and translate all papers that may be required of him by the commissioners.”
Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That said commissioners, previously to entering on a discharge of the duties assigned them, shall,
the commissioners, or to the register and receiver of East Florida, and had not been “finally acted upon,” should be adjudicated and settled, as prescribed by the act of 1828. There was no direct limitation as to the time in which a claim should be presented.
When a petition for the confirmation of a claim to lands in Florida was presented, and was defective, and the court allowed an amended petition to be filed, it would be too strict to say the original petition was not the commencement of the proceeding, but that the amendment allowed by the superior court should be taken as the date when the claim was first preferred. Ibid. When certain testimonials of title under a Spanish grant had been admitted, without exception, before the commissioners of the United States for the adjustment of claims to lands in Florida, and before the superior courtin Middle Florida, without objection as to the mode and form of their proof; the Supreme Court, on an appeal, will not interfere with the question as to the sufficiency of the proof, or the authenticity of the act, relating to the title which had been admitted by the authorities in Florida, which was the tribunal to judge of the evidence.
Breward petitioned the governor of East Florida, intending to establish a saw-mill to saw timber in St. John’s river, for a grant of five miles square of land, or its equivalent; ten thousand acres to be in the neighbourhood of the place designated, and the remaining six thousand acres in Cedar Swamp, on the west side of St. John’s river, and in Cabbage Hammock on the east side of the river. The governor granted the land asked for, on the condition that the mill should be built; and the condition was complied with. On the 27th of May, 1817, the surveyor general surveyed seven thousand acres under the grant, including Little Cedar Creek, and bounded on three sides by Big Cedar Creek, including the mill. This grant and survey were confirmed. The United States v. Breward, 16 Peters, 143. Three thousand acres were laid off on the northern part of the river St. John’s and east of the royal road,leading from the river to St. Mary’s, four or five miles from the first survey. This survey having been made at a place not within the grant, was void: but the court held that the grantee is to be allowed to survey under the grant, three thousand acres adjoining the survey of seven thousand acres, if so much vacant land can be found; and patents for the same shall issue for the land, if laid out in conformity with the decree of the court in this case. Ibid.
In 1819, two thousand acres were surveyed in Cedar Swamp, west of the river St. John’s, at a place known by the name of Sugartown. This survey was confirmed. Ibid. Four thousand acres, by survey, dated April, 1819, in Cabbage Hammock, were laid out by the surveyor general.This survey was confirmed. Ibid.
By the eighth article of the Florida treaty, all grants of lands made before the 24th of January, 1824, by his Catholic majesty, were confirmed; but all grants made since the time when the first proposal by his majesty for the cession of the country was made, are declared and agreed by the treaty to be void. The survey of five thousand acres having been made at a different place from the land granted, would if confirmed be a new appropriation of so much land, and void if it had been ordered by the governor of Florida; and of course it is void, having nothing to uphold it but the act of the surveyor general. Ibid. In the superior court of East Florida, the counsel for the claimant offered to introduce testimony in regard to the survey of three thousand acres; and the counsel of the United States withdrew his objection to the testimony. The admission of the evidence did not prove the survey to have been made. Proof of the signature of the surveyor general to the return of survey made the survey prima facie evidence. Ibid. The proof of the signature of Aguilar to the certificate of a copy of the grant by the governor of East Florida, authorizes its admission in evidence; but this does not establish the validity of the concession. To test the validity of the survey, it was necessary to give it in evidence; but the survey did not give a good title to the land. Ibid. The United States have a right to disprove a survey made by the surveyor general, if the survey on the ground does not correspond to the land granted. Ibid. On a petition from Pedro Miranda, stating services performed by him for Spain, governor White, the governor of East Florida, on the 26th November, 1810, made a grant to him of eight leagues square, or three hundred and sixty-eight thousand six hundred and forty acres of land on the waters of Hillsborough and Tampa Bay, in the eastern district of Florida. No survey was made under this grant while Florida remained a province of Spain,nor was any attempt made to occupy or survey the land, until after the cession of Florida to the United States. In 1821, it was alleged that a survey was made by a surveyor of East Florida. Held, that the grant was void; no land having been severed from the public domain previous to the 24th January, 1818, and because the calls of the grant are too indefinite for locality to be given to them. The United States v. Miranda, 16 Peters, 153.
The settled doctrine of the Supreme Court, in respect to Florida grants, is, that grants embracing a wide extent of country, or with a large area of natural or artificial boundaries, and which granted lands were not surveyed before the 24th of January, 1818, and which are without such designation as will give a place of beginning for a survey, are not lands withdrawn from the maps of vacant lands, ceded to the United States in Florida, and are void; as well on that account as for being so uncertain that locality cannot be given to them. Ibid. On the 6th of April, 1816, a grant was made by the governor of Florida, of five miles square, or sixteen thousand acres of land, on condition that a mill should be built. The grant of six thousand acres was for land on Doctor’s branch, where the mill was intended to be erected. The ten thousand acres were granted on the north-east side on the lagoon and of India river. The six thousand acres were surveyed in 1819, on Doctor’s branch, and the mill was built. The survey under this grant was confirmed. The United States v. Low et al. 162. According to the strict ideas of conforming a survey to a location, in the United States, the survey of ten thousand acres should be located adjoining the natural object called for, there being no other to
