Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 5.djvu/539



the first year after the date of his permit, if he or she shall so long live.

Fourth. That such settler shall, within one year after the survey of said lands, and the opening of the proper office for the entry and sale of the same by the United States, prove, before such tribunal and in such manner and form as shall be prescribed by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, with the approval of the President, the fact that the settlement has been commenced, and the particular quarter section upon which it is located; and, also, that such settler shall, within six months after the expiration of five years from the date of his permit, prove, in like manner, the fact of continued residence and cultivation, as required in the second and third conditions herein above prescribed; whereupon, and not until then, a patent shall issue to said settler, for such quarter section.

. And be it further enacted, That in case of the settlement of the same quarter section by two or more settlers, the right to the location shall be determined by priority of settlement, to be ascertained under such rules as the Commissioner of the General Land Office, with the approval of the President, may prescribe; and the subsequent settler or settlers shall be permitted to locate the quantity he, she, or they may be entitled to elsewhere within the same township, upon vacant public lands.

. And be it further enacted, That no right or donation shall be acquired under this act within two miles of any permanent military post of the United States, established and garrisoned at the time such settlement and residence was commenced.

. And be it further enacted, That all sales, gifts, devises, agreements, bonds, or powers to sell, transfers, or liens, whatsoever, private or judicial, of the lands, or any portion thereof, acquired by this act, made at any time before patents shall have issued for the same, shall be utterly void and without effect, to every intent and purpose, whether in law or equity; and the purchaser or obligee, under any such sale, agreement, bond, or power to sell, transfer, or lien, shall not be entitled to recover back the price or consideration paid therefor, but shall forfeit the same absolutely to such settler or his heirs.

. And be it further enacted, That upon the death of any settler before the end of the five years, or before the issuing of the patent, all his rights under this act shall descend to his widow and heirs at law, if he leaves a widow, and to his heirs at law, if he leaves none, to be held and divided by them according to the laws of Florida, any previous sale or transfer of the same or of any interest, legal or equitable, in the same, to the contrary notwithstanding. And proof of his compliance with the conditions of this act, up to the time of his death, shall be sufficient to entitle them to the patent.

. And be it further enacted, That where any settlement, by the erection of a dwelling, or the cultivation of any portion thereof, shall be made upon the sixteenth section, before the same shall be surveyed, then and in that case other lands shall be selected by the school commissioners of the township, in lieu of said section sixteen, or such part thereof as may be claimed under this act.

. And be it further enacted, That not exceeding two hundred thousand acres of land shall be taken for settlement under this act.

. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States may, at any time, by proclamation, suspend all further permits and settlements under this act, by giving three months’ notice thereof.

. And be it further enacted, That the Commissioner of the General Land Office shall, on or before the first day of February, eighteen hundred and forty-four, report to Congress the names of every individual who shall have made the actual settlement required by the