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unappropriated territory thereof, for the protection and support of the frontiers of this state, and for other purposes, was taken up and read a second time.

The Senate then proceeded to the third reading of the bill; and, On question, shall the bill pass under the title above? The yeas and nays being required, are as follows:

Mr. King, Mr. Wright, Mr. Oneal, Mr. Wyllie, Mr. Walton, Mr. Hampton, Mr. Cawthorn, Mr. Gresham, Mr. Thomas, Mr. Mann.-Yeas 10.

Mr. Milledge, Mr. Lanier, Mr. Morrison, Mr. Irwin, Mr. Blackburn, Mr. Pope, Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Wood.-Nays 8.

So it passed in the affirmative.

I certify that the foregoing is truly taken from the journal of

the Senate.

(Signed)

Louisville, January 20th, 1803.

WILLIAM ROBERTSON.

Secretary of Senate.

No. 15.

SPANISH REGULATIONS FOR THE ALLOTMENT OF LANDS,

Instructions of Governor Gayoso, for the administration of the Posts and distribution of Lands.

INSTRUCTIONS to be observed by the commandants of the posts in this province, for the admission of new settlers:

1. If the new settler comes from another post in the province, where he has obtained a grant of land, no other grant shall be made to him; and if he undertakes to fix himself down, he must buy lands, or produce my special permission for the grant; and in order to determine whether he has before obtained land or not, the commandant of the post from which he goes, shall express it in his passport.

2. If the new settler is a stranger, and is not a farmer, nor married, nor has property in negroes, merchandize or money, he shall have no right to solicit a grant of lands, until he has remained four years, conducting himself well, in some honest and useful occupation.

3. Artisans shall be fully protected, but no land shall be granted to them, until they have acquired property, and have lived three years in the exercise of their art or profession.

4. To no unmarried emigrant who has not a trade or profession, shall lands be granted, till after the expiration of four years; and then only on his shewing that he has been without interruption, honestly employed in the cultivation of the earth, without which, necessary circumstance, he shall not be entitled to a grant.

5. If any person, as described in the last article, after having lived in the country two years, shall obtain a recommendation from a farmer of honesty, who shall be willing, from his industry and application, to give him his daughter in marriage, as soon as the marriage is accomplished in due form, he shall be entitled to receive a grant of land, agreeably to the terms contained in this instruction.

6. The privilege of enjoying liberty of conscience, is not to extend beyond the first generation. The children of those who enjoy it, must positively be Catholics. Those who will not conform to this rule, are not to be admitted; but are to be sent back out of the province immediately, even though they possess much property.

7. In the Illinois, none ahall be admitted but Catholics of the classes of farmers and artizans. They must also possess some property, and must not have served in any public character, in the country from whence they come. The provisions of the preceding article, shall be explained to the emigrants already established in the province, who are not Catholics, and shall be observed by them; the not having done it until this time, being an omission, and contrary to the orders of his majesty, which required it from the beginning.

8. The commandants will take particular care, that no Protestant preacher, or one of any sect, other than the Catholic, shall introduce himself into the province: The least neglect in this respect, will be a subject of great reprehension.

9. To every new settler, answering the foregoing description and married, there shall be granted two hundred arpens of land; fifty arpens shall be added for every child he shall bring with him.

10. To every emigrant possessing property, and uniting the circumstances before mentioned, who shall arrive with an intention to establish himself, there shall be granted two hundred arpens of land; and in addition, twenty arpens for every negro that he shall bring; provided however, that the grant shall never exceed eight hundred arpens to, one proprietor. If he has such a number of negroes, as would entitle him at the above rate to a larger grant, he will also possess the means of purchasing more than that quantity of land, if he wants it; and it is necessary, by all possible means to prevent speculations in lands.

11. No lands shall be granted to traders, as they live in the towns, they do not want them.

12. Immediately on the arrival of a new settler, the oath of fidelity shall be required of him. If he is married, he shall prove that the wife whom he brings with him, is his lawful wife. If he has goods or personal property, they shall both declare what part of them belongs to the portion of the wife, and whether any part belongs to any person who is absent; giving them to understand, that if the contrary of what they assert is proved, the lands which

are granted to them shall be taken back, with all the improvements they may have made upon it.

13. At the time when they take the oath, the above particulars are to be attended to; and no lands are to be granted for any negroes which are not proved to be lawfully and wholly the property of the emigrant; nor for the wife whom he brings with him, unless she is proved to be his lawful wife. In default of making such proofs, he is to be taken as coming within the description given in the 2d article.

14. The new settler to whom lands have been granted, shall lose them without recovery, if in the term of one year, he shall not begin to establish himself upon them, or if in the third year he shall not have put under labour ten arpens in every hundred.

15. He shall not possess the right to sell his lands, until he shall have produced three crops, on the tenth part of his lands which shall be well cultivated; but in case of death, he may leave them to his lawful heir, if he has a resident in the country. If he has no heir in the country, they shall in no event go to an heir who is not of the country, unless such heir shall resolve to come and reside in it, conformably to the established conditions.

16. Debts contracted out of the province, cannot be paid with the produce of lands thus granted, if there are debts due in the province, until after five harvests shall have been gathered. If for bad conduct, it shall become necessary to eject the settler from the country, before he shall have made the three crops necessary to give him the dominion of the soil, and the right to dispose of it, the lands shall then again become united to the domain of the king and in the same state shall be granted alternately to the young man and to the young woman residing within one league of the land which shall thus become vacant, who by their good conduct shall best deserve such a gift. The question, who is entitled to this preference, shall be decided in an assembly of the most considerable people, headed by the commandant; which decision they shall make without any expense. They shall only consult me in the case, making known the circumstances for my approbation, and shall without delay put the deserving person in possession.

17. The forms established by my predecessors, in which to petition for lands, shall be followed under the conditions expressed in this order, with the difference only, that when the quantity of land amounts to or exceeds three hundred arpens, the fees to the secretary must be paid.

18. It shall not be permitted to any new settler to form an establishment at a distance from other settlers. The grants of lands must be so made, as not to leave pieces of vacant ground between one and another; since this would offer a greater exposure to the attacks of the Indians, and renders more difficult the administration

of justice, and the regulation of the police, so necessary in all so cieties, and more particularly in new settlements.

(Signed)

MANUEL GAYOSO DE LEMOS.

New Orleans, 9th Sept. 1797.

Refusal of the Intendant to sell Land, and especially 100,000 Arpens asked by H. Peyroux.

I have to reply to your communication No. 9, that I cannot at this time consent to the sale of lands, in the manner and under the circumstances requested; and I have to make the same reply to that of 6th February last, No. 8, in which you ask for one hundred thousand arpens. God preserve you, &c.

New Orleans, 3d April, 1800.

(Signed) RAMON DE LOPEZ Y ANGULA.

TO DON HENRY PEYROUX,

Commandant at New Madrid.

A further refusal, because the proposals appear specul tions hurtful to Poor People, &c.

It was never the intention of the king, to dispose of the lands in such large quantities, and under such circumstances, as are stated in your letter of the 9th of February last, No. 9, and the petition of the inhabitants accompanying it.

It is true, that in the new regulation, there is provision made for the sale of lands, in the manner referred to; but it is only under the previous formalities there specified, and with a reference to the ability and forces of the person desirous of purchasing, because it would not be just, that for a small consideration, one or more speculators should make themselyes masters of a great extent of lands, to the prejudice of others coming to settle, and who would ` consequently find themselves driven to purchase those lands which they might otherwise have obtained, free of expense.

For these reasons, I cannot at present accede to the beforementioned proposal, which you will make known to the parties concerned. God preserve you, &c.

New Orleans, 3d April, 1800.

(Signed)

RAMON DE LOPEZ Y ANGULA.

TO DON HENRY PEYROUX.

Communication of the decease of the Assessor of Intendancy, and no receiving Petitions for Land till another is appointed.

On account of the death of the assessor of this intendancy, and there not being in the province a learned man, who can supply his place, I have closed the tribunal of affairs and causes relating to grants and compositions of royal lands, as the 81st article of the royal ordinance, for the intendants of New Spain, provides that for conducting that tribunal, and substantiating its acts, the concurrence of that officer shall be necessary.

I make this communication, to apprize you of this providence, and that you may not receive or transmit memorials for the grant of lands, until further orders. God preserve you, &c.

New Orleans, 1st December, 1802.

(Signed)

JUAN VENTURA MORALES.*

TO DON HENRY PEYROUX.

* The general regulations and instructions of Morales, for conceding public -lands, could not be obtained for insertion in this collection.

No. 16.

Papers respecting Grand Maison's Claim on Washita. WE, Francis Lewis Hector, Baron de Carondelet, knight of Malta, brigadier general of the royal armies of his Catholic majesty, military and civil governor of the provinces of Louisiana and West Florida; Don Francis Rendon, intendant of the army, and deputy superintendant of the royal domains in the said provinces; Don Joseph de Orue, knight of the royal and distinguished order of Charles third, principal accountant for the royal chests of this army, exercising the functions of fiscal of the royal domains-declare, that we agree and contract with the Senor Marquis de Maison Rouge, an emigrant French knight, who has arrived in this capital from the United States, to propose to us to bring into these provinces, thirty families, who are also emigrants, and who are to descend the Ohio, for the purpose of forming an establishment with them on the lands bordering upon the Washita, designed prineipally for the culture of wheat, and the erection of mills for ma nufacturing flour, under the following conditions:

1. We offer in the name of his Catholic majesty, whom God preserve, to pay out of the royal treasury, two hundred dollars to every family composed of two white persons, fit for agriculture or for the arts useful and necessary to this establishment, as house or ship carpenters, blacksmiths and locksmiths; and four hundred to those having four laborers; and in the same way, one hundred to those

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