Page:Hempstead's Reports.pdf/381

356  , and he had a right, under the unaltered laws and usages in force in the province, to authenticate copies of them, as he did; nor was there then or now any authorized imputation that such survey or plot was made at a different time, or received at a different time from that stated by Trudeau, namely, October 8, 1798, or that such plots have not been in his office as public archives ever since. And can it now be presumed, without evidence, that they were not made and deposited in 1798, or that the plots of survey were not made by proper authority? If not made by such authority, would they have been received and kept on record as archives by the proper depository of the surveys as authentic evidence of title? Such presumption is contrary to reason, and not warranted by any principle or rule of law; but on the contrary, the presumption from the facts is irresistible, that it was a plot or survey authorized in such case, constituting an authentic evidence of title in the grantees to the lands therein indicated. Otherwise it would not have been so officially filed and preserved by the lawful and proper depositary of such evidences of title; nor can he be presumed to have acted fraudulently in the matter.

The evidence of genuineness of these plots is, therefore, at least primâ facie, established; and there is no testimony contraventing this fact.

The presumption that the commandant executed the order of the governor, established the boundary of said lands, or caused said plots thereof to be made, is corroborated by these facts; and the stone being mentioned thereon, as a point in the boundary, corroborates the evidence and presumption that said stone was planted by the commandant, or his authority, as a monument or evidence of the boundary of said lands.

These copies of said plots, as stated above, were recorded by the board of commissioners June 18, 1808.

By acts of congress claimants were required, within a limited time, to produce for record the written evidence of their right, under penalty that if not so recorded they should never be received in evidence in any court; which requirement Winters complied with June 18, 1808, and his grant and these plots were then recorded by the recorder of the United States.