Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 8.djvu/283

 1‘REATY WITH SPAIN. 1819. 271 the Americas, which, by their fertility, offer the greatest advantages, not only to your memorialist, but to the state, provided due effect, as is hoped, be given to the noble project formed by your Majesty’s mernorialist, of converting a small portion of those deserts into the abode of peaceable Christians and industrious inhabitants, who will increase the population of your kingdoms, promote agriculture and commerce, and thereby add immensely to your royal revenues. This enterprise should be conducted by a person who, with a knowledge of the country, would combine the intelligence necessary for comparing the progress made by other nations in similar situations, and particularly by the United States, which, within a very recent period, have advanced their power to an extraordinary height, and especially in the instance of the Mobile country, adjoining Florida, which, in the last six years, has received such an influx of emigrants, as to be converted from a desert waste into a rich commercial province, highly improved and peopled with more than three hundred thousand souls. A similar change would be effected in Florida within eighteen or twenty years, by the adoption of judicious arrangements, and by those exertions which your Majesty’s memorialist proposes to employ for the promotion of his personal interest, and consequently that of the state. Relying on the merits of the case, and the lively interest felt by your Majesty in the national prosperity, and in the services and sacrifices of your Majesty’s memorialist, he humbly requests your Majesty that, taking them into consideration, you would be graciously pleased to grant and cede to him, in full right and property, and the mode and manner required by law, all the waste lands, not heretofore ceded in Florida, lying between the river Perdido, westward of the Gulf of Mexico, and the rivers Amaruja and Saint Johns, from Popa to the point where it empties into the ocean, for the eastern limit; and, for the northern, the boundary line of the United States; and, to the south, by the Gulf of Mexico, including the desert islands on the coast. He therefore humbly prays, in consideration of the premises, and the unque - tionable advantages to be derived by the nation, your Majesty will be pleased to grant this his petition ; and, thereupon, direct the necessary orders to be given to the local authorities to afford him all due aid and protection, as well in designating the territory referred to, as in giving full effect to the whole enterprise. All which he hopes from the munificence of your Majesty." Having taken the premises into consideration,and bearing in mind the distinguished merits of the mernorialist, and his signal zeal for my royal service, as well as the benefits to be derived by the state from an increase of population in the countries, the cession whereof he has solicited,I have judged tit to grant him the same, in so far as is conformable to the laws of these my kingdoms, and to make it known to my Council of the Indies, for its due execution, by a royal order of the seventeenth of December, in the year aforementioned ; wherefore,I charge and command you, by this, my Royal Cedula, with due observance of the laws to such cases pertaining, to give full and due eflect to the said cession, taking all requisite measures for its accomplishment, without injury to any third party, and, to the end, that the said Count of Punonrostro may forthwith carry his plans into execution, in conformity with my beneficent desires in favor of the agriculture and commerce of the said territories, which require a population proportionate to tho fertility of the soil, and the defence and security of the coasts, he giving regular accounts of his proceedings, for such is my will; and that due note be taken of the present Cedula in the office of the Accountant General of the Indies. Dated at the Palace, the sixth of February, one thousand eight hundred and eighteen. I, THE KING. By command of the King our Lord: Escrsvaiv Vrana. And Icontirm this exemplitication, at Madrid, the fifteenth of October, one thousand eight hundred and twenty. (Signed) ANTONIO PORCEL. Don Evaristo Perez de Castro, Knight of the order of Charles 3d,of the Council of State, and Secretary of Despatch of State, &c. · I certify that the foregoing signature of his Excellency Don Antonio Porcel, Secretary of Despatch of the Ultra Marine Government, is that which he rs accustomed to put to all his writings. And for the proper purposes,I give the present certificate, signed by my hand, and scaled with my seal of arms, at Madrid, the twenty-first of October, one thousand eight hundred and twenty. I ‘ (Signed) EVARISTO PEREZ DE CAS PRO.