262 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
tion may appear unsolvable, especially since it was left unsolved by the 
agents in their arguments. But in all their voluminous documents 
there is no sign that they attempted to solve it by the only method by 
which it could be attacked, by the method of comparative cartography. 
Studied in this way the identity of this much-discussed river becomes 
plain, as the following evidence will show. 
First, however, we shall note the nature of the evidence on which 
was based the belief that the R. St. Croix of Mitchell’s map was meant 
for the Magaguadavic. This evidence was drawn from two sources, the 
appearance of the map, and Indian tradition. As to the map, it was 
argued by Lincoln and Knox in 1784, by Sullivan, and is argued yet, 
that as it is the easternmost of the two large rivers on the map empty- 
ing into Passamaquoddy Bay, it must be the Magaguadavic. This 
ignores entirely the fact, so obvious on inspection of any copy of the 
map (Maps 19, 29), that east of the R. St. Croix and also emptying 
into the supposed Passamaquoddy Bay there is another unnamed river 
as large as the R. Passamacadie, or nearly, and one which, moreover, 
turns to the westward at its mouth in a way strongly recalling the 
Magaguadavic. However, this point is hardly worth discussion or any 
futher consideration here, for, as we shall see in a moment, the 
prevailing interpretation of the topography of this part of Mitchell’s 
map is wholly erroneous. But, second, there was the Indian testimony 
that the Magaguadavic was the St. Croix, which as given by Indians to 
the Commissioners at St. Andrews in 1796 and at Boston in 1797, 
agreed in the main with that given to Mitchel in 1764. The nature 
of this Indian testimony in 1764 I have already earlier discussed (page 
233); its reliability may be judged from the fact that while some 
Indians swore that the Magaguadavic was the only river known 
to them of old as the St. Croix, others swore that the Scoodic 
was so known to them, and others swore similarly as to the Cobscook. 
Likewise in the Indian testimony of 1796 and 1797, while some of 
the Indians swore that the Magaguadavie was known to them as the 
St. Croix, others, as the full depositions in the boundary Ms. show, 
swore that the Scoodic was the only river so known to them. Further, 
in the record of the interview of the British Agents with the Indians 
in 1796 occurs this passage,—(Kilby, 115): “There appeared to be a 
strong inclination in them to favor the idea that the Magaguadavic was 
the boundary river, and of their having been instructed on the sub- 
ject.” Further, it is stated in a document! doubtless written by Ed- 
ward Winslow (Winslow Papers, 355), that some of the Indians who 

1 The date assigned to this document in the Winslow papers, 1788, is I 
believe wrong—I think it should be 1797 or 1798. 
