United States, is shown by the following letter to John Jay, who was then governor of the State of New York:

"HALIFAX, 30th August, 1796.

"SIR: The controversy respecting that part of the boundary between the United States and the Dominions of his Britannic Majesty, which is on the river St. Croix, is now a matter of some moment. The Commissioners have proceeded with that good humor and candour on the subject which seemed to promise a happy & amicable termination of the dispute. Instead of casting lots, they have taken the first idea of the Treaty of November 1794, and have elected a third Commissioner; Judge Benson is the only gentleman in whom they could unite.

"They have sent him a commission by this conveyance, and a vessel to bring him on. I earnestly hope that your Government will allow him to attend upon it, and that all his friends who wish the late Treaty with Great Britain to be carried into effect in such a manner as to assure the peace and happiness of our country will use their influence with him to accept the appointment. A letter which I have written to him by this conveyance will I believe satisfy him that the task will not be so arduous as he may at first imagine. Should he decline the process, the consequence will inevitably be, that two men will be put in the box on whom no confidence will be placed by the other side, the consequence of which is easily seen without any explanation. I am Sir with great respect, "Your Excellency's most obedient and most humble servant, "JAS. SULLIVAN.

"His Excellency Governor JAY."

Formal Organization of the Commission.

After the selection of a third commissioner the agents proceeded to Passamaquoddy Bay to institute the surveys. They were soon followed by the two commissioners, who, in order to avoid compelling the agents to attend at Halifax, adjourned to St. Andrews, where they notified Mr. Benson to meet them on the 3d of October. On the 4th of October the three commissioners, having met at that place, were duly sworn, according to the provisions of the treaty, before Robert Pagan, a justice of the court of common pleas for the county. They then appointed Edward Winslow, of Fredericton, New Brunswick, but formerly of Plymouth, Massachusetts, as their secretary, and received the memorials of the agents, Mr. Sullivan claiming the Magaguadavic and Mr. Chipman the Schoodiac.

Investigation of
Claims.

"The 5th" [of October], says Mr. Barclay, "we made an attempt to proceed up the River Scoodiac claimed by the Agent of His Majesty as the true St. Croix, but the Wind failing we were compelled to return to St. Andrews; after which the board met, confirmed the surveys commenced under the mutual agreement of the Agents and taking the future operations of the surveyors under our control established rules and orders for their direction and government; ascertained their pay per day and that of the chainmen and laborers under them &c. &c. On the 6th the Commissioners attended by the Agents went to view the mouth of the River Magaguadavic claimed by the American Agent as the St. Croix intended in the treaty of Peace and the Island which he said had been named by the Sieur de Monts in 1604, Isle de St. Croix. The 7th we had a view of the Isle de St. Croix in the River Scoodiac as shown us by His Majestys Agent with the small Island in its front and as much of the River as he said he conceived necessary to be seen to evince that the Islands and River corresponded with the description given by L'Escarbot and Champlain french Historians, who attended the Sieur de Monts in his Voyage to that part of North America in 1604, and on our return we examined under oath in the Evening a number of Indians produced on the part of the united States-On the 8th the board established rules and regulations for authenticating Records and other public documents to be given in Evidence, with several other necessary orders and resolutions, particularly one directing a survey to be made of the bay of Passamaquoddy, the Islands therein, the Brooks and Rivers that discharge themselves into it and all the Mountains, high lands or head lands which present themselves to view in proceeding up the bay to either of the rivers in question, representing their Shapes and appearances respectively as they make or appear in proceeding to and up each of the Rivers in question.

"Having examined the Surveyors as to the probable period when their surveys would be completed and finding they could not be effected until late the next Autumn and the Agents having stated by a joint memorial that it would be out of their power to deliver in the Arguments on which their claims were founded until they were possessed of these Surveys, the board adjourned to the second Tuesday in August next, then to meet at Boston in the State of Massachusetts for the pur

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

Delay in Arguments of Agents.

Mr. Sullivan, in a statement as to the proceedings of the commissioners published in 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

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

* 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

Deposition of President Adams.

On the 15th of August the commissioners 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 sup posed 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.

2 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 sup posed 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.