Peter Vivian Daniel

“ The petitioner next states, that Marie Louise Lecompte transferred the above-described tract of land to Jean Baptiste Lecompte, the father of the petitioner; that there is no one residing upon the land in question except one person, who holds under the petitioner; that no person other than the petitioner claims any part of the land; and that the United States have never to his knowledge sold any part thereof. ”

“ It became, therefore, peculiarly proper to inquire into the means of the applicant, and into the probabilities of his executing his proffered intentions; as it would be highly detrimental to the Province to permit an individual to retain a large and useless extent of unsettled land, and unjust to other settlers to permit such individual, under a false suggestion, to acquire an extensive property for the mere purposes of speculation. ”

“ The land claimed was not severed from the public domain by the Spanish authorities, and set apart as private property, and consequently it passed to the United States by the treaty which ceded to them all the public and unappropriated lands.'
They accord likewise with the decisions of the Supreme Court of Louisiana as reported in 8 Martin, 637, and in 5 Martin's New Series, 110, in the former of which cases the court say: 'There is no order of survey; no decree of any kind is given by the intendant or his representative. ”

“ II. There is no proof that D'Artigau ever had possession of a single arpent, or ever farmed, cultivated, or improved any part of the land petitioned for, or did, or caused to be done, any act whereby to acquire to himself in private right, as severed from the public domain, any definite quantity, or any specific tract, of land.
III. The Prairie Lianacoco (as represented on the plot exhibited as document No. 10) is in length about twelve hundred and forty perches, and in average width about two hundred and four perches, in area not exceeding sixteen hundred American acres ”

“ The claim is further supported by the following testimony, taken before the board:--
'Gaspard Boudin: That the land has been constantly and uninterruptedly inhabited, occupied, and cultivated by those under whom the claimant, J. B. Lecompte, holds, by the claimant, and for his use by others, for more than thirty-three years preceding this date.' (That is, preceding this sitting of the commissioners.) ”

“ This is an appeal from a decree of the District Court of the United States for the District of Louisiana, pronounced on the 22d of november, 1847, dismissing the petition of the appellant, filed under authority of the act of Congress of June 17th, 1844, and by which was claimed of the United States a tract of land situated in Louisiana of four square superficial leagues, or about 23,705 American acres. ”

“ At page 69, claim 230, the commissioners report the claim of John Baptiste Lecompte, lying in the Neutral Territory, founded on the concession to D'Artigau, before set forth, containing, by the plat and survey by Joseph Irwin, a deputy surveyor of the United States in 1813, and filed with the claim, two leagues square, or 23,507 acres ”