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We will, that the said Sieur Crozat, his heirs, or those claiming under him or them the perpetual right, shall forfeit the propriety of the said mines, veins and minerals, if they discontinue the work during three years, and that in such case the said mines, veins, and minerals, shall be fully re-united to our domain, by virtue of this present article, without the formality of any process of law, but only an ordinance of re-union from the sub delegate of the intendant of New France, who shall be in the said country, nor do we mean that the said penalty of forfeiture, in default of working for three years, be reputed a comminatory penalty.

VII. Our edicts, ordinances and customs, and the usages of the mayoralty and shrievalty of Paris, shall be observed for laws and customs in the said country of Louisiana.

Given at Fontainbleau, the fourteenth day of September, in the year of grace, 1712, and of our reign the 70th.

(Signed)

By the king,

LOUIS.

PHELIPEAUX, &c.

Registered at Paris, in the Parliament, the four and twentieth of September, 1712.

[The articles omitted, relate to commercial or temporary regulations. Crozat surrendered his grant to the crown, in 1717; in which year Louisiana was granted to the Western Company, with the same extent as it had been granted to Crozat. The Western Company surrendered their grant to the crown, in 1730-40.

No. 2.

LOUISIANA. Extract from his most Christian Majesty's letter to M. d'Abbadie, Director General and Commandant for his Majesty in Louisiana, ordering him to deliver up that Colony to his Catholic Majesty; printed at New Orleans, in October, 1764.

MONS. D'ABBADIE,

BY a special act done at Fontainbleau, Nov. 3d, 1762, of my own will and mere motion, having ceded to my very dear and best beloved cousin, the king of Spain, and to his successors in full property, purely and simply, and without any exceptions, the whole country known by the name of Louisiana, together with New Orleans, and the island in which the said city is situated; and by another act done at the Escurial, Nov. 13, in the same year, his Catholic majesty having accepted the cession of the said country of Louisiana, and the city and island of New Orleans, agreeable to the copies of the said acts, which you will find hereunto annexed; I write you this letter to inform you, that my intention is, that on receipt of these presents, whether they come to your hands,

by the officers of his Catholic majesty, or directly by such French vessels as may be charged with the same, you are to deliver up to the governor, or officer appointed for that purpose, by the king of Spain, the said country and colony of Louisiana, and the posts thereon depending, likewise the city and island of New Orleans, in such state and condition as they shall be found to be in on the day of the said cession, willing that in all time to come they shall belong to his Catholic majesty, to be governed and administered by his governors and officers, and as possessed by him in full property without any exceptions.

At the same time. I hope. for the prosperity and peace of the inhabitants of the colony of Louisiana, and promise myself, from the friendship and affection of his Catholic majesty, that he will be pleased to give orders to his governor and all other officers employed in his service in the said colony, and in the city of New Orleans, that the ecclesiastics and religious houses which have the care of the parishes, and of the missions, may continue to exercise their functions, and enjoy the rights, privileges and immunities, granted by their several charters of establishment; that the ordinary judges do continue, together with the superior council, to administer justice according to the laws, forms and usages of the colonies; that the inhabitants be preserved and maintained in their possessions; that they be confirmed in the possession of their estates, according to the grants which have been made by the governors and directors of the colony, and that all the grants be holden and taken as confirmed by his Catholic majesty, even though not as yet confirmed by me.

Hoping above all, that his Catholic majesty will be pleased to bestow on his new colony of Louisiana the same marks of protection and good will, which they enjoyed while under my dominion, and of which the misfortunes of war alone have prevented their experiencing greater effects, I command you to cause my present letter to be recorded in the superior council of New Orleans, to the end that the several estates of the colony may be informed of its contents and may have recourse thereto when necessary. And the present being for no other purposes, I pray God, Mons. d'Abbadie to have you in his holy keeping.

(Signed)

Given at Versailles, April 21, 1764.

No. 3.

LOUIS.

LOUISIANA Extract from the Treaty of Peace of 3d September, 1783, between Spain and Great Britain. ARTICLE V. His Britannic majesty likewise cedes and guarantees in full right to his Catholic majesty, East Florida, as also West

Florida. His Catholic majesty agrees that the British inhabitants, or others who may have been subjects of the king of Great Britain in the said countries, may retire in full security and liberty, where they shall think proper, and may sell their estates and remove their effects, as well as their persons, without being restrained in their emigration, under any pretence whatsoever, except on account of debts, or criminal prosecutions; the term limited for this emigration being fixed to the space of eighteen months, to be computed from the day of the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty but if, from the value of the possessions of the English proprietors, they should not be able to dispose of them within the said term, then his Catholic majesty shall grant them a prolongation proportionate to that end. It is further stipulated that his Britannic majesty shall have the power of removing from East Florida all the effects which may belong to him, whether artillery or other matters.

No. 4.

LOUISIANA. Extract of a letter dated 10th February, 1804, from Mr. Cevallos, Secretary of State to his Catholic Majesty, to Mr. Pinckney Minister of the United States at Madrid.

SIR,

HAVING taken information upon what you were pleased to say to me in your note of the 10th ultimo, I have to offer to your notice, that the king's minister, in the United States, has been informed, that his majesty has given no order whatever for opposing the delivery of Louisiana to the French; and that the report current in the United States or elsewhere, of the existence of such an order, is wholly without foundation; since there is no connexion whatever between the pretended opposition, and that representation made by his majesty's minister to the government of the United States, on the defect which impaired the sale of Louisiana made by France, in which he manifested the just motives of the Spanish government for protesting against an alienation which France had promised never to make.

At the same time that his majesty's minister, in the United States, is charged to inform the American government of the falsity of the above rumor, he is ordered to make known to it, that his majesty has thought proper to renounce his protest against the alienation of Louisiana by France, notwithstanding the solid motives on which that protest was founded; affording in this way,

a new proof of his benevolence and friendship for the United States.

El Pardo, 10th February, 1804.

PEDRO CEVALLOS.

[For the several treaties of 1763, 1783 and 1803, respecting the cession of East Louisiana and Florida to Great Britain, and the cessions of the territory north of the 31st degree of north latitude, and afterwards of Louisiana to the United States, see before pages 12, 1, and 5.]

No. 5.

OHIO COMPANY.-Letter of Cutler and Sargent, to the Board of Treasury, dated “New-York July 26, 1787.”

WE observe by the act of the 23d inst. that your honorable board is authorized to enter into a contract for the sale of a tract of land therein described, on certain conditions expressed in the act. As we suppose this measure has been adopted in consequence of proposals made by us in behalf of ourselves and associates, to a committee of Congress, we beg leave to inform you that we are ready to enter into a contract for the purchase of the lands describ. ed in the act, provided you can conceive yourselves authorized to admit of the following conditions which in some degree vary from the report of the committee, viz.

The subordinate surveys shall be compleated as mentioned in the act, unless the frequency of Indian irruptions may render the same impracticable without an heavy expense to the company.

The mode of payment we propose, is half a million of dollars, when the contract is executed; another half a million, when the tract, as described, is surveyed by the proper officer of the United States; and the remainder in six equal payments, computed from the date of the second payment.

The lands assigned for the establishment of a university, to be nearly as possible in the centre of the first million and half of acres we shall pay for; for to fix it in the centre of the proposed purchase, might too long defer the establishment.

When the second payment is made, the purchasers shall receive a deed for as great a quantity of land as a million of dollars will pay for, at the price agreed on; after which we will agree not to receive any further deeds for any of the lands purchased, only at such periods, and on such conditions as may be agreed on betwixt the board and the purchasers.

As to the security, which the act says shall be good and sufficient, we are unable to determine what those terms may, in the

contemplation of Congress, or of your honorable board; we shall therefore only observe, that our private fortunes, and that of most of our associates being embarked in the support of the purchase, it is not possible for us to offer any adequate security, but that of the land itself, as is usual in great land purchases.

We will agree so to regulate the contract that we shall never be entitled to a right of entry or occupancy, but on lands actually paid for, nor receive any deeds till our payments amount to a million of dollars, and then only in proportion to such payment. The advance we shall always be under, without any formal deed, together with the improvements made on the lands, will, we presume, be ample security, even if it was not the interest as well as the disposition of the company to lay the foundation of their establishment on a sacred regard to the rights of property.

If these terms are admitted we shall be ready to conclude the

contract.

No. 6.

OHIO COMPANY.-Boundaries of the three contiguous Tracts of Land, extracted from the patents.

First Tract. Beginning at a station or point, where the western boundary line of the seventh range of townships, laid out by the authority of the United States in Congress assembled, intersects the river Ohio; thence, extending along that river southwesterly to a place where the western boundary line of the fifteenth range of townships, when laid out agreeably to the land ordinance, passed the twentieth day of May, one thousand seven hundred and eighty five, would touch the said river; thence, running northerly on the said western boundary of the said fifteenth range of townships, till a line drawn due east to the western boundary line of the said seventh range of townships, will comprehend with the other lines of this tract herein specified and described, seven hundred and fifty thousand acres of land, besides the several lots and parcels of land, in a certain contract, executed on the twenty-seventh day of October, one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven, between the then board of treasury, for the United States of America, of the one part, and Manasseh Cutler and Winthrop Sargent, as agents for the directors of the Ohio Company of associates, of the other part reserved or appropriated to particular purposes; thence, running east to the western boundary line of the said seventh range of townships, and thence along the said line to the place of beginning; which said tract contains, as computed, nine hundred and

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