(ACT of February 28th, 1806) of twelve and a half cents for every hundred words contained in such written evidence of their claim: Provided, however, That where lands are claimed by virtue of a complete French or Spanish grant, as aforesaid, it shall not be necessary for the claimant to have any other evidence of his claim recorded, except the original grant or patent, together with the warrant or order of survey, and the plat; but all the other conveyances or deeds shall be deposited with the register or recorder, to be by them laid before the commissioners hereinafter directed to be appointed, when they shall take the claim into consideration. And if such person shall neglect to deliver such notice, in writing, of his claim, together with a plat as aforesaid, or cause to be recorded such written evidence of the same, all his right, so far as the same is derived from the two first sections of this act, shall become void, and forever thereafter be barred; nor shall any incomplete grant, warrant, order of survey, deed of conveyance, or other written evidence, which shall not be recorded as above directed, ever after be considered or admitted as evidence in any court of the United States, against any grant derived from the United States. The said register and recorder shall commence the duties hereby enjoined on them, on or before the first day of September next, and continue to discharge the same, at such place, in their respective districts, as the president of the United States shall direct. [Infra, 16.] SEC. v. [A board of commissioners constituted for each of the districts for the purpose of ascertaining the rights of claimants under French or Spanish grants, or under the two first sections of this act, to meet the first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and six, and not to adjourn for more than three days until they should have completed the business of their appointment.] SEC. vi. [Agents to be appointed to appear for the United States, before the commissioners, &c.] 14. SEC. vn. The powers vested by law in the surveyor of the lands of the United States south of the state of Tennessee, shall extend over all the public lands of the United States, to which the Indian title has been, or shall hereafter be, extinguished, within the said territory of Orleans; and it shall be the duty of the said surveyor, to cause such of the said lands as the president of the United States shall expressly direct, to be surveyed and divided, as nearly as the nature of the country will admit, in the same manner, and under the same regulations, as is provided by law in relation to the lands of the United States northwest of the river Ohio, and above the mouth of Kentucky river. ACT of February 28, 1806. 4 Bioren, 6. An act extending the powers of the surveyor general to the territory of Louisiana; and for other purposes. SEC. 1. The powers vested by law in the surveyor general, shall (ACT of April 21st, 1806.) extend over all the public lands of the United States in the territory of Louisiana, to which the Indian title has been, or hereafter shall be, extinguished. It shall be the duty of the said surveyor general to appoint a sufficient number of skilful surveyors, as his deputies, in the said territory, one of whom he shall, with the approbation of the secretary of the treasury, designate as his principal deputy for the same. Which said deputies shall, severally, take an oath, or affirmation, truly and faithfully to discharge the duties of their respective offices. The said principal deputy shall reside and keep an office in the said territory, and shall, under the superintendence of the surveyor general, execute, or cause to be executed by the other deputies, such surveys as may hereafter be authorised by law, or as he may be directed to execute by the commissioners appointed for the purpose of ascertaining the titles and claims to land within the territory aforesaid; and shall, generally, perform therein, in conformity with the regulations and instructions of the said surveyor general, the duties imposed by law on the said surveyor general. [Parts of this Sec. in italics repealed.] SEC. 11. All the plots of surveys, and all other papers and documents pertaining, or which did pertain, to the office of surveyor general, under the Spanish government, within the limits of the territory aforesaid, or to any other office heretofore established or authorised for the purpose of executing, or recording, surveys of lands within the said limits, shall be delivered to the principal deputy aforesaid; and no plot of survey shall be admit ted as evidence, in any court of justice, unless certified by the said principal deputy to be a true copy of the record in his office. 15. SEC. IV. The surveyor general shall fix the compensation of the deputy surveyors, chain carriers, and axe men, in the territory of Louisiana: Provided, That the whole expense of surveying and marking the lines, whether paid by the United States or by individuals, shall not exceed three dollars per mile, for every mile that shall be actually run, or surveyed and marked. And the principal deputy aforesaid shall be entitled to receive, from individuals, the following fees, that is to say; for examining and recording the surveys executed by any of the deputies, at the rate of twenty-five cents for every mile of the boundary line of such survey, and, for a certified copy of any plot of a survey in his office, twenty-five cents. ACT of April 21, 1806. 4 Bioren, 50. An act supplementary to an act, entitled "An act for ascertaining and adjusting the titles and claims to land within the territory of Orleans, and the district of Louisiana." 16. SEC. I. Every person or persons claiming a tract of land by virtue of the second section of the act to which this is a supplement, and who had commenced an actual settlement on such tract, prior to the first day of October, one thousand eight hun. (ACT of April 21st, 1806.) dred, and had continued actually to inhabit and cultivate the same, during the term of three years, from the time when such actual settlement had commenced, and prior to the twentieth day of December, one thousand eight hundred and three, shall be considered as having made such settlement with the permission of the proper Spanish officer, although it may not be in the power of such person or persons to produce sufficient evidence of such per mission. SEC. II. Every person or persons rightfully claiming a tract of land, not exceeding six hundred and forty acres, by virtue of the act to which this act is a supplement, shall be confirmed in his or their claims, if otherwise embraced by the provisions of the said act, although the person or persons, under whom the claim or claims originated, were not, at the time when the same originated, above the age of twenty-one years: Provided, That the tract of land thus claimed, had been, for the space of ten consecutive years, prior to the twentieth day of December, eighteen hundred and three, in the quiet possession of, and actually inhabited and cultivated by, such person or persons, or for his or their use. SEC. III. [The time limited by SEC. IV. of the act of March 2d, 1805, [Supra, 13.] extended to January 1st, 1807. See Infra, 24.] SEC. IV. The registers of the land offices in the territory of Orleans, respectively, are hereby authorised to appoint so many deputies, not exceeding one for each county, in their respective. districts, as they may think necessary; whose duty it shall be to receive, enter, and file notices, and to receive and record written evidences of claims to lands lying in the county, or counties, to them respectively assigned, in the same manner as the register might do; and also, to transmit to the register the said notices and evidences, or such transcripts of abstracts of the same, as the said register, or the commissioners, may direct; and, generally, to do and perform all such acts, in relation to such claims, as the said register may direct. Persons having claims to land may deliver the notices and evidences of the same, at their option, either to the register of the proper land office, or to his deputy, for the county in which such land lies; and each of the said deputies shall be entitled to receive the recording fees allowed to the register by the act to which this act is a supplement, and in addition thereto, (or a compensation of five hundred dollars in full for all his services,) at the rate of one dollar for every claim filed with him, to be paid out of the moneys appropriated for carrying into effect the act to which this act is a supplement. SEC. V. VI. VII. VIII. [Further duties and powers assigned to the commissioners, and their compensation.] 17. SEC. IX. The surveyor of the public lands south of Tennessee, is hereby directed to appoint a principal deputy for each of the two land districts of the territory of Orleans, whose duty it shall be to reside and keep an office in the said districts, respec (ACT of April 21st, 1806.) tively, to execute, or cause to be executed by the other deputies, such surveys as have been or may be authorised by law, or as the commissioners aforesaid may direct; to file and record all such surveys, to form, as far as practicable, connected draughts of the lands granted in the district, so as to exhibit the lands remaining vacant; and, generally, to perform in such districts, respectively, in conformity with the regulations and instructions of the said surveyor of the public lands south of the state of Tennessee, the duties imposed by law on said surveyor. And each of the said principal deputies shall receive an annual compensation of five hundred dollars, and, in addition thereto, the following fees, that is to say: for examining and recording the surveys executed by any of the deputies, at the rate of twenty-five cents for every mile of the boundary line of such survey; and for a certified copy of any plot of a survey in the office, twenty-five cents. SEC. X. The president of the United States is authorised, whenever he shall think it proper, to appoint a receiver of public moneys for the western district of the territory of Orleans, who shall receive the same annual compensation, give security in the same manner, and in the same sums, and whose duties and authorities shall, in every respect, be the same in relation to the lands which shall hereafter be disposed of at their offices, as are by law provided with respect to the receivers of public moneys in the several offices established for the disposal of the lands of the United States north of the river Ohio, and above the mouth of Kentucky river. And the said receiver, and the register of the land office, for the same district, shall, whenever the public lands within the same shall be offered for sale, be entitled to the same commissions and fees which are by law, respectively, allowed to the same officers north of the river Ohio and above the mouth of Kentucky river. 18. SEC. XI. The president of the United States is hereby authorised, whenever he shall think it proper, to direct so much of the public lands lying in the western district of the territory of Orleans, as shall have been surveyed in conformity with the provisions of the act to which this act is a supplement, to be offered for sale. All such land shall, with the exception of the section "number sixteen," which shall be reserved in each township for the support of schools within the same; with the exception also of an entire township, to be located by the secretary of the treasury, for the use of a seminary of learning, and with the exception also of the salt springs, and lands contiguous thereto, which, by direction of the president of the United States, may be reserved for the future disposal of the said states, shall be offered for sale to the highest bidder, under the direction of the register of the land office, of the receiver of public moneys, and of the principal deputy surveyor, and on such day or days as shall, by a public proclamation of the president of the United States, be designated (ACT of April 21st, 1806.) for that purpose. The sales shall remain open for three weeks, and no longer; the lands shall be sold for a price not less than that which has been, or may be, fixed by law for the public lands in the Mississippi territory; and shall, in every other respect, be sold in tracts of the same size, on the same terms and conditions, as have been, or may be, by law provided for the lands sold in the Mississippi territory. The superintendents of the said public sales shall receive six dollars, each, for each day's attendance on the said sales. All lands, other than the reserved sections, and those excepted as above mentioned, remaining unsold at the closing of the public sales, may be disposed of at private sale, by the register of the land office, in the same manner, under the same regulations, for the same price, and on the same terms and conditions, as are, or may be, provided by law, for the sale of the lands of the United States in the Mississippi territory. And patents shall be obtained for all lands granted or sold in the territory of Orleans, in the same manner, and on the same terms, as is, or may be, provided by law for lands sold in the Mississippi territory. ACT of April 21, 1806. 4 Bioren, 61. An act in addition to an act, entitled "An act regulating the grants of land, and providing for the disposal of the lands of the United States, south of the state of Tennessee." [Supra, 1.] 19. SEC. I. Whenever any person who shall have received a pre-emption certificate from either of the boards of commissioners, appointed for the purpose of ascertaining the rights of persons to lands in the Mississippi territory, shall, by a final judgment or decree of the highest court of law, or equity, in which a decision could be had, within the said territory, rendered in favour of another person claiming by virtue of a British patent, lose the whole or part of the tract of land to which he was entitled by virtue of such certificate, it shall be lawful for the receiver of public moneys for the district where the land lies, to repay to such person or his assigns, so much of the purchase money as had been paid by him, for the land thus recovered by the holder of the British patent. In all cases where only a part of a tract of land, to which any person may be entitled by virtue of a certificate granted by the commissioners aforesaid, is also claimed by the holder of a British patent, a patent may issue in favour of the owners of such certificate, for so much of such tract of land as is not claimed by virtue of such British patent: Provided, That he shall, in every other respect, have complied with the provisions of the acts of congress regulating the grants of land in the Mississippi territory. And the lands contained in British grants, which have been duly recorded in conformity with the provisions of former laws, and for which certificates have not been granted by the commissioners |