Page:Hempstead's Reports.pdf/362

Rh of land in the jurisdiction of Arkansas, situated on both banks of the Rio Blanco, ten leagues on both banks, beginning, &c. [describing it as in the above proces verbal, and then proceeds] which will be better seen on the figurative plan made by my order by the surveyor-general, Don Carlos Trudeau, of this province, the 24th October last (it being impossible for the royal surveyor to make an actual survey at the time). And, in virtue of my order of June of the current year, by which I made him a grant, and ordered the surveyor-general to put him in possession according to the usual form, in consequence of the power which has been conferred on me by the king, whom God preserve, I grant in his royal name to the said Don Joseph Vallieré, captain of the regiment of infantry of Louisiana, the said portion described above, in order that he and his legitimate successors may dispose of it as property belonging to him.

""Done in New Orleans, 22d December, 1793."

"Rh"

Don Joseph Vallieré died in 1799. Whether he ever took possession of the land, or any part of it, or made any settlement thereon, does not appear; but as it was in the heart of the Indian country, and they hostile, it is probable no settlement of any consequenee was made under the grant. No claim of title was presented by his heirs to the commissioners appointed by the act of congress of March 2, 1805, or the subsequent laws on the subject of French and Spanish grants in the province of Louisiana; nor is the grant mentioned in any of the reports made by any of these commissioners to the treasury department; nor does it appear to have been set up or brought to the notice of any tribunal, or to the notice of the government in any way until now. The first time it appears to have been brought to notice in any form was, that in 1844 a pamphlet was published in New York by "Jared W. Bell, printer, corner of Ann and Nassau streets," containing copies of what purported to be the original title papers and translations, as above set forth, and legal opinions by Daniel Webster, Rufus Choate, A. P. Upshur, David B. Ogde, Thomas Addis Emmett, James