pose of examining witnesses and to adjourn from thence to such place as his Majesty's agent should think necessary for examining any other witnesses he might wish to produce. The weather from the 20th of September to the 8th of October was so unfavorable as to prevent the Gentlemen employed from ascertaining the longitude of the mouth of either of the Rivers and the Season being far advanced we gave up the pursuit until next Spring. The Surveyors will probably continue at Work to the 10th of November, at all Events they will remain in the field until driven in by Snow and extreme cold."1

Amory, in his Life of Sullivan, gives substantially the same account of the proceedings at St. Andrews as Mr. Barclay. He says that Howell and Sullivan explored by boat the rivers claimed as the St. Croix. They found the western stream large and navigable far up; the eastern small, and interrupted a few miles up by falls. Indian chiefs came down the bay and confirmed the information obtained in 1764 as to the Magaguadavic. Judge Benson arrived on September 25, and the whole party explored together for ten days the bays, rivers, and islands. In the River Schoodiac they visited an island which answered the descriptions of L'Escarbot, Charlevoix, and other French writers of the Isle de St. Croix, where De Monts passed the winter of 1604. On this island they found the remains of an old fortification.2

Mr. Sullivan, in a statement as to the proDelay in Arguments ceedings of the commissioners published in of Agents. Boston in the spring of 1797, said it was decided that the arguments of the agents should be in writing, and that the argument of the agent of the United States should be forwarded to the British agent by the 1st of February 1797. The arguments of the agents seem, however, to have been delayed by the incompleteness of the surveys. In concluding his statement Mr. Sullivan says: Why shall not all the nations on earth determine their disputes in this mode, rather than choke the rivers with their carcasses, and stain the soil of continents with their slain? The whole business has been proceeded upon with great ease, candor, and good humor."3

66

Mr. Barclay to Lord Grenville, October 24, 1796, Rives's Correspondence of Thomas Barclay, 65, 66.

2 Amory's Life of Sullivan, I. 320 et seq.

3 Amory's Life of Sullivan, I. 325.

Meeting of Commission at Boston.

In July 1797 a party of Passamaquoddy chiefs came to Boston to testify as to the traditional names of the rivers in dispute. The commissioners, owing to the indisposition of Mr. Benson, were a week late in assembling. They met at a building on Water street, near Fort Hill. Their principal object in meeting at Boston was to facilitate the examination of witnesses whose testimony the agent of the United States desired to obtain. Among these witnesses were President Adams and Governor Jay. It seems that Mr. Sullivan had represented to Mr. Chipman that the plenipotentiaries who signed the treaty of peace of 1783, having Mitchell's map before them, intended as the St. Croix the first river westward of the St. John; and that not only Mr. Adams and Mr. Jay, the surviving American plenipotentiaries, but also Mr. Hartley, the British plenipotentiary, and Lord St. Helens, who was present at the negotiations as Alleyne Fitzherbert, and Mr. Whitefoord, who was secretary to the British commissioner at the negotiation of the preliminary treaty of peace, would attest the fact.3

dent Adams.

On the 15th of August the commissioners Deposition of Presi- proceeded to Quincy and took the deposition of President Adams, but the purport of his testimony was merely that the commissioners intended to adopt the limits of Massachusetts Bay and the St. Croix River mentioned in its charter, and that, while this river "was supposed to be delineated on Mitchell's map," there was no understanding that the map was to be decisive. The text of the deposition was as follows:

"John Adams, President of the United States of America, appeared before the Board and (being sworn) was examined as a witness to the following Interrogatories, viz: Interrogatories by the Agent of the United States.

"1st. What Plan or Plans, Map or Maps, were before the Commissioners, who formed the Treaty of Peace in 1783 between His Britannic Majesty and The United States of America?

"Answer. Mitchell's map was the only map or plan, which was used by the Commissioners at their public Conferences, though other maps were occasionally consulted by the American Commissioners at their lodgings.

While the commissioners were in Boston they attended a dinner to President Adams, at Faneuil Hall.

Mr. Barclay to Lord Grenville, September 8, 1797, Rives's Correspondence of Thomas Barclay, 73.

3 Rives's Correspondence of Thomas Barclay, 66.

"2d. Whether any lines were marked at that time as designating the boundaries of The United States upon any, or upon what map?

"Answer. Lines were marked at that time as designating the boundaries of The United States upon Mitchell's map.

"3rd. What Rivers were claimed to, or talked of, by the Commissioners on either side, as a proposed boundary, and for what reason?

"Answer. The British Commissioners first claimed to Piscataqua River, then to Kennebec, then to Penobscot, and at length to St. Croix, as marked on Mitchell's map. One of the American Ministers at first proposed the River St. John's, as marked on Mitchell's map, but his Colleagues, observing, that, as St. Croix was the River mentioned in the charter of Massachusetts Bay, they could not justify insisting on St. John's as an ultimatum-he agreed with them to adhere to the charter of Massachusetts Bay.

"4th. Whether a copy of a patent to Sir William Alexander, or any Act of Parliament of Great Britain were before the said Commissioners at that time, or spoken of, or relied upon, by the Commissioners on the part of His Britannic Majesty?

"Answer. It was very probable that the patent of King James to Sir William Alexander, and that an act or acts of Parliament might be produced and argued on, but I do not recollect, at this time, any particular use that was made of them. Nothing was ultimately relied on, which interfered with the Charter of Massachusetts Bay.

"5th. Generally, what plans, documents, and papers were before the said Commissioners, when the said Article of the same Treaty was formed?

"Answer. No other plan than Mitchell's map that I recollect. Documents from the public offices in England were brought over and laid before us; in answer to which we produced the memorials of Governor Shirley and Mr.

and

the counter memorials of the French Commiss at Paris, in a printed quarto volume, a report of Mr. Huchinson to the General Court printed in a Journal of the House of Representatives, not many years from 1760, though I cannot now recollect the precise year, and certain proceedings of Governors Pownall and Bernard, recorded also in the Journals of the House of Representatives, and the charter of Massachusetts.

6th. What were the lines claimed on each side and how was the matter ultimately settled?

"Answer. Answered in part under the 3rd question. The ultimate agreement was to adhere to the Charter of Massachusetts Bay and St. Croix River mentioned in it, which was supposed to be delineated on Mitchell's map.

"7th. Whether it was agreed to let the matter of boundary between the State of Massachusetts and the Province of Nova Scotia remain as the same had been conceived to be?

"Answer. Answered under the 3rd and 6th questions.

"Interrogatory by the Commissioners.

"In explanation of your answer to the 3rd Interrogatory proposed by the Agent on the part of the United States, do you know whether it was understood, intended or agreed, between the British and American Commissioners, that the River St. Croix as marked on Mitchell's map, should so be the boundary as to preclude all inquiry respecting any error or mistake in the said Map, in designating the River St. Croix? Or was there any, if so, what understanding, intent, or agreement, between the Commissioners relative to the case of error or mistake in the said Map?

"Answer. The case of such supposed error or mistake was not suggested, consequently, there was no understanding, intent, or agreement expressed respecting it."

Depositions of
Indians.

The Indians swore that there was a tradition that De Monts wintered in the Schoodiac, but erected a cross on the Magaguadavic, which alone had been called the St. Croix. This statement was substantially the same as that made by Indian chiefs to Mitchell in 1764. The British agent, after examining the affidavits presented by the agent of the United States, agreed to their being filed de bene esse, conceiving that they contained little or nothing material to the issue. As to the use of Mitchell's map by the plenipotentiaries who signed the treaty of peace, and their alleged understanding touching the river intended under the name of the St. Croix, the apprehensions created by Mr. Sullivan in the minds of the British commissioner and British agent were dispelled by the deposition of Mr. Adams, as well as by a letter from Mr. Jay, who wrote in the same sense as Mr. Adams testified. Subsequently Mr. Jay made the following deposition:

"The answer of John Jay, who was one of Deposition of Jay. the American Commissioners, by whom the Treaty of Peace between Great Britain and the United States was negotiated, to the interrogatories put to him, at the instance of the Agent on the part of the United States, by the Board of Commissioners for ascertaining the River St. Croix, intended in and by the said Treaty.

"The said John Jay, having been duly sworn, answers and says, that, in the course of the said negotiations, difficulties arose respecting the eastern extent of The United States; that Mitchell's Map was before them, and was frequently consulted for geographical information; that in settling the eastern

Mr. Jay to Mr. Sullivan, July 28, 1797, Correspondence of John Jay, IV. 228.

boundary line (described in the Treaty), and of which the River St. Croix forms a part, it became a question which of the rivers in those parts was the true River St. Croix, it being said that several of them had that name; that they did finally agree, that the River St. Croix laid down in Mitchell's Map, was the River St. Croix which ought to form a part of the said boundary line. But whether that river was then so decidedly and permanently adopted, and agreed upon by the parties as conclusively to bind the two nations to that limit, even in case it should afterwards appear that Mitchell had been mistaken, and that the true River St. Croix was a different one from that which is delineated by that name on his Map, was a question or case which he does not recollect nor believe was then put or talked of.

"By whom in particular that Map was then produced, and what other Maps, Charts and Documents of State were then before the Commissioners at Paris, and whether the British Commissioners then produced or mentioned an Act of Parlia ment respecting the boundaries of Massachusetts, are circumstances which his recollection does not enable him to ascertain. It seems to him that certain lines were marked on the copy of Mitchell's map, which was before them at Paris, but whether the Map mentioned in the Interrogatory as now produced, is that copy, or whether the lines said to appear in it are the same lines, he cannot without inspecting and examining it, undertake to judge.

"To the last interrogatory he answers, that 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.

"Although much was said and reasoned on the subject, yet he does not at this distance of time remember any particular and explicit declarations of the Parties to each other which would authorize him to say that the part of the said line (described in the Treaty) which is formed by the River St. Croix, was mutually and clearly conceived and admitted to be also a part of the eastern boundary line of Massachusetts.

"He doubts there having then been very clear conceptions relative to the just and precise easterly extent of Massachusetts; for he has reason to believe, that respectable opinions in America at that time considered the River St. John as the proper eastern limit of The United States.

"Sworn this 21st of May 1798 before me,

"JOHN JAY.

"EGBERT BENSON."