John Catron

“ No case has come within our experience, where the obscurity and antiquity of the transaction more forcibly than in the present case, required a court of equity to bar a complainant on legal presumptions founded on lapse of time ”

“ By the act of 1824, it is provided that if it shall so happen that the lands decreed to any complainant 'shall have been sold by the United States, or otherwise disposed of, it shall be lawful for the party interested to enter the like quantity on other lands.' Here the decree is general against the United States, and awards to complainant floating warrants for all lands that the United States may have sold, or otherwise disposed of within the bounds of the tract decreed. ”

“ The Governor having partly shrunk from the contest, it is highly probable that the Intendant did assume to make the sale set forth by the receipt, which bears date twelve days after the Governor's letter. As no authority existed in the Intendant to deal with the King's domain from 1769, when Spain first got possession of Louisiana, up to the date of the King's order, made in October, 1798, it is manifest that Morales had no power to sell in September, 1797 ”

“ This document, A, was in Madrid, and upon the petition of Moreno, was there assigned and acknowledged by Iriarte; certified there; thence inclosed in a letter by Moreno to Fernandez & Co., at Havana, and never returned to Spain. That document sent from Spain should, by 'the officers in quarantine in Spain,' be immersed in vinegar, and cut to make the vinegar penetrate more easily, 'in order to prevent the spreading of infectious diseases,' is reversing the order and regular course of things. Vessels ariving in Spain are subjected to quarantine by the officers of quarantine in Spain. ”

“ In the communication to Gayoso, and that to himself, Morales is styled Intendant ad interim.
The royal order seems to have reached Morales in February, 1799, before it did Gayoso. Some correspondence then took place between them, and Morales became vested with the power of making sales and grants. 2 White, 478-484. He issued his regulations 17th July, 1799. Id., 234.
It will thus be seen, that the authorities in Spain considered the royal order of 24th August, 1770, as of force up to February, 1799. The language is too plain to admit of a doubt. ”

“ Several witnesses were examined on behalf of the petitioner who verified the signatures of Rosendo Fernandez & Co., of Roque Moreno, of Morales, Leonard, and Valdes. One of the witnesses, Charles Louis Blacke, being shown the original document, said, 'Cannot explain why the document A is cut, as it appears to be; believes that it must have been done in wantonness. ”

“ We have received from Don Antonio Iriarte twenty-four thousand bits (12 1/2 cts. each) , for the value of sixty thousand superficial arpents of land, at the rate of five cents per arpent, which land has been sold to him for amount of the royal treasurer in the district of country of Chafalaya and the Mississippi, on the point where the two unite ”

“ He left the province for Spain in 1788, and the two offices were again united in the person of Miro. 2 Mart. (La.) , 180. Carondelet was Intendant as well as Governor. 2 Mart. (La.) , 111. On his representation the office of Intendant was separated from that of Governor, and Francisco de Rendon, who had been the Secretary of the Spanish Legation in the United States, was appointed, and arrived in New Orleans in the beginning of 1794. 2 Mart. (La.) , 122. Rendon was afterwards sent to Zacatecas, and Morales was appointed ad interim, 1796. 2 Mart. ”