Law v. United States.
pany seized on all the effects and merchandise, and but a few of those who engaged in the service of that grant remained at the Arkansas; they were afterwards all dispersed and set at liberty. The Germans, almost to a man, settled eight leagues above, and to the west of the capital. This grant ruined near a thousand persons at L'Orient, before their embarkation, and above two hundred at Biloxi, not to mention those who came out at the same time with me in 1718," &c.
Charlevoix the Jesuit, in his "Journal Historique d'un voyage de l'Amerique," 3d vol. 4to. p. 411, published in Paris in 1744, after referring to the "Kappas," says, in 1721: "Vis-à-vis de leur village on voit les tristes débris de la concession de M. Law, dont la compagnie est restée Proprietaire."
Law's scheme had failed, and the grant had been entirely neglected. Martin's La. p. 248, also pp. 205, 230, 234, 250, 253.
The melancholy wreck of the settlement on Law's grant was seen, according to Charlevoix, in 1721, and he then referred to the company as the proprietor of it.
Marbois, in his Louisiana, p. 112, expressly informs us, that "the grant was transferred to the company;" and again, in a note on p. 120, it is stated that "on the 11th August, 1728, the company surrendered to the king all its rights against John and William Law," that "this proceeding was founded on a judgment in its favor for twenty millions, the value of which had only been furnished in part," and that "the king accepted the surrender the 3d of September following."
More than one hundred and twenty-six years have elapsed since the grant had its origin, and no evidence is found that it was ever before officially brought to the notice of our government through any of its tribunals. Indeed the petition declares that the "claim for the said land has not been submitted to and reported upon by any of the tribunals constituted by the laws of the United States to decide or report upon land claims."
It is averred, however, that the claim, right, and title to which the petitioner succeeded "might have been perfected and completed, and held good and valid, had the said province of Louisiana continued under the government of France." But it
