tent" in 1609.[4] After this, acquiescence in
Baltimore's wishes would have been treason, and Claiborne declined to
acknowledge Lord Baltimore's authority in Kent Island, and continued
to trade in the bay as freely as formerly.

Calvert's instructions[5] had been, in case of such a refusal, not to
molest Claiborne for at least a year. But Captain Fleet, Claiborne's
rival in the fur trade, started a story that Claiborne was the
originator of the rumor which so greatly alarmed the Indians at the
time of the arrival of the emigrants at St. Mary's. Though Claiborne
promptly repelled the calumny, Baltimore, in September, 1634, sent an
order to his brother Leonard to seize Kent Island, arrest Claiborne,
and hold him prisoner.[6] As this mandate was contrary to the order in
July, 1633, of the lords commissioners, which enjoined the parties to
preserve "good correspondence one with another," Claiborne's partners
petitioned the king against it.

Thereupon the king, by an order[7] dated October 8, 1634, peremptorily
warned Lord Baltimore, or his agents, "not to interrupt the people of
Kent Island in their fur trade or plantation." Nevertheless, April 5,
1635, Thomas Cornwallis, one of the Maryland councillors, confiscated
a pinnace of Claiborne's for illegal trading, and this act brought on
a miniature war in which several persons on both sides were killed.[8]
Great excitement prevailed in both colonies, and in Virginia the
people arrested Harvey, their governor, who upheld Cornwallis's
conduct, and shipped him off to England; while two of the councillors
were sent to Maryland to protest against the violent proceedings
affecting Claiborne.[9]

These measures induced a truce, and for nearly three years there were
no further hostilities in the bay. Claiborne brought his case before
the king, who referred it to the Lords Commissioners for Plantations;
then, as his partners feared to take further risk, he carried on the
trade in the bay almost solely with his own servants and resources. In
December, 1636, these partners, becoming dissatisfied at their loss of
profit, made the capital mistake of sending, as their agent to Kent
Island, George Evelin, who pretended at first to be an ardent
supporter of Claiborne, but presently, under a power of attorney,
claimed control over all the partnership stock.

Claiborne, naturally indignant and not suspecting any danger, sailed
for England in May, 1637, to settle accounts with his partners,