Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/370

 358 FEDERAL REPORTER. �far as they rest upon either the admitted facts or those estab- lished beyond controversy. �The defendant is a corporation formed under the laws of New York, and from 1838 to September, 1847, maintained a mission among the Wascopum Indians, on the south bank of the Columbia river, at the lower end of the Grand Dalles thereof, at a place since called "The Dalles," in what is now Wasco county; and on July 9, 1875, received a patent from the United States under section 2447 of the Eevised Statutes for a tract of land containing 643.37 acres, including the groiind occupied by the improvernents made at such mission — less 350 acres thereof included in the military reservation — the same being parts of sections 3 and 4, in township 1, N. of range 13 W., and section 33, in township 2, N. of range 13 W. of the Wallamet meridian, as a mission station occu- pied by it on August 14, 1848, within the purview of the second proviso to section 1 of the act of that date, "to estab- lish the territorial government of Oregon, " (9 St. 323,) which provides "that the title to the land, not eseeeding 640 acres, now occupied as missionory stations among the Indian tribes of said territory, together with the improvernents thereon, be confirmed and established in the several religious societies to which said missionary stations respectively belong." �The plaintiffs olaim that the defendant did not occupy this tract, or any portion of it, as a missionary station or otherwise, on August 14, 1848, or since September, 1847, and that therefore it was not within the purview of said proviso, and the patent to the defendant was wrongfully issued; and also that they are the owners of, and entitled to, the patent for certain portions of said tract, as hereinafter stated, and ask to have their several rights therein established and declared, and that the defendant be so far regarded as their trustee and required to convey to them accordingly. �In 1852 the place called "The Dalles" was occupied as a town site for the purpose of business and trade, and has been so occupied ever since, and in 1855 the county of Wasco caused the same to be surveyed into lots, blocks, and strecte, and said survey to be recorded; that on January 26, 1857, ��� �