being in the colony with the title of director-general. On D cember 14, 1720, the ships l'Elephant and le Dromedaire arrive at Ship Island bringing 250 people for this concession, includir the officers MM. Dillon, Fabre, Duplessis, Leviller, La Suze and La Combe. This grant was about nine miles from the mouth of the Yazoo, and was protected by Fort St. Peter (St. Claude), and small garrison of soldiers.

M. de la Harpe, who visited this concession early in 1722, wro as follows of it: "About thirty arpents of this concession is cu tivated, but the rest of the soil is so thin and sandy, that it c never be cultivated, besides the situation is unhealthy. The cou of the Yasous from its mouth is northwest, and then it turns a runs north-northeast a half league to the stone bluffs, upon wh is situated the establishment of M. le Blanc. The cabins of Yasous, Courois, Ossogoula, and Ouspie are dispersed over country upon mounds of earth made with their own hands, which it is inferred that these nations are very ancient, and v formerly very numerous, although at the present time they ha number two hundred and fifty persons.' The settlement was stroyed, and the inhabitants butchered by the Indians, Dece 12, 1729, a short time after the massacre at Natchez. (See W Company: Charlevoix; Fort Rosalie; Fort St. Claude.)

Land Grants, Spanish. "Lands were obtained with little culty or expense. The immigrant made his selection of any cupied parcel, and presented a written request for an order o vey. If no obstacle intervened, the governor issued the and on the return of the plat and the payment of very mo fees for surveying, the grant issued. Many settled under the of survey merely, if the survey could not be immediately The earliest Spanish order of survey in the Natchez dist: dated April 20, 1784, and the latest, September 1, 1795." borne, p. 140).

The grants of land by the Spanish government in the N district began to be made in considerable abundance in 178 continued until the district was surrendered to the United Among the grants were the following, Celeste Hutchins, acres near White Cliffs, 1788; Cato West, 1,500 on Cole's 1789; Daniel Burnet, 2,000 on Bayou Pierre, 1790 and 179. ner Green, 665 on West Bayou Pierre, 600 on the Mississip on St. Catherine, 1789; Maria Green, his wife, 500 on Secund Creek, 1788; Gerard Brandon, 800 on west Bayou Sara, 1790; Gabriel Benoist, 1,600 on Fairchild's creek, 1788, 1,000 on Cole's creek, 1793; Benajah Osmun, 600 on Bayou Sara, 1795; An. ɔny Hutchins, 1366 on the Mississippi, 1789-90, 2,146 on west Cole's, 1790, 242 on Cole's 1795; Narsworthy Hunter, 1,000 on Cole's creek, 1795; Adam Bingaman, 3,898 on Bayou Sara and St. Catherine, 1788-89; William Dunbar, 4,950, mainly on Bayou Sara waters, 1787-95; Ann and William Dunbar, jr., 2,000 on Feliciana creek, 1793; Stephen Minor, 500 on Mississippi, 1786, 1,015 on Second creek, 1787, 13 in Natchez, 1795, 1,000 on Second creek, 1792,

180 on Big Black, 1795, 875 on Mississippi, 1795; Manuel Gayoso Te Lemos, 242 near Natchez, 1794.

All the Spanish land titles were recognized by the United States. after occupation of the territory, so far as the claimants were in the actual possession and use of the land on the day of the treaty f San Lorenzo, by which Spain relinquished her claim to the egion. (See British Land Claims.)

The titles derived from the Spanish government were of two rades; orders of survey, and complete patents, the former being re incipient or incomplete form of the latter. To procure a grant I land, the applicant addressed a requéte, (request or petition) the Spanish governor, in New Orleans, and hence, from the corption of the word, the term ricket, by which one class of the ims were known to the early settlers. If the petition was ted, an order of survey was issued by the governor to the eyor-General Don Carlos Trudeau, to cause the land prayed to be surveyed and put into possession of the petitioner. This was performed by the deputy-surveyor of the district, and -survey being approved and returned, accompanied by a plat, governor thereupon granted his patent; the usual fees being in all the stages of the process by the grantee." (Wailes, ort of 1854.)

any occupants of land contented themselves with the warrant Trvey, without going to the expense of obtaining a patent, and ov. Claiborne reported in 1802, "this species of title is esteemed as very strong, in an equitable point of view; and I am well med they were viewed as legal under the Spanish govern, and, by custom, the proprietor was authorized to sell after years' occupancy."

Aliam Vousdan was at one time the surveyor for the district atchez, and was succeeded by William Dunbar. he grants of the Spanish government appear to have been med to persons actually residing on the lands; but they were indiscriminately on every unoccupied tract, whether the had been previously granted by the British government or nor did they discontinue making concessions, even after Spain by the treaty of October, 1795, recognized the right of the d States to the whole territory north of the 31st degree of latitude. Until the evacuation, which was delayed for nearly two years, had taken place, grants were issued, sometimes bearing their real date, and sometimes, as is alleged, antedated." Incomplete grants were more common in Spanish than in English ti 3, "it having been customary until the American settlers at Natchez requested patents, to consider a Spanish order of survey, when executed and returned, as a sufficient title; whilst, on the other hand, few settlers are obliged to claim under incomplete British titles, as they generally applied, in lieu of them, for Spanish grants, and now claim under them." (Report of Madison commission, 1803.)

Strangely, the treaty of 1795 made no provision to protect those

who had been given title to land by the Spanish in the region relinquished by that treaty. In 1798 the Spanish colonial authorities declared the treaty would not be carried out until some arrangement was made on the subject between the two governments; but nothing was done, and the remonstrance seemed a mere pretext to cover other reasons for delay.

Antedated grants were also a subject of much discussion. The principal claims thus under suspicion, were to William Vousdan, Robert Moore, Thomas Burling, James Moore, Sarah Scott, William Moore, James White (2,200 acres), Margaret Thompson, Jacintha Gallagher (who became Jacintha Vidal), and were mostly on Bayou Sara and Bayou Pierre. The list included a grant to William Dunbar for a lot in Natchez. In December, 1801, Gov. Claiborne wrote to the secretary of state:

"Subsequent to the ratification of the treaty with the United States and Spain, and shortly before this district was evacuated by the Spaniards, the Spanish governor and his agents granted to some of their favorites much valuable land, and in order that the grants, upon inspection, might appear legal, they were made to bear date previous to the treaty. This kind of conduct is known to have been practiced, and indeed some persons who have been benefited by the fraud are stated to me to have avowed it. In some instances the fraudulent grants were made for lands which had been previously bona fide granted, and in a case of this kind, where suit has been brought, the holder of the fraudulent grant (which was eldest in date) obtained a recovery. In the inferior court, where the case was first inquired into, parole testimony was admitted to invalidate the antedated grant, and the defendant obtained a verdict; but, upon appeal to the superior court, the parole testimony was declared inadmissable, and, of course, the plaintiff suceeded." The legislature proposed to enact a law authorizing the admission of the excluded testimony, but the governor advised against this for the present, but could see no way according to the rules of law to remedy the wrong. The question was cleared up by the ruling of Levi Lincoln, attorney-general of the United States, May 11, 1802, that "nothing can be clearer than that all grants made by the Spanish government after the ratification of the treaty by which the land was ceded to the United States, are void," and further that "the only question is, when was the patent granted, not when it was executed, or what is its date?" Finally, after much litigation it was established as a principle of law that the Spanish government had no rightful authority to grant lands in the Natchez district after Great Britain, in 1783, had acknowledged the limits of the United States to include the district. But the congress had full power to recognize such of the grants as it deemed advisable.

Land Laws, Spanish. The instructions regarding new settlers, issued by Gov. Gayoso at New Orleans, Sept. 9, 1797, were that unmarried immigrants, those not farmers, must reside four years before they would be granted lands. There must be an under

standing that the children of settlers must become Catholics, if they were not, and no Protestant preacher would be admitted under any circumstances. "To every new settler, answering the foregoing description and married, there shall be granted 200 arpents of land; 50 arpents shall be granted for every child he shall bring with him." It was further provided that where a settler brought negroes he should be allowed 20 arpents for each negro, but never to exceed 800 arpents in all to any one proprietor. "It is necessary, by all possible means, to prevent speculation in lands." "No lands shall be granted to traders, as they live in the towns, they do not need them." "Immediately on the arrival of a new settler, the oath of fidelity shall be required of him." If married he must submit proofs of the same, show what is his property and what his wife's, and make this representation correctly, or forfeit his property. "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 labor ten arpents in every hundred." There was no right to sell until three crops had been raised on one-tenth of the land.

Land Offices. The first enactment of the United States congress regarding the lands of Mississippi territory, bears date March 3, 1803. The territorial government was established in 1798, but the authority of the United States to provide for the rights of the inhabitants in the lands they held and regulate the sale of vacant lands, was not clear until after the agreement with Georgia in

1802.

This act provided, "That, for the disposal of the lands of the United States within the Mississippi Territory, two Land Offices shall be established in the same: one at such place in the county of Adams, as shall be designated by the President of the United States, for the lands lying West of 'Pearl River,' sometimes called 'Half-way River'; and one at such place in the county of Washington, as shall be designated by the President of the United States, for the lands lying East of Pearl River; and for each of the said offices a Register and Receiver of Public Moneys shall be appointed," etc., the same regulations being made as in the Northwest territory.

Until more land than the old districts of Natchez and Mobile, north of latitude 31°, should be acquired from the Indians, it was the duty of the register in each district to act with two persons to be appointed by the president, as a commission to adjust the claims. arising from grants and other acts of the former governments of the country.

On July 9, 1803, Edward Turner, of Mississippi, was appointed register of the land office for the lands lying west of Pearl river. He was reappointed Nov. 18, 1804. On March 3, 1805, Thomas Hill Williams, of Mississippi territory, was appointed register for the county of Adams, west of Pearl river, and the latter was succeeded by Nehemiah Tilton, of Delaware, by appointment Jan.

10, 1811. East of Pearl river Joseph Chambers was the first regisThe commissioners appointed were Thomas Rodney, of Delaware, and Robert Williams, of North Carolina, for the western district, to have their office at Washington; and Ephraim Kirby, of Connecticut, and Robert Carter Nicholas, of Kentucky, for the eastern district. to have their office at St. Stephens.

The board for the district west of Pearl river "convened at the town of Washington on December 1, 1803, and continued open. for the reception of claims until July 3, 1807, when it was adjourned sine die, after having received for record 2,090 claims. Some of these claims were subsequently contested in the high courts of the United States." There were no public lands to be disposed of ab initio, except such as might be found unclaimed in. the Natchez district. Settlers upon the land, who were in possession March 3, 1803, were to have the preference in becoming purchasers at the price then fixed by law for public lands, and these constituted the main class of pre-emptors.

April 21, 1806, it was enacted that persons entitled to a right of pre-emption by virtue of certificate from the commissioners, should be allowed until Jan. 1, 1807, to make the first payment, when, if they failed so to do, their right became void. As for those without title who were actual settlers in 1798, they were donated 640 acres to each male settler of full age. Finally, by act of Jan. 10, 1808, every person the head of a family or of full age, who on March 3, 1807, actually inhabited and cultivated a tract of land not claimed under a land commissioners' certificate, and had obtained permission to reside on the lands under the act of March, 1807, should have the right of preference in becoming a purchaser of not to exceed 640 acres, and be allowed until Jan. 1, 1809, to make the first payment.

but

Sept. 19, 1808, the Mississippi house of representatives, F. L. Claiborne, speaker, adopted a memorial to congress, asking further indulgence in making the first payment. It was represented that the planters "have been cut off from every hope of payment by an act of that government to which they were indebted. It has been deemed expedient to suspend, by embargo, our mercantile operations, and thereby our produce lies, unsold and unsaleable in our barns. The policy of this measure is nowhere admired more than by the people of this territory we deplore the severe and destructive effects which will inevitably accompany the operations of the law, if the payments due to the United States are rigidly exacted." The committee on public lands reported adversely to the petition, saving the pre-emptors already had had a longer time for making their first payment than other purchasers, and had enjoyed the selection of the best lands without competition. In March. 1808, the first Choctaw purchase was ordered opened to sale, and thereafter the land office had to deal with the original sale of land outside of the historic ground of Natchez district. and sales were made under the general land laws of the United States.