(ACT of March 3d, 1817.)

boundary lines fixed by the treaty with the Creek Indians, and for other purposes," passed on the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and fifteen; and the four townships so designated and set apart, shall be reserved from public and private sale, any thing in the aforesaid act to the contrary notwithstanding. SEC. 11. The secretary of the treasury is hereby authorized to contract for the sale of the said four townships, which shall have been designated and set apart, as aforesaid, at the rate of two dollars per acre, to be made payable fourteen years after the contract shall have been concluded with any agent or agents, of the late emigrants from France, who have associated together for the purpose of forming a settlement in the United States: Provided, That, satisfactory evidence shall be produced that such agent, or agents are duly authorized to form such contract, and that the number of such emigrants, being of full age, for which he or they are authorized to act, are equal at least to the number of half sections contained in the four townships proposed to be disposed of.

SEC. III. The said secretary shall have power to make such allotment of the lands among the individuals, and to stipulate, in the proposed contract, for such conditions of settlement and cultivation of the vine, and other vegetable productions, as may to him appear reasonable; and that on the fulfilment of such conditions shall the issuing of grants, for the lands, be made to depend: Provided, That no patent shall be granted for any of the lands aforesaid, nor shall any title be obtained therefor, either at law or in equity, until complete payment shall have been made for the whole four townships, and until they comply with the conditions of the contract, so to be made as aforesaid; nor shall a patent be granted for a greater quantity than six hundred and forty acres to any one person.

ACT of March 3, 1817. Pamphlet edit. 246.

57. SEC. I. A surveyor of the lands of the United States in the Mississippi territory, lying north of an east and west line, to be drawn from the river Mississippi, through fort Williams, to the western boundary line of the state of Georgia, shall be appointed, whose duty it shall be to engage a sufficient number of skilful surveyors as his deputies, and to cause the lands above mentioned, which have not already been surveyed, and to which the indian title has been extinguished, to be surveyed and divided in the manner provided by law for the surveying of the other public lands of the United States in the Mississippi territory, to do and perform all such acts in relation to the said lands, to transmit plats of survey in the manner, and to fix the compensation of the deputy surveyor, chain-carriers, and axe-men, under the same restrictions and limitations of expense in surveying, as is by law directed and provided for the regulation of the powers and duties of the surveyor of the lands south of the state of Tennessee, in

(ACT of March 3d, 1817.)

relation to the other public lands in the Mississippi territory. And the said surveyor, appointed in pursuance of this act, shall be entitled to receive, for his services, one thousand five hun red dollars, as an annual compensation.

SEC. 11. All the lands of the United States in the Mississippi territory, to which the Indian title has been extinguished, lying north of the aforesaid east and west line, and which have not heretofore been offered for sale, shall be attached to, and made a part of, the land district of Madison, in the said territory.

SEC. In. All the lands, by this act attached to the district of Madison, after having been surveyed according to law, shall, with the exception of the section No. 16, in each township, which shall be reserved for the support of schools therein, and with the further exception of such sections, not exceeding ten in number as the president shall designate, for the purpose of laying out and establishing towns thereon, be offered for sale to the highest bidder, under the direction of the register of the land office, and the receiver of public moneys, at the place where the land-office is kept, and on such day, or days, as shall, by proclamation of the president of the United States, be designated for that purpose; the sales shall remain open two weeks and no longer. The lands shall not be sold for less than two dollars an acre, and shall in every other respect be sold in tracts of the same size, and on the same terms and conditions, as have been, or may be, provided for lands sold in the same district. All the lands offered for sale, and remaining unsold at the close of the said public sales, may be disposed of at private sale by the register of the land office, in the same manner, for the same price, and on the same terms and conditions, as are, or may be, provided for the sale of other lands in the same district, and patents shall be granted in the same manner, and on the same terms, as for other lands in the said district.

SEC. IV. The register and receiver of public moneys shall each receive five dollars, for each day's attendance in directing the public sales, directed by this act.

SEC. v. The president of the United States is authorized to cause the sections, reserved as aforesaid, for establishing towns thereon, to be laid off into lots, under the direction of the surveyor appointed as aforesaid; and when the survey of the lots shall be completed, plats thereof shall be transmitted to the commissioner of the general land-office, and the register of the land-office, and the lots shall be offered, to the highest bidder, at public sale, on such day or days as the president shall, by his proclamation, designate for that purpose, and shall be sold on the same terms and conditions, in every respect (except as to the quantity of land) as have or may be provided for the sale of the other public lands in the said district: Provided, That no lot shall be sold for a less price than at the rate of six dollars per acre; nor shal

(ACT of March 3d, 1817.)

there be reserved for the purpose aforesaid, more than one settion in any one township.

ACT of March 3, 1817. Pamphlet edit. 262:

58. SEC. I. The chiefs and warriors of the Creek nation, who by virtue of the first article of the treaty of the ninth of August, one thousand eight hundred and fourteen, between the United States, and that nation of Indians, are entitled to a reservation of land which shall include their improvements, shall be authorized to locate their improvements in the following manner, viz:

Every such chief or warrior shall and may select such four quarter sections, or such number of quarter sections and fractional parts of sections, not exceeding six hundred and forty acres of land, as have been or may be surveyed in pursuance of the act of congress, passed the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and fifteen, and as shall include their respective improvements. And in case such chief or warrior shall have resided at one place, and cultivated a farm or plantation at another place, he may, at his option, select such quarter sections and fractional parts of sections, as shall include his said separate improvements: Provided, however, That the lands so selected shall enure to such chief or warrior so long only as he shall continue to occupy and cultivate the same; and in case he shall not have abandoned the possession, shall, on his decease, descend to and vest in his heirs in fee simple, reserving to the widow of such chief or warrior, the use and occupation of one third part of said lands during her natural life.

SEC. II. When any chief or warrior so entitled to a reservation of land, at the time of the signing of the treaty, shall have since died and left a widow and child or children, who has or have continued to occupy and cultivate the said land, they shall have the right of selection in the same manner as the original claimant would have if he were living; and the title of the lands so selected shall be a fee simple title in the child or children reserving to the widow, if any, the use and occupation of one third of the land during her life; Provided, however, That the said child or children shall not have the power to alienate the said lands, except by devise, until each and every one of them shall have arrived at the age of twenty-five years.

SEC. II. The descendants of any native Creek Indian, male or female, who at the commencement of the late war with the hostile Creeks, occupied and cultivated a farm or plantation; who continued friendly to the United States during that war; and who, after the termination of hostilities, returned to, and has continued to occupy and cultivate, the said farm or plantation, shall be entitled to a reservation of two quarter sections of land, to be selected in the manner stated in the first section of this act; which lands

(ACT of February 17th, 1818.)

shall enure to them so long as they shall continue to occupy and cultivate the same; and, on their death, shall descend, in fee, to their children; and on failure of children, shall revert to the United States; reserving, however, to the husband or widow, as the case may be, the right to occupy and cultivate one-third part of the lands during their natural lives.

SEC. IV. The child or children of any chief or warrior of the Creek nation, who resided within the limits of the said ceded country, at the commencement of the late Creek war, and who was killed or died in the service of the United States, during said war, or who has since died of wounds received therein, shall be entitled, without payment, to a reservation of so much land as such chief or warrior would have been entitled to, had he been living at the time said treaty was signed; which land shall be located in the manner prescribed by the first section of this act.

SEC. V. For the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of this act, the agent of the United States for the Creek nation shall immediately proceed to take such evidence as each and every person, who may be entitled to lands under the provisions of it, shall be able to adduce in support of such title. The evidence shall, as far as practicable, be taken by the agent on the land occupied by such claimant; and in all cases where he shall be of opinion that the claim is a valid one, the quarter sections, including the improvements, shall be designated as provided for in the first section of this act; and the agent shall, without delay, return to the secretary of the treasury the evidence taken in each case, (reserving a copy thereof) together with the names of the claimants, and the numbers of the quarter sections reserved for them respectively. And the secretary of the treasury, with the approbation of the president, shall finally decide on the validity of such claim.

SEC. VI. The agent shall transmit, without delay, to the register of the land office for the district in which the lands may be, a statement of the names of the claimants, and the numbers of the quarter sections which have been reserved for each claimant; and the register of the land office shall not offer any such quarter section for sale, unless specially directed otherwise by the secretary of the treasury.

ACT of February 17, 1818. Pamphlet edit. 25. An act making provision for the establishment of additional land offices in the territory of Missouri.

SEC. 1. For the disposal of the lands of the United States, west of the Mississippi river, and in the territory of Missouri, in addition to the land office now established by law, there shall be established within the said territory the following offices, to wit: One at the seat of justice, in the county of Howard, for all the lands lying

(ACT of February 17th, 1818.)

within the following boundaries; beginning at a point where the western line of range ten west from the fifth principal meridian intersects the north line of township thirty-four, thence west with said township line to where the same intersects the Osage boundary line; thence north with the Osage boundary line to the Missouri river; thence up and with the Missouri river to the eastern Indian boundary line at the mouth of Kansas river; thence north with the said western Indian boundary line to where the same shall intersect the northern Indian boundary line; thence east with the said northern Indian boundary to where the same shall intersect the aforesaid west line of range ten; thence south with the said range line to the place of beginning. And a land office shall be established in the county of Arkansas, at such place as the president shall deem most convenient for all the lands in the district bounded as follows; beginning on the river Mississippi, at the thirty-third degree of north latitude; thence up and with the Mississippi river to the mouth of St. Francis river, where the base line intersects the same; thence west with the said base line to where the same shall intersect the meridian on which the Osage boundary line is run; thence due south to the thirty-third parallel of latitude; thence east with the said parallel to the place of beginning.—And a land office shall be established at the seat of justice in the county of Lawrence, for all the lands in the district bounded as follows: beginning on the base line, at the mouth of St. Francis; thence up and with the Mississippi river to the intersection of the same by the north line of township fifteen north; thence west with the said north line of township fifteen, to where the same shall intersect the Osage boundary line; thence due south to the aforesaid base line; thence east with the said base line to the place of beginning. And a land office shall be established at the town of Jackson, in the county of Cape Girardeau, for all the lands in the district bounded as follows: beginning on the Mississippi river, where the north line of township fifteen north intersects the same; thence up and with the Mississippi to its intersection by the north line of township thirty four north; thence west with the said north line of township thirty-four to the Osage boundary line; thence south with the said boundary to the north line of township fifteen; thence east with the said township line to the place of beginning. And all the lands within the following boundaries shall form a district for the land office established by law at St. Louis, in the county of St. Louis, viz: beginning on the Mississippi river where the north line of township thirty-four north intersects the same, thence up and with the Mississippi river to the mouth of Desmoin river; thence up and with the Desmoin to the north Indian boundary line; thence west with the said boundary to the west line of range ten west; thence south with the said range line to the north line of township thirtyfour north; thence east with the said township line to the place of beginning.