contributions to this discussion by Professor William F. Ganong, of Smith College, Massachusetts. A native of New Brunswick, he is not only familiar with the northeastern boundary territory, but he has given much attention to the boundary controversy. In the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada,' in a very scholarly and impartial consideration of this controversy, he has presented clearly and forcefully the results that his studies have reached. In summing up the facts with reference to the true St. Croix as determined by the St. Croix commission, he says: Chiputneticook is without question the main river, and the one most natural to be selected as a boundary of the kind desired in this region. I believe, therefore, that the British agent was not justified upon historical or topographical grounds in claiming the western branch, though he supposed he was, and, from the point of view of the advocate, he was. That the Chiputneticook was chosen, even though as a compromise and not upon logical grounds (that is, as it were, by luck), seems to me most fortunate, and both nations should agree that this question at least was settled happily."

1Second Series, Vol. VII, Section II, 1901-1902. The paper is entitled A Monograph of the Evolution of the Boundaries of the Province of New Brunswick.

Ib., 261. Of great interest is Prof. Ganong's cartographical study (pp. 265-267), showing that the river St. Croix of Mitchell's map is the present river of that name and not the Magaguadavic.

T

CHAPTER IV.

THE BOUNDARY IN PASSAMAQUODDY BAY.

HE declaration of the St. Croix commission had reference only to the true St. Croix River, including its mouth and source. But in Passamaquoddy Bay, into which the St. Croix River empties, there are islands as to whose nationality important differences early developed, which were as irritating and embittering in the boundary territory as were those that had reference to the river St. Croix. In an allusion to these differences President Adams, announcing' the settlement of the St. Croix controversy, said: "A subordinate question, however, it has been suggested, still remains to be determined. Between the mouth of the St. Croix, as now settled, and what is usually called the Bay of Fundy, lie a number of valuable islands. The commissioners have not continued the boundary line through any channel of these islands, and unless the Bay of Passamaquoddy be a part of the Bay of Fundy, this further adjustment of boundary will be necessary. But it is apprehended that this will not be a matter of any difficulty." That the apprehension was without adequate support, the history of the boundary controversy shows.

The second article of the treaty of 1783 made the boundaries of the United States to comprehend "all islands within twenty leagues of any part of the shores of the United States, and lying between lines to be drawn due east' from the middle of the mouth of the river St. Croix "in the Bay of Fundy," and from the middle of the mouth of the river St. Mary's in the Atlantic Ocean, "excepting such islands as now are, or heretofore have been,

1Annual Message, December 8, 1798, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, I, 274.

within the limits of the said province of Nova Scotia."

Why

the St. Croix commissioners made no attempt to settle the controversy with reference to the Passamaquoddy islands is explained by Judge Sullivan, the American agent, under the provisions of the St. Croix commission: "The agent of the United States urged the commissioners to settle the boundary through that bay to the sea; because the treaty expressly recognized the mouth of the river as in the Bay of Fundy, which is a limb of the ocean, and the other bay united with it might be considered as the river's mouth; but they declined it on an idea that their commission extended no further than to an authority to find the mouth and source of the river, and that, let whichever would be the river, it had its mouth three leagues from the sea, in Passamaquoddy Bay; they, therefore, limited their decision, on its southerly line, to at point between St. Andrews and the shore of the United States.

12

Judge Benson, in his report to the president of the United States, suggested a boundary line with reference to the Passamaquoddy islands which he described in these words: "Beginning in the middle of the channel of the River St. Croix, at its mouth; thence to the middle of the channel between Point Pleasant and Deer Island; thence through the middle of the channel between Deer Island on the east and north, and Moose Island and Campo Bello Island on the west and south, and round the easterly point of Campo Bello Island to the Bay of Fundy." Because of continued complaints concerning British assertion of jurisdiction over the Passamaquoddy islands, this suggestion, made by Judge Benson, was taken up by Mr. Madison, secretary of state for the United States, who in a letter, July 28, 1801, to Rufus King, 1 Moore, History and Digest of International Arbitrations, 45. Farnham Papers, I, 76.

2 American State Papers, II, 586.

Born in Scarborough, Maine, in 1755, Rufus King in 1788 removed to New York, which became his permanent residence. In 1789, he was elected the first United States senator from that state and was re-elected in 1795. Not long after, having declined the office of secretary of state, he was nominated by Washington as minister plenipotentiary to Great Britain, and in

minister of the United States to Great Britain, called attention to the fact that the St. Croix commissioners left undetermined the nationality of the Passamaquoddy islands. It appears, he said, to have been the intention of the two nations, in the peace adjustments of the treaty of 1783, to make navigable waters where they were common to both the divisional line, the boundary running through the middle of their channels. Hence if one of the passages from the mouth of the St. Croix River into the Bay of Fundy be seldom and imperfectly navigable, and the other constantly and completely so, this last should be the boundary. On the other hand, a literal construction of the treaty, "as far as practicable," would exclude Great Britain from both passages; and expressing the belief that a boundary satisfactory to both nations could be established, he made use of Judge Benson's suggestion in almost his identical words, adding: "These ideas are thrown out only for consideration. I shall probably have it in my power shortly to transmit you a commission to settle this point, with definite instructions. Meanwhile, you may break the business to the British ministry, but without implicating any fixed mode of settlement."'1

June 8, 1802, Mr. Madison sent to Mr. King a commission, conferring upon him powers for the adjustment, by proper stipulations, of such matters pertaining to the boundary between Great Britain and the United States as remained to be decided. For information with reference to Passamaquoddy Bay contentions he was referred to observations made by the secretary of state in his letter of July 28, 1801. His attention also was called to an inclosed letter from Judge Sullivan to the secretary, mention of which has already been made. In this last letter there was a refJuly, 1796, he sailed with his family for England. After his return to this country in 1804, he was again elected United States senator from New York, his fourth term expiring in 1825. Not long after, he was persuaded again to accept the embassy to England; but failing health compelled him at length to relinquish his office, and returning to this country, he died at his home in Jamaica, Long Island, April 29, 1827.

1American State Papers, II, 585.

erence to the language of the treaty of 1783, which included in the boundaries of the United States "all islands within twenty leagues of every part of the shores of the United States excepting such islands as now are, or heretofore have been, within the limits of the said province of Nova Scotia." Concerning this exception, Judge Sullivan in his letter remarked:

"The ancient charter of Nova Scotia to Sir William Alexander, in 1638, included all the country from the Kennebec to the Bay of Chaleur. The treaty cannot mean, by the expression 'heretofore within Nova Scotia,' all the islands in that charter. If it mean the islands which were within a more recent description of it, where the boundary westward was the St. Croix, excluding the territory of Acadia, which was placed under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts by the charter of that province in 1692 and bounded on that river, the river Schodiac being now the established St. Croix, there can be no question in regard to Massachusetts extending to the channel where it joins that river. But Moose Island . . . . . lies two leagues below what the Commissioners made the mouth of the St. Croix, and very near the American shore. This was never granted by the crown of England, or by the government of Nova Scotia, before the treaty of peace; nor was there ever any occupancy of it by subjects acknowledging the authority of Nova Scotia; nor did that province ever attempt to exercise authority there. Long before the Revolutionary War it was in the occupancy of people of, and from, the late province of Massachusetts Bay."

The British representative in this convention for the settlement of the differences between the two countries with reference to the boundary was Lord Hawkesbury, the principal secretary of state for foreign affairs. February 28, 1803, Mr. King, in a letter to Mr. Madison, reporting progress with reference to the Passamaquoddy line, made mention of an interview with Colonel Barclay, one of the St. Croix commissioners, then on a visit to England, probably in the interest of boundary matters, who thought it 1American State Papers, II, 586.