there. The Company staid there in the middle of a Large River, where the wind from the North and North-West blows at pleasure, and because at two leagues above there are some streams, which coming crosswise do discharge themselves into this large arm of the Sea. This Island, the Retreat of these French, was called Sainte Croix, twenty five leagues more distant than port Royal.' 'Before we speak of the return of the ships to France, it becomes us to say that the Island of Saint Croix is very difficult to be found by one who has never been there: for there are so many Islands and great Bays to pass before one comes there, that I am astonished how any one had the patience to penetrate so far to go to find it. There are three or four mountains high above the others on the Coasts, but on the North part from where the River comes down, there is a pointed one more than two leagues distant. The woods of the Main laud are handsome and high to admiration and so is the herbage; there are streams of Fresh Water very agreeable, where many of the people of the Sieur de Monts did their work and hutted there. As to the nature of the Soil, it is very good, and happily fruitfull; for the Sieur de Monts, having caused a piece of land to be cultivated and sown with Rye, (I have not seen any wheat there) he had not the means to attend to its maturity to gather it, the grain which fell, had notwithstanding grown and shot up again wonderfully, so that two years after we gathered of it as fair, large and heavy as any in France, and which this soil has produced without culture, and at present it continues to increase every Year; the said Island is about half a french League in circuit, and at the end towards the sea there is a Hillock, and as it were a separate small island where the said Sieur de Monts placed his cannon; and there is also a small chapel built in the fashion of the savages, at the foot of which there are so many muscles as to be wonderfull, which may be gathered at low water; but they are small.

"During the said voyage, the Sieur de Monts worked at his fort, which he had seated at the End of the Island opposite the place where we have said he lodged his Cannon, which was prudently considered, to the end to command the River up and down; but there was one inconvenience that the said Fort was on the side to the North without any shelter except the trees which were on the Bank of the island, all of which thereabout he had forbid to be cut down. Without the Fort the Swiss had their Barracks, which were large and ample, and some small ones making an appearance like a suburb; some had their huts on the main Land, near the Stream, but within the Fort were the Lodgings of the said Sieur de Monts, made of fair and Skilfull carpentry with the banner of France on the Top. In another Part was the Magazine, where was ceposited the the safety and life of all; also of good carpentry and covered with shingles, and opposite to the Magazine were the Lodgings, and Houses of the Sieur D'Orville Champlain, Champdore, and

other persons of distinction; opposite to the Lodgings of the said Sieur de Monts was a covered gallery, to exercise for amusement, or for the Workmen when it rained; and between the said Fort and the Platform of the Cannon, all was filled with Gardens. The Severe season being passed, the Sieur de Monts, tired of his sorrowful abode of Sainte Croix, determined to search for another Port in a Country more warm and more to the south. Having seen the Coast of Malatarre, and with much labour, without finding what he desired, he determined to go to Port Royal, to make his stay there, and wait untill he should have the means to make a more ample discovery: So every one was employed to bind up his pack, and they demolished what they had built with infinity of labour, except the Magazine, which was too large to be transported.'

"Subsequent to the View of the mouths of the Rivers in question, and the adjacent Objects, by the Commissioners, at the instance of the Agents, in the Fall of 1796, the Edition of Champlain, of 1613, was procured from Europe, containing a Map of the Isle Sainte Croix, a copy of which is hereunto annexed, and a Search having been then made by digging into the Soil on the Island called Bone, or Docias, Island, Bricks, charcoal, spikes, and other artificial articles have been found, and evident foundations of buildings have been traced. Whoever will compare these proofs with the Bay of Passamaquady, including the Islands and Rivers in it, will perceive that they result in demonstration that the Island St. Croix, and the River Saint Croix, intended by them, are respectively Bone Island, and the River Scudiac, comprehending in the latter the arm of the Bay, or as it is expressed by L'Escarbot, Sea, between where the mouth of the River has been decided to be, at Joe's Point, and where it turns to the westward at the Devils head, as being at the time when the name of Saint Croix was originally given to the Scudiac, then actually, however improperly, conceived to be a portion of it and accordingly denominated River; and here it would seem that there would have been an end of the Question. But the Agent on the Part of the United States stated that Mitchells Map published, in 1755, was before the Commissioners who negotiated and concluded the provisional Treaty of Peace at Paris in 1782; from that they took their Ideas of the country, upon that they marked the dividing line between the two nations, and by the line marked upon it their intention is well explained, that the River intended by the Name of the Saint Croix, in the Treaty, was the Eastern River which empties its waters into the Bay of Passamaquady.'

"And he thereupon offered in Evidence the Testimony of the Three American Commissioners, as contained in the following depositions of two of them, and letter from the other, to Mr. Secretary Jefferson, of the 8th of April, 1790, and also a Map of Mitchell, as the Identical Copy which the Commissioners had before them at Paris, having been found deposited in the Office of Secretary of State for the United States, and

having the Eastern Boundary of the United States, traced on it with a pen or pencil, through the middle of the River Saint Croix, as laid down on the Map, to its source, and continued thence North, as far as to where most probably it was supposed by whoever it was done. The highlands mentioned in the treaty are—1

"President Adams' Deposition.

"Mitchells Map was the only map or plan which was used by the Commissioners at their public conferences, tho' other Maps were occasionally consulted by the American Commissioners, at their Lodgings; the British Commissioners at first claimed to Piscataqua River, then to Kennebeck, then to Penobscot, and at length agreed to Saint Croix, as marked on Mitchells map, one of the American Ministers at first proposed the River Saint Johns, as marked on Mitchells map; but his colleagues observing that as Saint Croix was the River mentioned in the Charter of Massachusetts Bay they could not justify insisting on Saint Johns, as an ultimatum, he agreed with them to adhere to the Charter of Massachusetts Bay; but whether it was understood, intended, or agreed between the British and American Commissioners, that the River Saint Croix, as marked on Mitchells map, should so be the boundary as to preclude all enquiry respecting any Error or mistake in the said Map, in designating the River Saint Croix, or whether there was any, and if so, what understanding, intent, or agreement between the Commissioners relative to the case of Error or mistake in this respect, in the said Map, that the case of such supposed error, or mistake, was not suggested, and consequently there was no understanding, intent or agreement expressed Respecting it.'

"Governor Jay's Deposition.

"In the course of the negotiations, difficulties arose respecting the Eastern boundary of the United States. Mitchells map was before them, and frequently consulted for Geographical information. In settling the boundary lines (described in the Treaty) and of which the River Saint Croix forms a part, it became a question, which of the Rivers in those parts was the true River Saint Croix, it being said that several of them had that name. They did finally agree that the River St. Croix laid down in Mitchells Map, was the River Saint Croix which ought to form a part of the said boundary line; but whether that River was so decidedly and permanently adopted and agreed upon by the parties as conclusively to bind the two

1

This sentence is incomplete in the original, just as is here indicated, and it was so printed by Gallatin and Preble without comment. Obviously a blundering scrivener, in copying Benson's draft, robbed the preceding sentence of a part of its final clause, which should read, "as far as to where most probably it was supposed by whoever it was done the highlands mentioned in the treaty are."

nations to that limit, even in case it should afterwards appear that Mitchell had been mistaken, and that the true River Saint Croix was a different one from that which is delineated by that name in his Map, is a question or a case which he does not recollect, nor believe, was then put or talked of. For his own part, he was of opinion that the Easterly boundaries of the United States, ought, on principles of Right and Justice, to be the same with the Easterly boundaries of the late Colony or Province of Massachusetts.'

"Dr. Franklin's Letter.

"I received your letter of the 31st past, relating to the encroachments made on the Eastern Limits of the United States, by settlers under the British Government, pretending that it is the Western and not the Eastern river, of the Bay of Passamaquady, which was designated by the name of Saint Croix in the Treaty of Peace with that Nation, and requesting me to communicate any facts which my memory or Papers may enable me to recollect, and which may indicate the true River the Commissioners had in view to establish as a boundary be tween the two nations. I can assure you that I am perfectly clear in the remembrance that the Map we used in tracing the boundary between the two nations, was brought to the Treaty, by the Commissioners from England, and that it was the same that was published by Mitchell, above twenty Years before. That the Map we used was Mitchells Map, Congress was acquainted at the time by a letter to their Secretary for foreign affairs, which I suppose may be found upon their files.' "The Agent on the part of his Majesty having excepted to these proofs, on the ground that the matter to be proved by them was not admissible in Evidence, they were received, subject to the eventual opinion of the Board on the Question, whether they were to be retained or rejected? A Boundary line which Mitchell has on his Map, is the only indication of the River he intended by the Saint Croix; his intent or Mind in this respect cannot be discovered from the relative situation of the River, or of the Lake, laid down as its source, or from the course or length of the River, or the form or magnitude of the Lake, or indeed from the supposed representations of any natural or sensible objects; that part of the Map which contains the Bay of Passamaquady, and the Rivers issuing into it, being, as to such objects, erroneous or imperfect in the extreme:-The Boundary line alluded to, is drawn along the Western side of the River Saint Croix to the Lake as its source, and thence round along the Southerly and Westerly sides, and so far along the Northerly side of the Lake, untill it comes to the most Northern Part of it, and thence it is direct towards the North, 'to the River St. Barnabas, being the nearest river discharging itself into the great River of Canada.' This Line was certainly intended to represent, what was esteemed at the time

to be the boundary of Nova Scotia, from the mouth of the St. Croix to the River Saint Lawrence.

"The Map and the other proofs connected with it, therefore, instead of being of any avail to the party exhibiting them; they are in confirmation of the very principle of the claim of the opposite Party, that the River intended in the Treaty, is the River intended in the Graut for Nova Scotia; the reasoning from them being briefly that the immediate Agents who made the Treaty, intended the River which was intended by Mitchell and that he intended the River which was intended in the Grant for Nova Scotia; so that, as will doubtless be perceived, any further consideration of these proofs, or a decision of the question respecting them, reserved for the opinion of the Board, became unnecessary.

"With respect to the source of the River, the difficulties which occurred in determining it may easily be imagined.

"In all cases it would be difficult to determine the Source of a River, when it is to be ascertained to a precise spot, to a point from which a line is to be drawn.

"If it is to be ascertained, or as it may be phrased, found, as a previously assumed Station, in a boundary, Evidence of where strangers reputed it to be, or where parties intended it should be deemed to be, might be proper, and under the circumstances of the case, to be adopted as that which ought to be preferred, and as competently decisive.

"No such Evidence, however, existed in the present Instance the several Branches and head waters of the River have remained unexplored, and the adjacent country unsettled, and almost unfrequented; so that the only knowledge of the River, from the Falls in it upwards was scarcely more than what was primitively communicated to the first voyagers there, by the aboriginal savages; namely, that from the Head Waters to the West, there was a portage to the Norembeque, now Penobscott, and from those to the North, there was one to the St. John; let it suffice therefore to intimate, that the reference, as it respected the Source of the River, being as it were an appeal to mere judgement or opinion, is in that view analogous to cases of assessment of damages not capable of being liquidated by calculation, or definite Rule, and therefore to be assessed according to discernment, or discretion; a latitude of arbitrament is in such cases supposed to be permitted to the Jurors, but as they must at the same time agree in a precise sum, accommodation of sentiment among them to a degree is necessary, and consequently justifiable. There is still a question concerning the boundary between the two nations, in that quarter, and originating also in the Treaty of peace; but partaking of the nature of an omitted case can be settled only by negotiation, and compact.

"The Treaty supposes the Saint Croix to issue immediately into the Bay of Fundy, and of course, that there would be an entire sea board Boundary, if it may be so expressed, between