Winter et al. v. United States.
the province, his deputies, the special order of the governor or intendant, or those who represented them. No government gives any validity to private surveys of its warrants or orders of survey; and we have no reason to think that Spain was a solitary exception, even as to the general domain, by grants in the ordinary mode for a specific quantity to be located in one place."
Between a survey by the public surveyor and an authorized survey by a private person, there was a wide difference. A survey made by a public surveyor, in the discharge of his public duties, is admitted in evidence in suits between other parties, because the act is done under oath, and in the discharge of his duties to the government and the public. These duties are to measure the land by compass and chain, to establish corners, mark lines, and to preserve accurate field notes of the survey, with such explanations as may be required to give it certainty. A plot is then made, which embodies, in a condensed form, the whole survey, and shows the lines, corners, trees, rivers, creeks, and other natural and artificial objects on the ground, with such remarks as may explain them. The statement, however, of collateral facts not within the scope of his proper official functions, are not admissible as evidence. Ellicott v. Pearl, 10 Pet. 441; United States v. Hanson, 16 Ib. 198.
It is upon this principle that it has been frequently held in the Florida cases, that because of the official character of the surveyor-general, the plots and certificates made by him, in the discharge of his official duty, have accorded to them the force and character of a deposition; but as to a survey by a private person, nothing is presumed, and every thing must be proved. 16 Pet. 200, 201; 10 Ib. 334; 16 Ib. 162.
The Spanish regulations attended to most clearly evince that when a concession was made, the duty was imposed on the grantee of having the order of survey executed, and the survey returned to the proper officer at his own expense, and without any cost to the royal treasury. In other words, the concession being an authority to the surveyor-general and his deputies to make the survey as a public trust, it was the duty of the grantee to call upon him for that purpose, or to procure authority for a private person to do it.
