II. LAND TITLES.

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A KNOWLEDGE of the origin and character of the va ous titles by which lands are held, or have been claim in this State, cannot be without interest or utility every planter or landed proprietor in it. The followi brief outline, therefore, the design of which is to supp this information, will not, it is presumed, be deem superfluous or out of place.

The first grant of land of which we have any accou was that most stupendous one made on the 13th October, 1630, by Charles the First of Great Britain, Sir Robert Heath, of which all that part of the Sta lying north of the thirty-first degree of north latitud formed an inconsiderable portion. In 1637, Heath tran ferred his grant to Lord Maltravers, and it subsequent became the property of a Doctor Daniel Coxe, of t province of New Jersey; and in 1699, the same ye that the French established themselves at Baluxi und Iberville, his title was recognized and reported upon valid by the attorney-general of King William.

How the attempt of Coxe, the proprietor, to take po session and occupy it in the latter year, by sending tv ships up the Mississippi under Captain Barr, was fru

LAND TITLES.

ed by Bienville, has been shown in the preceding rical outline.

he next grants in order, were those made by the pany of the Indies, about the year 1718, at Pascaa and the Bay of St. Louis, on the St. Catharine, Natchez, and on the Yazoo, of the number and ensions of which we are not informed.

= consequence of the Indian disturbances, and of the sacre by the Natchez, these French grants seem to been abandoned. No allusion is subsequently e to them; and those in the Natchez District, at least, ar not to have been recognized by the British goment, upon obtaining possession of the country. ether such was the case in West Florida proper, is now certainly known. The acquisition by purchase the early French settlers, may have been, in a few s, the origin or basis of the subsequent British nts; as, in a late decision by the courts in Louisiana, vor of the heirs of Pontalba, the title to the lands ontroversy has been traced back to those early French

Tom January, 1768, to September, 1779, numerous

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ish grants were made by the Governor of West ida; those in the Natchez District being chiefly made ficers of the British army and navy, and in many inces were of large dimensions. The largest emed twenty-five thousand acres; two others, twenty sand each; several were for ten thousand; and very for less than one thousand acres. These were so ed as to embrace a large portion of the most valulands bordering on the Mississippi, for a breadth of ›r eight miles from Fort Adams to the Yazoo, and nding along the alluvial lands of the principal ms of the district.

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Extracts from these grants have been given her fore. To each was appended, by a ribbon, a ponder wax seal, some three inches in diameter, the Bri arms being impressed on the obverse, with a landsc of forest scenery on the reverse, surrounded by the scription: "Sigillum provinciæ nostra Florida occid talis," with other inscriptions and legends.*

The conditions of these grants as to occupancy, cu vation, and improvement, were such as, if not regar as mere words of form, to render them utterly v Few of the lands granted were occupied or improved the extent required, proof of which was to have b made within a stated time. They were, therefore, choate, if strictly construed, and were never perfec Many of them, however, were nevertheless recogni and confirmed by the succeeding Spanish governm which, although acquiring the country by conquest, with great liberality guaranteed these possessions to holders, upon the performance of certain reasonable quirements, such as presentation and proof of title, companied with occupancy, allowing several years this purpose.

The titles derived from the Spanish government w of two grades; orders of survey and complete pater the former being the incipient or incomplete form of latter.+

To procure a grant of land, the applicant addresse Requête (request or petition) to the Spanish governor New Orleans, and hence, from the corruption of word, the term ricket, by which one class of these cla was known to the early American settlers.

If the petition was granted, an order of survey

* See Plate I.

† See Appendix F.