Sketch of Isle St. Croix, ca 1790
A sketch of Isle St. Croix from a map sent to Lt. Sydney by Lt. Gov Carleton in 1786.Maine Historical Society
By 1783, then, the question of where exactly Massachusetts stopped and Nova Scotia (soon New Brunswick) began was still an open question, one that was not even solved by identifying the Saint Croix River as the boundary. The fundamental issue was that, in the years since Champlain’s voyage, the precise location of the river had been lost. Twin surveys undertaken by Nova Scotia and Massachusetts in the early 1760s had produced contradictory results, and maps of the area—when they even managed to accurately portray the geography—labeled any and all of the rivers, streams, and harbors flowing into Passamaquoddy Bay as, possibly, the Saint Croix.
This lack of consensus highlighted a fundamental truth about the region which was as accurate in the late eighteenth century as it had been in the seventeenth: these borderlands remained primarily Wabanaki country at the very fringes of European control. The documents produced by the border commission, particular early on, consistently highlight Passamaquoddy and wider Wabanaki Nations’ deep knowledge of the land with European confusion, ignorance, and uncertainty.
Ultimately, however, it would be the arcane deeds and failed colonies which had so long defined European—and especially British—activities in the region which would determine its modern contours. Evidence of the location of Champlain’s original camp ultimately won the day over Passamaquoddy testimony, and future commissions on the political fate of the islands in the bay would similarly focus on the correct interpretations of seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century legal documents over the lived experiences which had actually shaped life in the borderlands. Ironically, the ultimate legacy of the jurisdictional confusion which for so long acted as a block to European expansion would be a false sense of continuity and precedent which would be used to erase Wabanaki understandings in the centuries to follow.
Bibliography and Further Reading
Bassett Moore, John, ed. "International Adjudications: Ancient and Modern History and Documents, Together With Mediatorial Reports, Advisory Opinions, and the Decisions of Domestic Commissions, on International Claims," vol. 2, Modern Series. New York: Oxford University Press, 1930.
Bilodeau, Christopher. “The Paradox of Sagadahoc: The Popham Colony, 1607-1608.” Early American Studies 12, no. 1 (Winter 2014): 1-35.
Champlain, Samuel de. "Les Voyages de La Nouvelle-France Occidentale," Dicte Canada. Paris, 1632.
Fischer, David Hackett. "Champlain’s Dream." New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.
Morris, Charles. “A Report of a Survey of the River St. Johns and of the Coast from thence to Passamaquoddy,” enclosed in Michael Francklin to the Board of Trade, 22 Nov 1766, CO 217, LAC.