by the commandant of that post. Under which conditions, I oblige myself, with my person and estate, to the fulfilment of the present contract, subjecting myself in all things to the jurisdiction of this general intendency. In testimony of which I sign it at New Orleans, the 16th of June, BARON DE BASTROP. 1797. [ *549 ] * New Orleans, date as above. I approve this contract in the name of his majesty, with the intervention of Senor Gilbert Leonard, principal contador of the army in these provinces, for its validity. Two certified copies are to be directed to the secretary, Juan Ventura Morales. With my intervention, Gilbert Leonard. Copy of the original, which remains in my keeping, and which I certify, and is taken out to be passed to the secretary of this general intendency. New Orleans, ut supra. GILBERT LEONARD. Whereas the intendant, from the want of funds, has solicited the suspension of the last remittance of families, until the decision of his majesty, there ought to be no prejudice occasioned to you, by the last paragraph of my decree, which expresses, that if within three years the major part of the establishment shall not have been made good, such families as may first present themselves shall be located within the twelve leagues destined for the settlement which you have commenced; and this shall only have effect two years after the course of the contract shall have again commenced to be executed, and the determination of his majesty shall have been made known to you. You will always remain persuaded, that on my part, I will observe religiously the engagements I have contracted; a principle which has constantly distinguished the Spanish nation. God preserve you many years. New Orleans, June 18, 1797. To Baron de Bastrop. THE BARON DE CARONDELET. No. 20. 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 superintendent 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 principally for the culture of wheat, and the erection of mills for manufacturing 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 [ *550 ] hundred to those having four labourers; and, in the same way, one hundred to those having no more than one useful labourer or artificer, as before described, with his family. 2. At the same time we promise, under the auspices of our sovereign monarch, to assist them forward from New Madrid to Washita, with a skilful guide, and the provisions necessary for them, till their arrival at their place of destination. 3. The expenses of transportation of their baggage and implements of labour, which shall come by sea to this capital, shall be paid on account of the royal domains; and they shall be taken on the same account from this place to the Washita, provided that the weight shall not exceed three thousand pounds for each family. 4. There shall be granted to every family containing two white persons fit for agriculture, ten arpents of land, extending back forty arpents, and increasing, in the same proportion, to those which shall contain a greater number of white cultivators. 5. Lastly, it shall be permitted to the families to bring or to cause to come with them, European servants, who shall bind themselves to their service for six or more years, under the express condition, that if they have families, they shall have a right, after their term of service is expired, to receive grants of land, proportioned in the same manner to their numbers. Thus we promise, as we have here stated; and that it may come to the knowledge of those families which propose to transport themselves hither, we sign the present contract, with the aforesaid senor Marquis de Maison-rouge, to whom that it may be made plain, a certified copy shall be furnished. New Orleans, the seventeenth of March, 1795. THE BARON DE CARONDELET, JOSEPH DE ORUE, THE MARQUIS DE MAISON-ROUGE. Having laid before the king what you have made known in your letter of the 25th of April last, No. 44, relative to the contract entered into with the Marquis of Maison-rouge, for the establishment on the Washita, of the thirty families of farmers, destined to cultiVOL. II. 52 vate wheat, for the supply of these provinces, his majesty, considering the advantages which it promises, compared with the preceding, has been pleased to approve it in all its parts. By his royal direction, I communicate it to you for your information. God preserve you many years. Madrid, 14th July, 1795. To the Intendant of Louisiana. New Orleans, Nov. 13th, 1795. GARDOQUI. To be transmitted to the principal office of accounts (contaduria) of the army and royal domains, for their information, and two certified copies to be provided for this secretary's office. RENDON. [ *551] * Don Gilbert Leonard, treasurer of the army, exercising the functions of royal accountant, and Don Manuel Gonzales Armirez, exercising those of treasurer, par interim, of the royal chests of this province of Louisiana. We certify, that the two foregoing copies are conformable to the originals, which remain in the archives of the ministry of the royal domains under our charge, and that the contractor, the Marquis de Maison-rouge, complied punctually with the terms which he proposed in the said contract; and that this may be made manifest, conformably to the order above inserted, of this intendency general, we give the present in New Orleans, the 5th of August, 1803. GILBERT LEONARD. The baron de Carondelet, knight of the order of St. John, marshal de camp of the royal armies, governor general, vice patron of the provinces of Louisiana and West Florida, inspector of troops, &c. Forasmuch as the Marquis de Maison-rouge is near completing the establishment of the Washita, which he was authorized to make for thirty families, by the royal order of July 14th, 1795; and desirous to remove, for the future, all doubt respecting other families or new colonists who may come to establish themselves, we destine and appropriate conclusively for the establishment of the aforesaid Marquis de Maison-rouge, by virtue of the powers granted to us by the king, the thirty superficial leagues, marked in the plan annexed to the head of this instrument, with the limits and boundaries designated, with our approbation, by the surveyor general, Don Charles Laveau Trudeau, under the terms and conditions stipulated and contracted for by the said Marquis de Maison-rouge; and that it may at all times stand good, we give the present, signed with our hand, sealed with our seal at arms, and countersigned by the underwritten honorary commissary of war and secretary of his majesty for this commandancy general. New Orleans, the twentieth of June, 1797. THE BARON DE CARONDELET. 1 [Note. That in conformity with his contract, the Marquis de Maison-rouge is not to admit or establish any American in the lands included in his grant.-Note of the editor of the Land Laws, &c.] THE BARON DE CARONDELET. No. 21. Papers respecting the Houma's claim on New Orleans island. To the governor general. I, Maurice Conway, an inhabitant of this vicinity, with due respect, do represent to your excellency: That being about to settle myself up the country, on the lands which Alexander Latil and I purchased, with your approbation, of the Houma Indians, and which are totally destitute of fences, * and is cleared for upwards of one league in depth, in [ *552 ] such a manner that the cypress trees may be about one league and a half from the river, without my having any right to them, your excellency having granted to us only the depth of forty arpents, with which shortness of depth I cannot have access to the cypress trees, so necessary for the construction of my fences and other utilities of a plantation: therefore, I humbly pray your excellency to take the circumstances into consideration, and to grant me all the depth which may be vacant behind or at the end of the aforesaid forty arpents of depth, whereof I am at present the sole owner, by virtue of a deed of conveyance passed before Andrew Almonester, notary public, on the 4th day of January last, of the moiety belonging to Mr. Latil, aforesaid. I also pray your excellency to appoint Louis Andry to put me in possession of the aforesaid front and depth, by fixing the needful boundaries and furnishing me with due copies of the whole transaction for my use and guide. And in duty bound I shall ever pray, New Orleans, September 27th, 1776. MAURICE CONWAY. New Orleans, September 27th, 1776. Louis Andry, second adyudant of this place, is hereby directed to go to the land alluded in the within memorial, and to give the petitioner possession of that which may be vacant after the forty arpents in depth, of which he is in possession, following the same directions provided it be vacant, and that no injury is thereby done to any of the adjoining inhabitants: to which effect he shall establish his boundaries and limits; and of the whole proceedings he shall make a process verbal, of which he will make a return to us, signed by himself and the parties, in order to issue the complete title in due form to the claimant. ONZAGA. Louis Andry, captain of infantry and second adjutant, major of the city of New Orleans, duly commissioned and authorized by his excellency the governor general of this province of Louisiana, for the purposes mentioned in the above petition and decree; do certify that I have transferred myself, on the 1st day of October, 1776, to the land referred to in the above documents, which land is situated in the district of the parish of the Ascension or La Fourche, on the left bank of the Mississippi, about twenty-two leagues above the said capital; being accompanied by the petitioner, Maurice Conway, and the commandant of the said district. Louis Judice, whom I requested, (as being well versed in the language of the Houma Indians,) to send for their chief, named Calabe, seller of the land in question, in order that he might point out to me the boundaries which are to limit the same on both upper and lower sides; which being done, and the said chief present, he answered to me, through the assistance of the interpreter aforesaid, that the land sold by *553] him, and formerly occupied by the Indians, extended from the lower line of Francis Duhon, on the upper side, to that of Michael Chiasson, on the lower, (although these names do not correspond now with those which appear in the instrument of sale, because, since that time, the said adjoining lands have passed through the hands of several owners;) and which intermediary land I then measured, drawing to this effect through the woods the necessary lines to ascertain its length, (which lines are described in the figurative plat of my operations, which I delivered to the party,) and found that it contains ninety-six arpents in front on the river, opening one hundred and twenty degrees towards its rear, owing to its situation in the bottom of the bend; the upper line, adjoining lands of Francis Duhon, being directed north fifty degrees west; and the lower, adjoining those of Michael Chiasson, running north seventy degrees east. The measurements of the said front being concluded, I proceeded to put the petitioner in possession of the depth which, by the aforesaid decree, has been granted to him. To this end, having transferred myself to the upper line, which joins Francis Duhon aforesaid, I examined in his presence the stakes which had been planted by me on the 22d December, 1773, which stakes still exist in the same situation, distance, and direction, both of mulberry tree; the first measuring five feet, &c. planted at thirty-seven toises and two feet from the present margin of the river; and the second of 6 feet, &c. planted at one arpent, or 30 toises, further back towards the rear. Afterwards I proceeded on the same line and on the same course, viz. north fifty degrees west, until the forty arpents in depth, opening for that purpose a road through the woods, at which point I caused to be planted a stake of cypress of six feet in length, &c. And at two arpents further still, that is to say, at forty-two arpents from the river, I planted another stake similar in all to the last above described. This line being concluded, I went to the lower one, adjoining |