244 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
(a)—TuE DETERMINATION OF THE RrveR St. Crorx—(1783-1798) 
We have already traced the history of the efforts made in the 
preceding period to locate exactly in the topography of the country 
the River St. Croix, which was then the recognized legal and official 
boundary between Nova Scotia and Massachusetts. Those efforts were 
unsuccessful, ending only in a presumption that the Cobscook was 
the boundary, and their only visible result was an effort on the part 
of Nova Scotia to have the Cobscook recognized, an effort so far success- 
ful that certain printed maps (Nos. 14, 18, 27) draw the western bound- 
ary of Nova Scotia north from the source of the Cobscook, a proceeding 
without any effect whatever upon the subsequent location of this 
boundary. In 1783 therefore the topographical location of the official 
St. Croix was unknown. But the question became important that very 
year (1783), for the Nova Scotia authorities assumed the Scoodie to 
be the St. Croix, and proceeded to settle large numbers of loyalists 
upon the eastern banks. In this assumption the Nova Scotia author- 
ities quietly and finally abandoned their old contention for the Cob- 
scook, being influenced thereto no doubt not only by its inherent 
absurdity but by the fact that the more accurate knowledge of the 
country showed that they would lose an immense area of country by 
the running of the north line from its source instead of from the 
source of the Scoodic (see Map No. 30). But the protest of the 
Americans, a most natural one in the then uncertain state of the 
question, was prompt, and against the settlement of British subjects 
west of the Magaguadavic, which they claimed as the St. Croix. Their 
protest was initiated by information sent to the Massachusetts Govern- 
ment by John Allan, so well known for his active partizanship in the 
revolution. In letters of 11th Aug. and 13th Sept., 1783, he calls 
attention to the British settlements at St. Andrews, and under date 
Dec. 15th, 1783 (Boundary Ms.) he sends a long letter to Governor 
Hancock stating that on his arrival at Passamaquoddy on Sept. 23 
he found surveyors at work and settlers in possession at St. Andrews 
Point, whom he warned not to settle there as they were on United 
States territory, warnings which he admits were of no effect. It was 
apparently as a result of the earlier letters that the Massachusetts 
House of Representatives on Oct. 23, 1783, resolved that the Governor 
take steps to obtain information upon the subject of encroachments 
and communicate the same to Congress. A committee was appointed, 
which on Dec. 2 (1783), reported an interview (given in the Boundary 
Ms.) with one Dr. Aaron Dexter who had recently been in Halifax 
and had conversed with Governor Parr upon the subject. Governor 
