Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 2.djvu/786



, cultivated, or possessed, prior to the twentieth day of December, one thousand eight hundred and three, shall be and the same are hereby confirmed to the inhabitants of the respective towns or villages aforesaid, according to their several right or rights in common thereto: Provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to affect the rights of any persons claiming the same lands, or any part thereof, whose claims have been confirmed by the board of commissioners for adjusting and settling claims to land in the said territory. And it shall be the duty of the principal deputy surveyor for the said territory as soon as may be, to survey, or cause to be surveyed and marked, (where the same has not already been done, according to law) the out boundary lines of the said several towns or villages so as to include the out lots, common field lots and commons, thereto respectively belonging. And he shall make out plats of the surveys, which he shall transmit to the surveyor general, who shall forward copies of the said plats to the commissioner of the general land-office, and to the recorder of land titles; the expense of surveying the said out boundary lines shall be paid by the United States out of any moneys appropriated for surveying the public lands: Provided, that the whole expense shall not exceed three dollars for every mile that shall be actually surveyed and marked.

. And be it further enacted, That all town or village lots, out lots, or common field lots, included in such surveys, which are not rightfully owned or claimed by any private individuals, or held as commons belonging to such towns or villages, or that the President of the United States may not think proper to reserve for military purposes, shall be, and the same are hereby reserved for the support of schools in the respective towns or villages aforesaid: Provided, that the whole quantity of land contained in the lots reserved for the support of schools in any one town or village, shall not exceed one twentieth part of the whole lands included in the general survey of such town or village.

. And be it further enacted, That every claim to a donation of lands in the said territory, in virtue of settlement and cultivation, which is embraced by the report of the commissioners, transmitted to the Secretary of the Treasury, and which by the said report, shall appear not to have been confirmed, merely because permission, by the proper Spanish officer, to settle, has not been duly proven; or because the tract claimed, although inhabited, was not cultivated on the twentieth of December, one thousand eight hundred and three, or not to have been confirmed on account of both said causes; the same shall be confirmed, in case it shall appear that the tract so claimed was inhabited by the claimant or some one for his use prior to the twentieth day of December, one thousand eight hundred and three as aforesaid, and cultivated in eight months thereafter, subject, however, to every other limitation and restriction prescribed by former laws in respect to such claims; and in all cases where it shall appear by the said report or other records of the board that claims to land have not been confirmed merely on the ground that the claim was for a greater quantity than eight hundred arpens, French measure, every such claim to the extent of eight hundred arpens, shall be confirmed.

. And be it further enacted, That the recorder of land titles for the said territory shall, without delay, make an extract from the books of the said board of commissioners of all the claims to land which are, by the preceding section, directed to be confirmed, a copy of which he shall transmit to the commissioner of the general land-office; and he shall furnish the principal deputy surveyor with a proper description of the tracts so to be confirmed, wherein the quantity, locality, boundaries and connexion, when practicable with each other, and those tracts that have been confirmed by the board of commissioners shall be stated. And whenever plats of the surveys as herein after directed, shall have