The Public Lands. already issued to the amount of 65,932 acres, located in the military district. 3. Entries in Washington county, amounting to 746,362 acres; for 214,5413 of which, grants have already issued. Of the remaining 531,8214 acres, a considerable proportion were declared void by the laws of the State, and were particularly excluded from the cover of the reservation in the deed of cession by this clause in it, to wit: "Provided, That nothing herein contained shall extend, or be construed to extend, to the making good any entry or entries, or any grant or grants, heretofore declared void by any act or acts of the General Assembly of this State." Still it is to be considered that many of these persons have settled and improved the lands, are willing, as is said, to comply with such conditions as shall be required of other purchasers, form a strong barrier on the new frontier acquired by the treaty of Holston, and are, therefore, objects meriting the consideration of the Legislature. 4. Entries in Sullivan county, amounting to 240,624 acres; for 173,332 acres of which grants have already issued. Of the remaining entries, many are certified void, and others understood to be lapsed, or otherwise voidable under the laws of the State. 5. Certain pre-emption rights, granted to the first settlers of Davidson county, on Cumberland river, amounting to 309,760 acres. paid for; but, perhaps, these need not be taken into account, as payment of them has been disputed, on the ground that the lands being within the Indian territory, cannot now be delivered to the holders of the warrants. On a review of all the reservations, after making such conjectural allowance as our information authorizes, for the proportion of them, which may be within the Indian boundaries, it appears probable they cover all the ceded lands susceptible of culture and cleared of the Indian title, that is to say, all the habitable parts of the two triangles before mentioned, excepting only the lands south of French Broad and Big Pigeon rivers. These were part of the tract appropriated by the laws of the State to the use of the Indians, whose title being purchased at the late treaty of Holston, they are now free to be disposed of by the United States, and are probably the only lands open to their disposal within this Southwestern Territory which can excite the attention of purchasers. They are supposed to amount to about 300,000 acres, and we are told that three hundred families have already set down upon them without right or license. The territory of the United States Northwest of the Ohio is bounded on the south by that river, on the east by Pennsylvania, on the north and west by the lines which divide the United States from the dominions of Great Britain and Spain. 6. A grant of 200,000 acres to Richard Hender- The part of this territory occupied by Indians son and others, on Powel's and Clinch's rivers, is north and west of the following lines, establishextending up Powel's river in a breadth of noted with the Wyandots, Delawares, Chippewas, less than four miles, and down Clinch's from their and Ottawas, by the treaty of Fort McIntosh, and junction in a breadth not less than twelve miles. with the Shawanese, by that of the Great Miami, to A great part of this is within the Indian territory. wit: beginning at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, and Among the grants of the State now under re-running up the river to the portage between that capitulation, as forming exceptions out of the ab- and the Tuscaroras branch of the Muskingum; solute rights of the United States, are not to be then down the said branch to the forks at the crossreckoned here two grants of 2,000 each to Alex-ing place above Fort Lawrence; then westwardly, ander Martin and David Wilson, adjacent to the lands allotted to the officers and soldiers; nor a grant of 25,000 acres on Duck river to the late Major General Greene; because they are wholly within the Indian territory, as acknowledged by the treaties of Hopewell and Holston. The extent of the third reservation in favor of entries made in Armstrong's office is not yet entirely known, nor can be until the 20th of December, 1792, the last day given for perfecting them. The sum of certificates, however, which had been paid for these warrants into the Treasury of the State, before the 20th day of May, 1790, reaches, in all probability, near to their whole amount. This was £373,649 6s. 5d. currency of that State, and, at the price of £10 the hundred acres, established by law, shows that warrants had issued for 3,736,493 acres. For 1,762,660 acres of these, grants have passed, which appear to have been located partly in the counties of Greene and Hawkins, and partly in the country from thence to the Mississippi, as divided into Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts. Almost the whole of these locations are within the Indian territory. Besides the warrants paid for as before mentioned, it is known that there are some others outstanding and not towards the portage of the Big Miami, to the main branch of that river; then down the Miami to the fork of that river next below the Old Fort which was taken by the French in 1752; thence due west to the river De la Panse, and down that river to the Wabash. So far, the lines are precisely defined, and the whole country southward of these lines and eastward of the Wabash cleared of the claims of those Indians, as it is also of those of the Pottawatomies and Sacs by the treaty of Muskingum. How far on the other side of the Wabash the southern boundary of the Indians has been defined we know not. It is only understood, in general. that their title to the lower country, between that river and the Illinois, has been formerly extinguished by the French while in their possession. As to that country, then, and what lies still beyond the Illinois, it would seem expedient that nothing be done until a fair ascertainment of boundary can take place by mutual consent between us and the Indians interested. The country within the Wabash, the Indian line before described, the Pennsylvania line, and the Ohio, contains, on a loose estimate, about 55,000 square miles, or 35,000,000 of acres. During the British government, great numbers The Public Lands. III. The claims of individual citizens, derived from the United States themselves, are the following: 1. Those of the Continental Army, founded on the resolutions of Congress of September 16, 1776, August 12, and September 30, 1780, and fixed by the ordinance of May 20, 1785. The resolution of October 22, 1787, and the supplementary ordi of persons had formed themselves in companies, under different names, such as the Ohio, the Wabash, the Illinois, the Mississippi, or Vandalia Companies, and had covered with their applications a great part of this territory. Some of them had obtained orders, on certain conditions, which, having never been fulfilled, their titles were never completed by grants; others were only in a state of negotiation when the British authority was dis-nance of July 9, 1788, in the seven ranges of continued. Some of these claims being already under a special reference, by order of Congress, and all of them probably falling under the operation of the same principles, they will not be noticed in the present Report. The claims of citizens to be here stated will be I. Those reserved to the States by their deeds of cession. II. Those which have arisen under the Government of the United States themselves. Under the first head presents itself the tract of country from the completion of the 41st degree to 42 degrees 2 minutes of north latitude, and extending from the Pennsylvania line before mentioned one hundred and twenty miles westward, not mentioned in the deed of Connecticut, while all the country westward thereof was mentioned to be ceded. About two and a half millions of acres of this may, perhaps, be without the Indian lines before mentioned. 1. A reservation in the deed of Virginia of the possessions and titles of the French and Canadian inhabitants, and other settlers of the Kaskaskias, St. Vincennes, and the neighboring villages, who had professed themselves citizens of Virginia, which rights have been settled by an act of the last session of Congress, entitled "An act for granting lands to the inhabitants and settlers at Vincennes and the Illinois country, in the Territory Northwest of the Ohio, and for confirming them in their possessions." These lands are in the neighborhood of the several villages. townships, beginning at a point on the Ohio, due north from the western termination of a line then lately run, as the southern boundary of Pennsylvania; or, in a second tract of 1,000,000 of acres, bounded east by the seventh range of the said townships, south by the lands of Cutler and Sargent, north by an extension of the northern boundary of the said townships, and going towards the west so far as to include the above quantity; or, lastly, in a third tract of country, beginning at the mouth of the Ohio, and running up the river Mississippi to the river Au Vause; thence up the same till it meets a west line from the mouth of the Little Wabash; thence along that line to the Great Wabash; thence down the same and the Ohio to the beginning. The sum total of the said military claims is 1,851,800 acres. 2. Those of the individuals who made purchases of land at New York, within the said seven ranges of townships, according to the resolutions of Congress of April 21, 1787, and the supplementary ordinance of July 9, 1788; which claims amount to 150,896 acres. 3. The purchase of one million and a half acres of land by Cutler and Sargent, on behalf of certain individuals associated under the name of the Ohio Company. This begins where the Ohio is intersected by the western boundary of the seventh range of townships, and runs due north on that boundary 1,306 chains and 25 links; thence, due west, to the western boundary of the seventeenth range of townships; thence, due south, to the Ohio, and up that river to the beginning; the whole area containing 1,781,760 acres of land, whereof 281,760 acres, consisting of various lots and townships, are reserved to the United States. 4. The purchase by the same Cutler and Sargent, on behalf also of themselves and others. This begins at the northeastern angle of the tract of their purchase before described, and runs due north to the northern boundary of the tenth town 2. A reservation in the same deed of a quantity, not exceeding 150,000 acres of land, for General George Rogers Clark, and the officers and soldiers of his regiment, who were at the reduction of Kaskaskias and St. Vincennes, to be laid off in such place, on the northwest side of the Ohio, as a majority of the officers should choose. They chose they should be laid off on the river adjacent to the rapids, which accordingly has been done. 3. A reservation in the same deed, of lands be-ship from the Ohio; thence, due west, to the tween the Sciota and Little Miami, to make up to the Virginia troops on Continental establishment the quantity which the good lands in their southern allotment might fall short of the bounties given them by the laws of that State. By a statement of the 16th September, 1788, it appears that 724,0454 acres had been surveyed for them on the southeastern side of the Ohio; that 1,395,385 acres had been surveyed on the northwestern side; that warrants for 649,649 acres more, to be laid off on the same side of the river, were in the hands of the Surveyor, and it was supposed there might still be some few warrants not yet presented; so that this reservation may be stated at 2,045,034 acres, or perhaps some small matter more. Scioto; thence, down the same, and up the Ohio, to the southwestern angle of the said purchase before described, and along the western and northern boundaries thereof to the beginning; the whole area containing 4,901,480 acres of land; out of which, however, five lots, to wit: Nos. 8, 11, 16, 26, and 29, of every township of six miles square, are retained by the United States, and out of the whole are retained the three townships of Gnadenhutten, Schoenbrun, and Salem; and certain lands around them, as will be hereafter mentioned. 5. The purchase of John Cleves Symmes, bounded on the west by the Great Miami; on the south by the Ohio; on the east by a line which is to begin on the bank of the Ohio, twenty miles Obtaining Fresh from Salt Water. from the mouth of the Great Miami, as measured along the several courses of the Ohio, and to run parallel with the general course of the said Great Miami; and on the north by an east and west line so run as to include 1,000,000 of acres in the whole area, whereof five lots, numbered as before mentioned, are reserved out of every township by the United States. It is suggested that this purchaser, under color of a first and larger proposition to the Board of Treasury, which was never closed, (but, pending that proposition,) sold sundry parcels of land between his eastern boundary, before mentioned, and the Little Miami, and that the purchasers have settled thereon. If these suggestions prove true, the settlers will perhaps be thought to merit the favor of the Legislature, as purchasers for valuable consideration, and without notice of the defect of title. The contracts for lands, which were at one time under consideration with Messrs. Flint and Parker, and with Colonel Morgan, were never so far prosecuted as to bring either party under any obligation. All proceedings thereon were discontinued at a very early stage, and it is supposed that no further views exist with any other party. These, therefore, are not to be enumerated among existing claims. 6. Three townships were reserved by the ordinance of May 20, 1785, adjacent to Lake Erie, for refugees from Canada and Nova Scotia, and for other purposes, according to resolutions of Congress, made or to be made on that subject. These would, of course, contain 69,120 acres. the disposal of the United States upwards of 21,000,000 of acres in this northwestern quarter. And though the want of actual surveys of some parts, and of a general delineation of the whole on paper, so as to exhibit to the eye the locations, forms, and relative positions of the rights before described, may prevent our forming a well-defined idea of them at this distance, yet, on the spot, these difficulties exist but in a small degree. The individuals there employed in the details of buying, selling, and locating, possess local informations of the parts which concern them, so as to be able to keep clear of each other's rights; or, if in some intances a conflict of claims should arise, from any want of certainty in their definition, a local Judge will doubtless be provided to decide them without delay, at least provisionally. Time, instead of clearing up these uncertainties, will cloud them the more, by the death or removal of witnesses, the disappearance of lines and marks, change of parties, and other casualties. TH. JEFFERSON, NOVEMBER 8, 1791. Secretary of State. OBTAINING FRESH FROM SALT WATER. The SECRETARY OF STATE, to whom was referred by the House of Representatives of the United States, the petition of Jacob Isaacks, of Newport, in Rhode Island, has examined into the truth and importance of the allegations therein set forth, and makes thereon the following Report: 7. The same ordinance of May 20, 1785, appro- The petition sets forth, that, by various experipriated the three towns of Gnadenhutten, Schoen-ments, with considerable labor and expense, he brun, and Salem, on the Muskingum, for the has discovered a method of converting salt water Christian Indians formerly settled there, or the into fresh, in the proportion of eight pints out of remains of that Society, with the grounds round ten, by a process so simple that it may be perabout them; and the quantity of the said circum- formed on board of vessels at sea, by the common jacent grounds, for each of the said towns, was iron caboose, (with small alteration,) by the same determined by the resolution of Congress, of Sep-fire and in the same time which is used for cooktember 3, 1788, to be so much as, with the plat of its respective town, would make up 4,000 acres; so that three towns and their circumjacent lands were to amount to 12,000 acres. This reservation was accordingly made out of the large purchase of Cutler and Sargent, which comprehended them. The Indians, however, for whom the reservation was made, have chosen to emigrate beyond the limits of the United States, so that the lands reserved for them still remain to the United States. On the whole, it appears that the United States may rightfully dispose of all the lands between the Wabash and the Ohio, Pennsylvania, the forty-first parallel of latitude, and the Indian lines described in the treaties of the Great Miami, and Fort McIntosh, with exceptions only of the rights saved by the deed of cession of Virginia, and of all rights legally derived from the Government of the United States; and, supposing the part south of the Indian lines to contain, as before conjectured, about 35,000,000 of acres, and that the claims of citizens before enumerated may amount to between 13,000,000 and 14,000,000, there remains at ing the ship's provisions; and offers to convey to the Government of the United States a faithful account of his art, or secret, to be used by or within the United States, on their giving to him a reward suitable to the importance of the discovery, and, in the opinion of Government, adequate to his expenses and the time he has devoted to the bringing it into effect. In order to ascertain the merit of the petitioner's discovery, it becomes necessary to examine the advances already made in the art of converting salt water into fresh. Lord Bacon, to whom the world is indebted for the first germs of so many branches of science, had observed, that, with a heat sufficient for distillation, salt will not rise in vapor, and that salt water distilled, is fresh. And it would seem that all mankind might have observed, that the earth is supplied with fresh water chiefly by exhalation from the sea, which is in fact an insensible distillation effected by the heat of the sun. Yet this, though the most obvious, was not the first idea in the essays for converting salt water into fresh. Filtration was tried in vain, and congelation could Obtaining Fresh from Salt Water. be resorted to only in the coldest regions and sea-between Bombay and Bengal, with a hand-pump, sons. In all the earlier trials by distillation, some gun-barrel, and a pot, of six-gallons of sea water mixture was thought necessary to aid the opera- made ten quarts of fresh water in three hours. tion by a partial precipitation of the salt, and other foreign matters contained in sea water. Of this kind were the methods of Sir Richard Hawkins, in the sixteenth century; of Glauber, Hauton, and Lister, in the seventeenth century; and of Hales, Appleby, Butler, Chapman, Hoffman, and Dove, in the eighteenth century: nor was there anything in these methods worthy noting on the present occasion, except the very simple still, contrived extempore by Captain Chapman, and made from such materials as are to be found on board every ship, great or small. This was a common pot with a wooden lid of the usual form, in the centre of which a hole was bored to receive perpendicularly a short wooden tube, made with an inch and half auger, which perpendicular tube received at its top, and at an acute angle, another tube of wood also, which descended till it joined a third, of pewter, made by rolling up a dish, and passing it obliquely through a cask of cold water. With this simple machine he obtained two quarts of fresh water an hour, and observed, that the expense of fuel would be very trifling, if the still was contrived to stand on the fire along with the ship's boiler. In 1771, Dr. Irvin, putting together Lind's idea of distilling without a mixture, Chapman's still, and Dr. Franklin's method of cooling by evaporation, obtained a premium of £5,000 from the British Parliament. He wet his tube constantly with a mop, instead of passing it through a cask of water. He enlarged its bore, also, in order to give it a freer passage to the vapor, and thereby increase its quantity by lessening the resistance or pressure on the evaporating surface. This last improvement was his own, and it doubtless contributed to the success of his models; and we may suppose the enlargement of the tube to be useful to that point at which the central parts of the vapor, passing through it, would begin to escape condensation. Lord Mulgrave used his method in his voyage towards the North Pole, in 1773, making from thirty-four to forty gallons of fresh water a day, without any great addition of fuel, as he says. M. de Bougainville, in his voyage round the world, used, very successfully, a still which had been contrived in 1763, by Poyisonier, so as to guard against the water being thrown over from the boiler into the pipe by the agitation of the ship. In this, one singularity was that the furnace or fire-box was in the middle of the boiler, so that the water surrounded it in contact. This still, however, was expensive, and occupied much room. In 1762, Dr. Lind, proposing to make experiments of several different mixtures, first distilled rain water, which he supposed would be the purest, and then sea water, without any mixture, which he expected would be the least pure, in order to arrange between these two supposed ex- Such were the advances already made in the tremes the degree of merit of the several ingre-art of obtaining fresh from salt water, when Mr. dients he meant to try. "To his great surprise," Isaacks, the petitioner, suggested his discovery. as he confesses, "the sea water, distilled without As the merit of this could be ascertained by any mixture, was as pure as the rain water." He experiment only, the Secretary of State asked the pursued the discovery, and established the fact favor of Mr. Rittenhouse, President of the Amethat a pure and potable fresh water may be ob- rican Philosophical Society, of Dr. Wistar, Pretained from salt water by simple distillation, with-sident of Chemistry in the College of Philadelout the aid of any mixture for fining or precipi- phia, and Dr. Hutchinson, Professor of Chemistry tating its foreign contents. In 1767, he proposed in the University of Pennsylvania, to be present an extempore still, which, in fact, was Chapman's, at the experiments. Mr. Isaacks fixed the pot of only substituting a gun-barrel instead of Chap- a small caboose, with a tin cap and straight tube of man's pewter tube, and the hand-pump of the tin passing obliquely through a cask of cold waship to be cut in two obliquely, and joined again ter; he made use of a mixture, the composition at an acute angle, instead of Chapman's wooden of which he did not explain, and from twentytubes bored express; or, instead of the wooden lid four pints of sea water, taken up about three miles and upright tube, he proposed a tea-kettle (with-out of the Capes of Delaware at flood tide, he out its lid or handle) to be turned bottom upward over the mouth of the pot, by way of still-head, and a wooden tube leading from the spout to a gun-barrel passing through a cask of water, the whole luted with equal parts of chalk and meal moistened with salt water. With this apparatus of a pot, tea-kettle, and gun-barrel, the Dolphin, a twenty-gun ship, in her voyage round the world, in 1761, from fifty-six gallons of sea water, and with nine pounds of wood and sixty-nine pounds of pit-coal, made forty-two gallons of good fresh water, at the rate of eight gallons an hour. The Dorsetshire, in her passage from Gibraltar to Mahon, in 1769, made nineteen quarts of pure water in four hours, with ten pounds of wood. And the Slambal, in 1773, distilled twenty-two pints of fresh water in four hours, with twenty pounds of seasoned pine, which was a little wetted by having lain in the rain. In a second experiment, of the 21st of March, performed in a furnace and five gallon still at the College, from thirty-two pints of sea water he drew thirty-one pints of fresh water in seven hours and twenty-four minutes, with fifty-one pounds of hickory, which had been cut about six months. In order to decide whether Mr. Isaacks's mixture contributed in any and what degree to the success of the operation, it was thought proper to repeat his experiment under the same circumstances exactly, except the omission of the mixture. Accordingly, on the next day, the same quantity of sea water was put into the same still, Indian Hostilities. the same furnace was used, and fuel from the same parcel. It yielded, as his had done, thirtyone pints of fresh water in eleven minutes more of time, and with ten pounds less of wood. On the 24th of March, Mr. Isaacks performed a third experiment. For this, a common iron pot, of three and a half gallons, was fixed in brickwork, and the flue from the hearth wound once round the pot spirally, and then passed off up a chimney. The cap was of tin, and a straight tin tube of about two inches diameter, passing obliquely through a barrel of water, served instead of a worm. From sixteen pints of sea water he drew off fifteen pints of fresh water, in two hours and fifty-five minutes, with three pounds of dry hickory and eight pounds of seasoned pine. This experiment was also repeated the next day, with the same apparatus and fuel from the same parcel, but without the mixture. Sixteen pints of sea water yielded, in like manner, fifteen pints of fresh, in one minute more of time, and with half a pound less of wood. On the whole, it was evident that Mr. Isaacks's mixture produced no advantage, either in the process or result of the distillation. found, on experiment, to be as pure as the best pump water of the city. Its taste, indeed, was not as agreeable, but it was not such as to produce any disgust. In fact we drink, in common life, in many places, and under many circumstances, and almost always at sea, a worse tasted and probably a less wholesome water. The distilled water in all these instances was on their return to the United States, or commu- INDIAN HOSTILITIES. UNITED STATES, January 16, 1792. the United States in the present Indian War may SIR: As the circumstances which have engaged some of them be out of the public recollection, and others perhaps be unknown, it may appear advisadocuments, a statement of those circumstances, as ble that you prepare and publish, from authentic well as of the measures which have been taken, from time to time, for the re-establishment of peace and friendship. siderable exertions, to relieve a part which is suf- The Secretary for the The Causes of the existing Hostilities between the United States and certain Tribes of Indians, Northwest of the Ohio, stated and explained from official and authentic Documents, and published in obedience to the orders of the President of the United States. A recurrence to the Journals of the United States in Congress assembled, of the early stages of the late war, will evince the public solicitude to preserve peace with the Indian tribes, and to prevent their engaging in a contest in which they were no wise interested. The obtaining fresh from salt water, for ages was considered as an important desideratum for the use of navigators. The process for doing this by simple distillation is so efficacious, the erecting an extempore still with such utensils as are found on board of every ship, is so practicable, as to authorize the assertion that this desideratum is satisfied to a very useful degree. But, though this has been done for upwards of thirty years; though its reality has been established by the actual experience of several vessels which have had recourse to it, yet neither the fact nor process is known to the mass of seamen, to whom it would be the most But though partial treaties or conventions were useful, and for whom it was principally wanted. formed with some of the Northern and Western The Secretary of State is therefore of opinion tribes, in the years 1775 and 1776, yet those treatthat, since the subject has been brought under ob- ies were too feeble to resist the powerful impulses servation, it should be made the occasion of dis- of a contrary nature, arising from a combination seminating its knowledge generally and effectu-of circumstances at that time; and accordingly all ally among the sea-faring citizens of the United States. The following is one of the many methods which might be proposed for doing this: Let the clearance for every vessel sailing from the ports of the United States be printed on paper, on the back whereof shall be a printed account of the essays which have been made for obtaining fresh from salt water, mentioning briefly those which were unsuccessful, and, more fully, those which have succeeded; describing the methods which have been found to answer for constructing extempore stills of such implements as are generally on board of every vessel, with a recommendation, in all cases where they shall have occasion to resort to this expedient for obtaining water, to publish the result of their trial in some gazette the various Indian nations (the Oneidas, Tuscaroras, and a few individuals of the Delawares, excepted) lying on cur frontiers, from Georgia to Canada, armed against us. It is yet too recent to have been forgotten, that great numbers of inoffensive men, women, and children, fell a sacrifice to the barbarous warfare practised by the Indians, and many others were dragged into a deplorable captivity. Notwithstanding that these aggressions were entirely unprovoked, yet as soon as the war ceased with Great Britain, the United States, instead of indulging any resentments against the Indian nations, sought only how to establish a liberal peace with all the tribes throughout their limits. Early measures were accordingly taken for this |