1st Session.

MAISON ROUGE AND DE BASTROP'S CLAIMS.

APRIL 6, 1830.

Re-printed by order of the House of Representatives.

The select committee, to which was referred the consideration of the report of the Secretary of the Treas lative to the claim of the representatives of the Marquis de son Rouge to a large tract of land, situated in the parishes of Or ichita and Catahoula, in Louisiana, by a resolution of the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States, of December 23d, 1824, report:

That, on the 17th of March, 1795, the Governor of Louisiana entered into a contract with the Marquis de Maison Rouge, of which the following is a copy:

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 Orne, knight of the royal and distinguished order of Charles the 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:

1st. 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 hundred to those having four laborers; and, in the same way, one hundred to those having no more than one useful laborer or artificer, as before described, with his family.

2d. 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.

3d The expenses of transportation of their baggage and implements of labor, 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.

4th. 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.

5th. 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 a grant 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 have signed the pr sent contract with the aforesaid senor Marquis de Maison Rouge, to whom, that it may be made plain, a certified copy shall be furnished.

The BARON DE CARONDELET,

FRANCIS RENDON,

JOSEPH DE ORNE,

The MARQUIS DE MAISON ROUGE.

New Orleans, March 17th, 1795.

On the 14th July, in the same year, this contract was approved by the King of Spain.

To the Intendant of Louisiana.

Having laid before the King what you have made known in your letter of the 25th 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 cultivate 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.

GARDOQUI.

On the 14th June, 1797, Carlos Trudeau, Surveyor General, certifies to have measured thirty superficial leagues for the said Marquis de Maison Rouge, as ordered by the Governor General.

No. 1.
[TRANSLATION.]

Carlos Trudeau, Surveyor General, &c. certifies to have measured, in favor of the Marquis of Maison Rouge, the several tracts of land represented in those parts of the plat shaded with vermillion, which may contain thirty superficial leagues, to wit: The tract No. 1, on the right bank of the Washita river, to be taken five arpents below the mouth of the Bayou de la Cheniere au Toudre, and thence descending to the Bayou Calumet, with a corres

ponding depth, to complete one hundred and forty thousand superficial arpents; the tract marked No. 2, on the left bank of the same river, commencing two leagues below Fort Miro, and at the point called L'àine, and extending one league below the Prairie de Lee, with a corresponding depth, to complete seventy thousand superficial arpents; the tract marked No. 3, to be taken in front of of the Bayou Loutre, and thence on a line, S. 75 degrees east, to the Bayou de Liar, which line to the Bayou de Liar, the Bayou Bartelemy, and the river Washita, are to include the tract No. 3; tract No. 4, on the right bank of Washita river, to be taken in front of the entry of Bayou Bartelemy, thence descending the river to Bayou la Loutre, with such depth, as that the tracts Nos. 3 and 4 shall include the quantity of eight thousand three hundred and forty-four superficial arpents, which, added to the two first tracts, makes a total superfice of two hundred and eight thousand three hundred and forty-four superficial arpents, equal to the above said thirty leagues, at the rate of two thousand five hundred toises for the side of a league, the land measure in this province. Being well understood, that the land which may be included in the above, either by title in form, or first decrees of concession, are not to be counted in computing the preceding thirty leagues; on the contrary, the Marquis de Maison Rouge promises to be of no detriment to the settlers occupying previously any part of the land, but wil! maintain and support them in their rights, in consideration, that, if the said thirty leagues shall suffer any diminution on account of previous occupants, the Marquis de Maison Rouge has the right, and there will be no objection to his supplying the deficiency in any other part where the land is vacant. And, that it may so appear, I give this, by order of the Governor General, Baron de Carondelet. All which I certify.

New Orleans, 14th June, 1797.

CARLOS TRUDEAU, &c.

The foregoing is the substance of the proces verbal, (certificate) of the Surveyor General, subjoined to the plat, (of which that on the other side is a copy) filed in the claim of Louis Bouligny, holding under Maison Rouge. L. CHACHIRE,

Translator to the Board of Commissioners.

Attest, L. POSEY, Clerk of the Board.

Land Office, Opelousas, 15th August, 1812.

I certify that the above, and the preceding page, is a true copy from the report of the Land Commissioners of the Western District of Orleans, dated the 14th December, 1812; and that the plat attached hereto is a copy of the plat attached to the said report. The original papers, copied in pages 67, 68, and 69, of the book entitled Land Laws, are not in this office. JOSIAH MEIGS.

General Land Office, 12th December, 1820.

On the 20th June, 1797, six days after the survey is stated to have been made, the Governor General made the following order:

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 14, 1795, and desirous to remove, for

the future, all doubts 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 boun daries 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. The BARON DE CARONDELET.

ANDRES LOPES ARMESTO.

New Orleans, 20th June, 1797.

On the 5th August, 1803, Don Gilbert Leonard, and Don Manuel Gonzales Armirez, Spanish officers, certified that the condition of the contract had been complied with.

No. 2.

Don Gilbert Leonard, Treasurer of the army, exercising the functions of the Royal accountant, and Don Manuel Gonzales Armirez, exercising those of the 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 Intendancy General, we give the present in New Orleans, the 5th of August, 1803. GILBERT LEONARD, MANUEL ARMIREZ.

Upon this evidence, the Land Commissioners, acting under the act of Congress of the 3d March, 1807, by their report, placed this claim amongst a class of cases recommended for confirmation.

No. 16.

The undersigned commissioners have compared the documents, title filed in this cam, with the translation of them, in pages 67, 68, and.69, of the appendix to the book, entitled "Land Laws, &c." and find the said translation to be correct, so far as it goes. The certificate, or proces verbal, which the Surveyor General has annexed to his plat, not appearing in said book, a translation of that document, together with a copy of the plat, is transmitted for the further elucidation of the claim. No oral or other testimony has been adduced before the Board, to establish the occupancy of any part of these lands, or that there has been a compliance upon the part of the grantee with the conditions stipulated in the contract, except the certificate under date of 5th August, 1803, signed by Gilbert Leonard and Manuel Armirez, to the translation of which, in page 69 of the appendix of said book, the commissioners beg leave to refer.

The undersigned have observed a remark in the 25th page of the introductory part of the book, entitled "Land Laws," that no patent has issued on the claim under consideration. With great deference for that authority, the undersigned commissioners cannot but be of opinion, that the instrument, under date of the 20th June, 1797, is a patent, (or what was usually, in Louisiana, denominated a title in form) transferring to the Marquis de Maison Rouge the title, in as full and ample a manner as lands were usually granted by the Spanish Government, subject, however, to the conditions stipulated in his contract with the Government. The plat of survey above referred to, will be found subjoined to this report.

All claims which did not exceed a league square, were confirmed by act of Congress, of 29th April, 1816, and this being for a greater number of acres than are contained in a league square, was excluded from confirmation by said act, and is now presented for confirmation or rejection by Congress. The confirmation of this claim is resisted by the Government of the United States, upon several grounds, amongst which are the following:

1st. That the documents relied upon to establish the claim of the representatives of the Marquis de Maison Rouge to the thirty superficial leagues claimed, show, that no contract, or grant, has ever been made to the Marquis de Maison Rouge, in his own individual right, and that it was only a contract with him, as agent of the persons he was to bring with him, by which the Spanish Government bound itself to grant to each person, according to the conditions of the contract, a certain number of acres of land, and that de Maison Rouge did not acquire, by said contract, a right to dispose of said land by sale, deed, or last will and testament, or in any other way.

2dly. That the conditions of said contract were never fulfilled by the said Marquis de Maison Rouge.

3dly. That the said land never was surveyed, as certified under the Spanish Government; and, if it were, that it was not done with a view to vest the Marquis de Maison Rouge with any right, individually, but for the sole purpose of designating a certain number of acres of land, upon which the new settlers might establish themselves as they came in; and out of which the promised grants of 400 arpents each, were to be made to each family, containing two white persons, according to the 4th condition in said contract, and that said families not having settled the land as agreed, it remains as public land.