232 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
that the tradition given by the Indians may really represent the origin 
of the name. On the other hand there is some evidence tending to 
negative this testimony. Aside from the fact that we now know beyond 
question that the Scoodie really was the ancient St. Croix (though it 
is of course quite possible that one river was known to the French as 
St. Croix, and another to the Indians) there is some direct testimony. 
Thus, among the Winslow papers in the testimony under oath of one 
Alexander Hodges, who, by another document is shown to have come 
to Passamaquoddy in 1767, and who swears that he heard Louis Nep- 
tune and other Indians and also some white residents call the Scoodic 
the St. Croix, and that he never heard the Magaguadavic so called. 
Again, among the same papers is the testimony of one Currie who de- 
poses in 1797 that he had heard Indians call the river Magaguadavic 
the St. Croix since 1783 but not before. Again, Charles Morris, the 
younger, deposed (Winslow Ms.) that Indians had told him in 1783 
the Scoodic was the great River St. Croix and had always gone by that 
name, and that an Indian named Colonel Lewis had told him that the 
Scoodiac was the true St. Croix ; further, that he had been several times 
at the Magaguadavic, but had never heard it called St. Croix by the 
Indians. Again, when the English commissioners interviewed the In- 
dians in 1796 upon their ancient traditions as to the French settlements, 
they state (Kilby, 115): “ There appeared to be a strong inclination in 
them (the Indians) to favour the idea that the Magaguadavic was the 
boundary river, and of their having been instructed on the subject.” 
Moreover, another document written apparently by Edward Winslow in 
1788 (1798 ?), (Winslow Papers, 355) says:— 
It is the more necessary that this inquiry be immediately made while 
the Indians are alive that have been called up to Boston to give their evidence, 
which is to remain on the records there, which River was anciently called 
St. Croix. They have declared upon their return that they were bribed to 
say the Easternmost River. 
It is of course useless at this day to attempt to disentangle this 
conflicting testimony. There can seem to be no doubt that the Indians 
did actually call the Magaguadavic the St. Croix when asked by Mitchel. 
But as to whether the Indians actually used that name for the river 
among themselves earlier, I am extremely sceptical. In studies upon 
Indian Place-names embodied in an earlier Monograph of this series 
(Place-Nomenclature of New Brunswick), I have become somewhat 

1 Although the Report of 1771 by Brattle Bowdoin and Hubbard, presented 
to the Massachusetts Legislature (Boundary MS.) states there is a witness 
living who will swear that sixty years ago he traded with the Indians in that 
region, and the river St. Croix was then so called by them, and was east of 
Passamaquoddy. This is, however, too indefinite to be of much importance. 
