The cabildo held its first session on the first of December, under the presidency of O'Reilly. The regidors' offices had been purchased by Don Francisco Maria Reggio, Don Pedro Francisco Olivier de Vezue, Don Carlos Juan Bautista Fleurian, Don Antonio Bienvenu, Don Jose Ducros, and Don Dyonisio Braud. Don Juan Bautista Garic, who had held the office of clerk of the superior council, had acquired the same office in the Cabildo.

Reggio was alferez real; De Vezin, principal provincial alcade; Fleurian, alguazil mayor; Ducros, depositary general; aud Bienvenue, receiver of fines.

Don Louis de Unzaga, colonel of the regiment of Havana, one of those who had come with O'Reilly, had the king's commission as governor of the province, but was not authorised to enter upon the duties of that office, until the departure of O'Reilly, or the declaration of his will. Immediately after the installation of the cabildo, he made this declaration, and yielded the chair of that tribunal to Unzaga.

O'Reilly never came to the cabildo afterwards. Unzaga exercised the functions of governor; but the former, as captain-general, continued to make regulations.

He caused a set of instructions, which Don Jose de Uristia and Don Felix de Rey had prepared by his order, to be published. They related to the institution of, and proceedings in, civil and criminal actions, according to the laws of Castille and the Indies, and for the government of judges, officers and parties, till by the introduction of the Spanish language in the province, they might have the means of acquiring a better knowledge of those laws. To them was an

nexed a compendious abridgment of the criminal laws, and a few directions in regard to last wills and

testaments.

From this period, it is believed the laws of Spain became the sole guide of the tribunals in their decisions. As these laws, and those of France, proceed from the same origin, the Roman code, and there is a great similarity in their dispositions in regard to matrimonial rights, testaments and successions, the transition was not perceived before it became complete, and very little inconvenience resulted from it.

The provincial officers of Louisiana were, besides the captain-general, a governor, vested with civil and military powers; an intendant, charged with the administration of the revenue and admiralty matters, the same person acting often in the double capacity of governor and intendant; an auditor of war and assessor of government, whose duty it was to furnish legal advice to the governor, the first in military, the second in civil affairs; an assessor of the intendancy, who rendered a like service to the intendant. Professional characters being very few in Louisiana, the same individual often acted as auditor of war and assessor of the government and intendancy, and he also assisted the cabildo, principal, provincial, and ordinary alcades; a secretary of the government and one of the intendant; a treasurer and a contador or comptroller; a store keeper and a purveyor; a surveyor general; a harbour master; an interpreter of the French and English languages, and an Indian interpreter; three notaries public; a collector and comptroller of the customs; a cashier; guarda major, searcher, and notary to the custom house.

Every officer who received a salary of more than

three hundred dollars a year, was appointed by the crown; others were so, by the governor or intendants in their respective departments.

The governor exercised judicial powers in civil and criminal matters throughout the province, as did the intendant in fiscal and admiralty, and the vicargeneral in ecclesiastical. These officers were sole judges in their respective courts. The two former were assisted by an auditor or assessor, whose opinion they might, on their own responsibility, disregard. In every parish, an officer of the army or militia, of no higher grade than a captain, was stationed as civil and military commandant. His duty was to attend to the police of the parish and preserve its peace. He was instructed to examine the passports of all travellers, and suffer no one to settle, within his jurisdiction, without the license of the governor. He had jurisdiction of all civil cases in which the value of the object in dispute did not exceed twenty dollars. In more important cases, he received the petition and answer, took down the testimony, and transmitted the whole to the governor, by whom the record was sent to the proper tribunal. He had the power to punish slaves, and arrest and imprison free persons charged with offences, and was bound to transmit immediate information of the arrest, with a transcript of the evidence, to the governor, by whose order the accused was either discharged or sent to the city. They acted also as notaries public, and made inventories and sales of the estates of the deceased, and attended to the execution of judgments rendered in the city against defendants who resided in the parish.

When the commandant was taken from the army, he continued to receive the pay and emoluments of his rank. When he was not, and bad not any pen

sion from the king, an annual sum of one hundred dollars was paid to him from the treasury, for stationary and other small expenses. All were entitled to fees in the exercise of judicial and notarial functions.

The Spanish language was ordered to be employed by all public officers in their minutes; but the use of the French was tolerated in the judicial and notarial acts of commandants,

Towards the middle of December, O'Reilly left the city to visit the settlements of the German and Acadian coasts, Iberville and Pointe Coupee.

On the first of January, the cabildo made choice of Lachaise, a grand-son of the former commissarygeneral and ordonnateur, and St. Denis, as ordinary alcades for the year 1770.

Don Cecilio Odoardo arrived with a commission of auditor of war and assessor of the government; and Don Joseph de Uristia and Don Felix de Rey sailed for Havana.

Meetings of the most notable planters were convened, on the arrival of O'Reilly, in each parish, on his way up the river. Altho' his conduct at NewOrleans was ill calculated to attach the people to the sovereign whom he represented, he was every where received with dumb submission: but they did not appear very anxious to improve the opportunity, which his visit was intended to offer, or make him any communication or remonstrance.

A number of French soldiers enlisted in the Spanish service Many were discharged and received grants of land. Those who did not choose to remain under the authority of the Catholic king, were offered the alternative of a passage to France or Hispaniola..

Aubry sailed with those who preferred returning home. The artillery was put on board of a vessel which carried those who were destined for St. Domingo. She was never after heard of.

Bobe Descloseaux, who had acted, during a short time, as commissary-general and ordonnateur, on the death of Larouvilliere in 1759, remained in NewOrleans, by order of the French, and with the con- . sent of the Spanish king, to attend to the redemption of the paper securities, emitted by the former colonial administration; a very considerable quantity of which was still in circulation.

Peter Chester, on the death of governor Elliot of West Florida, succeeded him in the latter part of January.

On his return, O'Reilly published, on the 8th of February, a number of regulations, in regard to the grant of vacant land.

To every family, coming to settle in the province, a tract was to be granted of six or eight arpents in front, on the Mississippi, with a depth of forty; on condition that the grantee should, within three years, construct a levee and finish a highway of forty feet, at least, in width, with parallel ditches towards the levee, and on the opposite side, with bridges at regular distances, and enclose and clear the whole front of the grant to the depth of two arpents at least.

The arable land, on the points formed by the river, having but little depth, it was provided that grants might be made there of twelve arpents in front, or the land was granted to the owners of the adjacent tracts, in order to secure an uninterrupted continuation of the levee and highway.

In order to secure an early compliance with the conditions of the grants, the grantee was declared inVOL. II. 3