. An account of this may be found in a