informed his majesty of it; and when the royal resolution on the subject arrives, I shall not hesitate to make good (verificar) the allotment of land which you have proposed, and to provide the proper titles, according to your conditions and promises.

You may communicate to the king what may seem good to you upon these points, which are, however, in my opinion, of too little importance to require a change of any determination which his majesty has taken or may take.

To Don M. G. de Lemos.

J. V. MORALES.

NEW ORLEANS, February 18, 1799. Sir: Agreeably to my promise, made on the 14th inst., I send you certified copies of the 81st article of the ordinance for intendants of New Spain, which is of force in this province, and of the instruction referred to in said article. I hope you will inform me of their receipt, and that you will accede to my request, for the documents relating to this business, conveyed in the same letter.

To Don M. G. de Lemos.

J. V. MORALES.

NEW ORLEANS, March 2, 1799.

Sir: In my letter of the 14th ult., I asked you whether you would afford or not, the military assistance required for the publication of his majesty' decision of October 22, 1798, respecting the jurisdiction under which the distribution of all classes of lands in this province are to remain. I also desired a certified copy of the royal order of August 24, 1774, as well as the delivery of the registers of grants, and the documents in virtue of which they were made. A longer delay in furnishing these, would be very injurious to the interests of the royal hacienda, as there are a number of persons requesting grants; and it is my earnest desire that those interests should suffer no loss.

To Don J. V. Morales.

J. V. MORALES.

NEW ORLEANS, March 5, 1779.

Sir: The quantity and the urgency of the business on my hands, which has just been much increased by the arrival of the mail, and the attention which I am obliged to pay to affairs of pressing importance, have delayed, and must still delay, the preparation and delivery of the documents requested by you on the 14th ult., in order that you might enter upon the duties of distributing lands, according to the royal order of October 22, 1798. Hovever, while this labour is going on at my office, I send you a certified copy of the royal order of August 24, 1770, (No. 2,) and not 1774, as, by mistake, it has been printed in the royal order of October 18th,

1798. I also send the form of the first decree, which it has been the custom to issue before the survey was made. Of the registers, which will soon be sent, you will see the form in those used by all my predecessors. In addition, I send for your information a copy of the instructions given by me, under date of January 1st, 1798, to the commanders of posts in this province, with regard to the admission of new settlers, I must, however, observe, that I have been in the habit of making some alteration in favour of those who were deserving. I have sent orders to the Monitor, the principal newspaper in this province, to publish his majesty's resolution, of which, however, as of the orders sent to the commanders, I do not think, the publication in form of edict, necessary. I have thus complied with the requests contained in your letter of the 14th ult.

M. G. DE LEMOS. Certificate.-New Orleans, March 9, 1799. The above are true copies from the originals.-Cayetano Valdes.

Order.-New Orleans, March 12, 1799. Inasmuch as the governor general has not thought proper to afford his assistance in publishing, by edict, the royal order aforesaid, and it having been officially communicated to the posts out of this capitol, let it also be made known in this city, by notices posted in the streets, evidence of the same being taken, for transmission to his majesty.-MoralesSerrano-Ximenes.

Attestation.-New Orleans, March 12, 1799. Don J. V. Morales, chief comptroller of the army and the royal hacienda, and intendant ad interim of this province of Louisiana for his majesty, gave the above order, and declared that he did so with the assent of the attorney general of this intendency.-Carlos Ximenes.

In compliance with the above order, I caused six bills to be posted in the streets of this city, making known the resolution of his majesty.-Ximenes.

Certificate.-New Orleans, March 28, 1799. The above documents are conformable with the original remaining in this office under my charge.-Ximenes.

[No. 13.]

AT NEW ORLEANS, on the 1st July, 1799. General Regulations and Instructions issued by the Intendant ad interim, Morales, with respect to the granting of lands in Louisiana and West Florida.

[Of this long paper a translation, inartificial but correct, may be found in the fifth volume of the executive documents of 1828-9, document No. 121, page 208.]

[No. 14.]

From Don J. V. Morales to Don Miguel Cayetano Soler.

NEW ORLEANS, July 25, 1799.

Most Excellent Sir: The late Don M. G. De Lemos, governor of this province, availing himself of the excuse of not having received the royal order of October 25, 1798, by which his majesty commanded the restoration to this intendency of the right to distribute lands of every class, endeavoured to delay the execution of the same; but, at length, being required by me officially, as you will see by the annexed document, (No. 12, surrendered the power which had been assigned by the royal order of August 24th, 1770, to the political and military government, and it remains annexed to the intendency, as that document shows; he, however, refused to afford the military assistance towards the publication of the sovereign will, with the proper pomp and solemnity. Infinite were the abuses in the mode of distributing the lands, and for that reason, in order to terminate them, and proceed on the business not only conformably with the laws, but also with regard to the circumstances of the country, after consulting with the attorney of the intendency, and other persons acquainted with the business, I drew up the regulation which I now send to your excellency, with a request that you will submit it to his majesty for his approbation or other expression of his royal will. The price of printing three hundred copies, as agreed on with the only printer in this place, was 150 dollars, which I have ordered to be paid out of the royal funds, under the persuasion that his majesty will approve an expenditure so necessary for the instruction of all the inhabitants of these provinces, in the manner of preferring their petitions, and in the conditions on which they may be granted; without these, great labour would have been necessary to retrieve things from the confusion produced by a long course of arbitrary proceedings.

This branch of the revenue of these provinces, will not, indeed, produce as much as it would have yielded, but for two opposing

circumstances: The first was the cession of the country down to the 31st degree of latitude, to the Americans, made by the last treaty, (October 27, 1795.) Thus were surrendered the greatest portion of the vacant lands, which might have been sold at a fair price. The second, was the prodigality of the governor, and parti cularly of Don M. G. de Lemos, in allotting large quantities of land to persons who could not even cultivate them, and who solicited them only under the hope of gaining something by their sale. To annul these grants would be productive of great difficulties, and this must be considered an evil without a remedy, unless the vast comprehension of your excellency can suggest some plan, and determine the king to adopt it. May God render prosperous the important life of your excellency.

J. V. MORALES.

[No. 14.]

Document containing the official papers relative to lands destined for the families who have quitted Galvezton, in order to settle at Baton Rouge.

From Don Carlos de Grand-pré to Don J. V. Morales.

BATON ROUGE, March 4, 1806.

Sir: I send you enclosed, the plan of the ground about this fortress, of which I have caused the part beyond the range of the guns, to be divided into small lots, of four arpents each, for the establishment of the late inhabitants of Galvezton, and others, by whom they are now occupied. For other particulars, I refer you to my letter of the 29th December, 1805; merely observing, that it is necessary to resume a portion of said ground, which had been, by error, enclosed by Don Guillermo Dumbard, the deputy surveyor, in the grant of the late Don M. G. de Lemos; it may, however, be supplied from other vacant land in the vicinity, and thus the ground of the fort will be an exact oblong. By this means, that useful establishment may be much extended.

CARLOS DE GRAND-PRE.

Letter from the same to the same, referred to above.

BATON ROUGE, December 29, 1805. Sir: Ever since the cession of this province to France, and its acquisition by the American government, the Spanish families living at Galvezton, have been solicitous to obtain lands in this part of the king's dominions, not being content to live under new laws and a foreign government. They were consequently allowed to choose from the vacant royal lands in this district, such as might accommodate them until the opening of the land offices, so long

suspended, from motives which have just given way to the superior determination of the captain general the Marquis de Somervelos. But these families, (the same brought from the Canaries to this colony, on account of the royal hacienda,) having found none to suit them, I projected the establishment of a town for them, in the neighbourhood of this fort, and on land belonging to it. From this most useful establishment great advantage has been derived, for the better defence of this place, by means of the ready and efficient assistance of the militia, formed by these inhabitants, and by the clearing of the ground in the neighbourhood, which was covered with thick woods, up to the very line of the range of our guns. An advantage was also received by the inhabitants, from their proximity to the fort and the river, by which means, they could sell or buy as they wished; disposing of their own productions, and obtaining articles necessary for their use. Having communicated my arrangements on this point, to the commandant of this province, on the 1st of February last, he replied under date of 13th of May, that he approved them in all respects.

With respect to the said land which extends about 20 arpents deep (?) from the fort, I have arranged its subdivision into lots of four arpens each, for a family, at the distance of 130 toises from the batteries; there are now 34 of these lots; and you will see by inspecting the plan, the error committed by the surveyor who laid off the ground granted to the late Don M. G. de Lemos, and who supposed that the fort had but four arpents in front: whereas it had eight; and by restoring to the fort that portion which had been improperly included in the plan of the grant to Gayoso de Lemos, and for which indemnification can be made from the vacant land in the vicinity on the north, a farther addition may be made to this important establishment. You will inform the surveyor, Vincent Pintado, of all this.

As I considered this town to be on the lands of the fort, I did not hesitate to give each person possession. I issued no titles; but should you not object, I will now do so, as Don M. Gayoso de Lemos did at Natchez; which has become a place of considerable size. I withheld these titles, indeed, in order to submit them to your consideration, as they do not properly belong to the office of the commander, and the persons interested are unable to go to any expense on account of them.

CARLOS DE GRAND-PRE.

Order.-To Juan Morales and Ventura Quiroga. Pensacola, July 28, 1806. Let the above letter be added to the despatch accompanying the plan of the ground, and the whole be submitted to the attorney of the royal hacienda. Morales-Heredia.

We submitted the above to the attorney of the royal hacienda on the same day. Morales-Quiroga.