Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/109

observer and so candid a writer as Dr. Ganong has been able to bring himself to the belief that the term "behind" Navy Island could apply to Portland Point or any other points on the east side of the harbor.

The evidence of maps upon which Dr. Ganong relied to prove that Fort LaTour was on the east side of the harbor of St. John, has not gone far to establish his case. He says that all of the maps known to him, dated before the year 1700, which mark Fort LaTour, place it on the east side, "with one exception." This exception, however, is rather important for it is the Duval map, which in the editions of 1653 and 1664 place it on the west side. A third edition of this map, issued in 1677, shows the fort on the east side, but does not name it. The first two editions of the Duval map are the earliest extant after the occupation of Fort LaTour in 1635, and therefor their authority is of the highest. Dr. Ganong thinks that the edition of this map of 1677 is the most to be relied upon, because "second or later editions of maps, like later editions of books, are likely to be more accurate than the first." This proposition is an entire reversal of the rules of evidence which prevails in courts of law, and it is no more to be accepted than Dr. Ganong's attempt to make the word "behind" mean the same thing as in front of. The ancient deed proves itself; the ancient map is of higher authority than any modern edition of it, where the question to be decided is the site of a fort which existed when the ancient map was made but which had become a ruin before the later map appeared. Fort LaTour was completed about the year 1635. It was captured by Charnisay and destroyed in 1645. Its ruin was so complete that the latter found it necessary to build another fort on a different site to maintain his occupation on the River St. John. When LaTour again obtained possession of his property, after