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fifth day of October, in the year one thousand seven hundred

and ninety-eight.

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On the day on which the declaration was

Report of the Amer-executed, Mr. Sullivan made the following

ican Agent.

report of his agency:1

"PROVIDENCE 25th Octr. 1798. "SIR: The decisive declaration of the Commissioners is now executed and delivered to me fixing the river Schoodiac as St. Croix and the most remote water of the Chaputnaticook or north branch for its source. I shall forward it with eight volumes containing the journals and arguments in the cause. I shall also forward at the same time the accounts vouchers and the books you procured for me. I should go on myself but my health is so much affected with toil and anxiety that I could not endure the journey. I hope my son will undertake it for me. The enclosed schedule will show you what the expenses have amounted to and to which there is yet some items to be added before the Commissioners separate. By this you will see that I have paid and there has been allowed... $15, 559. 33

I am ordered to pay..

Making in whole...

4, 244. 59

19, 803. 92

"There is my private account yet to be added for advances in obtaining evidence assistance in copying maps, arguments&c. "I shall therefore pursuant to your directions in your last letter draw on you for five or six thousand dollars and procure the money at the bank.2

MSS. Dept. of State. In a letter to Mr. Sullivan of June 22, 1796, Mr. Pickering said that Mr. Hazard, of Philadelphia, had mentioned some French books relating to the contestation of the St. Croix between the English and the French in 1750-1753, when Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, went to Paris as one of the commissioners. The books were entitled "Memoires des Commissaires du Roi et de ceux de sa Majesté Britannique sur les possessions et les droits respectifs des deux couronnes en Amérique, avec les actes publics et pièces justificatives." (MS. Dom. Let. IX. 174.) June 25, Mr. Pickering wrote again, saying that the books, on examination, appeared to relate chiefly to "Acadie, according to its ancient Limits." (Id. 186.) July 23, 1796, he sent the books to Mr. Sullivan, together with "a memoir of Dr. William Smith concerning the River St. Croix." (Id. 228.)

Congress by an act of March 19, 1798 (1 Stats. at L. 545), appropriated $12,000 to defray "the extraordinary expenses of ascertaining the River St. Croix." By an act of March 2, 1799, the sum of $25,000 was appropriated for "further expenses" in carrying the treaty into effect. (1 Stats. at L.723.)

"I have much regretted that this was not settled by negociation in order to save expense; but am now convinced that no negociation could have brought the English Government east of the west lake of the Scoodiac south branch. The expenses could not have been lessened otherwise than by omitting the survey of the Megaguadavit but that would have been the giving up a cause or rather a point in the cause in which the Government of Massachusetts has been perseveringly zealThe expense attending that survey is not an object, and indeed the whole expense is not more than has usually happened in the controversy of Provincial or State lines.

ous.

"I have the honor to be with all respect, your most humble serv1,

"Honble. Mr. PICKERING,

"Secretary of State."

"JAS. SULLIVAN.

(P. S.) "There is yet perhaps a matter not compleatly settled. By the treaty the United States are bounded east on the river St. Croix. The commissioners have fixed the mouth of the river at St. Andrews point. If the bay of Passamaquoddy is not considered as sea a negociation may be yet necessary. You will see in the journal when it reaches you that I filed a memorial urging the Commissioners to fix the mouth between Deer & Moose Islands or between Deer Island and State point in the Bay of Fundy, but they declined it under an idea that unless Passamaquoddy was a section of the bay of Fundy the St. Croix had no mouth in that Bay."

Report of Mr.
Benson.

Mr. Benson made an elaborate report to the President of the United States, a copy of which is printed as Appendix XXXVI. to the definitive statement of Messrs. Gallatin and Preble, submitted to the King of the Netherlands as arbitrator under the convention between the United States and Great Britain of September 29, 1827. Subsequently Mr. Benson presented a copy of his report, somewhat revised, to the Massachusetts Historical Society, in whose records (October, 1887) it is published, with comments by Mr. Justin Winsor, who brought it to the society's attention. But while the report is in some respects improved by the revision, one interesting passage in the original, showing the principle on which Benson adopted the compromise as to the source of the St. Croix, is omitted. The present reprint is from a duplicate original among the papers presented by the editor of the correspondence of Thomas Barclay to the Maine Historical Society.

"REPORT

Made to the President of the United States of America, by Egbert Benson, Esquire, one of the Commissioners appointed pursuant to the fifth Article of the treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation, between His Britannic Majesty and the said States, respecting the Proceedings of the said Commissioners.

"On the Question between his Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, 'what River was truly intended under the name of the River Saint Croix,' mentioned in the Treaty of Peace of the 3d November, 1783, and forming a part of the boundary therein described, referred to the final decision of Commissioners by the fifth Article of the Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation, of the 19th November, 1794, the Scudiac was claimed on the part of his Majesty, and the Magaguadavic on the part of the United States. Bounda ries of the United States described in the treaty of peace, 'from the Northwest angle of Nova Scotia, vizt that angle which is formed by a line drawn due North from the source of Saint Croix River to the Highlands, along the said Highlands which divide those rivers that empty themselves into the River Saint Lawrence from those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean,' then follow the northern, western, and southern boundaries, and then east by a line to be drawn along the middle of the River Saint Croix from its mouth in the Bay of Fundy to its source, and from its source, directly north to the aforesaid Highlands which divide the Rivers that fall into the Atlantic Ocean from those which fall into the River Saint Lawrence.'

"Boundaries in the Grant for Nova Scotia, by King James to Sir William Alexander, of the 10th September, 1621, translated from the Latin-All and singular, the lands, continents, and Islands, situate aud lying in America, within the head land or promontory called Cape Sable, lying near the Latitude of forty three degrees, or thereabout, from the Equinoctial line towards the North, from which promontory stretching towards the shore of the sea by the west, to a bay commonly called St. Mary's Bay, and then towards the North by a direct line, passing the Entrance or mouth of that Great Bay, which runs into the Eastern Quarter between the Territories of the Souriquois and Etchemins, to a River commonly called by the Name of St. Croix, and to the most remote Spring or Fountain thereof from the Western Quarter which first mingles itself with the aforesaid River, thence by an imaginary direct line, which may be conceived to go through the Land, or Run towards the North to the nearest Bay, River or spring, discharging itself in the Great River of Canada, &c. &c. which certain lands shall in all future times enjoy the name of Nova Scotia in America.'

"It is here to be noted, that on the Conquest of Canada,

and the final cession of that Country to the Crown of Great Britain in 1763, the Highlands abovementioned and referred to, were established as a Southern boundary of the Colony of Quebec; that Nova Scotia hath accordingly from that time hitherto been described in the Commissions to the Governors, 'as bounded on the Westward by a line drawn from Cape Sable across the Entrance of the Bay of Fundy to the mouth of the River Saint Croix, by the said River to its source, and by a line drawn due North from thence to the Southern Boundary of the Colony of Quebec; to the Northward, by the said Boundary, &c. &c. &c.'-That from the description in the Commissions it appears a construction had been given to an evident ambiguity in the Grant for Nova Scotia, in respect to the source of the River Saint Croix, and the course of the line from it; and hence it is, that at the time of the Treaty of Peace, the Highlands, instead of the River Saint Lawrence, formed the north side, and a line directly to, or due North, the West side of the North-West angle of Nova Scotia, and that the Source of the River Saint Croix, from which the line was to run, or be drawn, was the Source generally, or that source which should be found to be eminently or emphatically so regardless of the position of it, or the place or quarter where it might be, or the distance, when compared with any other source before the waters from it mingled themselves with the River. "A River being expressed in the Treaty, the Instrument, and it not being expressed as it is, either by mistake or fraud, the River so expressed must be adjudged to be the River intended. This is assumed as unquestionable; the River is expressed to be That River, a line drawn due North from the Source of which forms the West side of the North-West angle of Nova Scotia.' The identity of the River Saint Croix expressed in the Treaty, and the River Saint Croix expressed in the Grant for Nova Scotia, is assumed as also unquestionable; so that the River to be sought for, is the River intended in the Grant. The two following propositions, are therefore stated, and the proofs subjoined-1st. That the River intended under the name of the River Saint Croix, in the Grant for Nova Scotia, is the River which was so named by the Sieur De Monts, 1604. And 2ndly. That the Scudiac is the River which was then so named. 1

In the revised version of Benson's report in the records of the Massachusetts Historical Society this paragraph is as follows: "It is now to be stated that the River is described or expressed in the Treaty of 1783, as 'that River a Line drawn due north from the Source of which forms the west side of the north west Angle of Nova Scotia;' and that the following Points are assumed as being unquestionable. 1st That the River was not expressed as it is, either by Mistake or Frand-2dly That the River expressed must therefore be adjudged to be the River intended-3y That the River erpressed in the Treaty of 1783, and the River expressed in the Grant of Nova Scotia, are the same River; and 4thly That consequently, the River, to be sought for, must be the River intended in the Grant; the following Proposition of Fact is therefore advanced, and the Proofs sabjoined, vizt, That the French colonists, in 1601, named a certain Island, lying in what

"Extracts from a publication by Sir William Alexander, in London, 1624, under the Title of encouragement to Colonies. Monsieur De Montes, procuring a Patent from King Henry the Fourth, of Canada from the 40th degree Eastward, comprehending all the bounds that now is between New England, and New Scotland (after that Queen Elizabeth had formerly given one thereof, as belonging to this Crown by Chabot's discoverie,) did set forth with a hundred persons fitted for a plantation, carried in two Ships.' After a brief relation of the voyage from France to Port Royal, he proceeds, 'After this, having seen Port Royal, they went to the River called by them Sante Croix, but more fit now to be called Tweede, because it divides New England from New Scotland, bounding the one of them upon the East and the other upon the West side thereof; here they made choice of an Isle that is within the middle of the same, where to Winter, building Houses sufficient to lodge their number.' He concludes his relation by mentioningThat in the end, finding that a little Isle was but a large prison, they resolved to return unto Port Royal.' Speaking of the limits of his Patent, he says-leaving the limits to be appointed by his Majesty's pleasure, which are expressed in the Patent granted unto me under his great Seale of his Kingdom of Scotland, marching upon the West towards the River of St. Croix, now Tweed, (where the Frenchmen did designe their first habitation) with New England, and on all other parts it is compassed by the Ocean and the great river of Canada. To this publication a Map is annexed, in which a River is laid down under the name of Tweede, as a boundary between New England and New Scotland, and doubtless intended to represent the Saint Croix. The Voyage of De Monts above referred to by Sir William Alexander, was in the Spring of 1604, and has been written by two different cotemporary persons, Champlain, who was with him, and Lescarbot, who came out to L'Acadie in 1606, with Poutrincourt, the Successor of De Monts in the attempt to settle, and was himself the next year at St Croix. The British Commissaries, in the Memorials between them and the French Commissaries, concerning the limits of Nova Scotia or Acadia, printed in London in 1755, say,―The most ancient Chart extant, of this Country, is that which Escarbot published with his History in 1609. And a book published in London that Year by P. Erondelle, under the title of Nova Francia, &c. translated out of the French into English, is evidently a translation of this first Edition of L' Escarbot. Champlain published in 1613. From these writers, therefore, undoubtedly Sir William Alexander obtained his information of the Voyage of De Monts, and of the country. They relate

is properly an Arm of the Bay of Passamaquoddy, but by them considered, and accordingly denominated River, the Island of St. Croix; that the Name was almost instantly applied indiscriminately as well to the River as to the Island; that the River is the same River intended under that Name in the Grant for Nova Scotia; and when distinguished by it's supposed Indian Name, and by which it is more generally known, is called the Scudiac,"

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