PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE 17

tenance during six months. It appears that, upon reconnaissance, a change in the location was advisable, in consequence of portions of the tract being subject to inundation, or occupied by the ancient inhabitants; and a new grant was issued the following June, giving the same quantity of land, to be taken upon the river Ouachita and the Bayou de Siar and Barthelemi. In return, Baron de Bastrop, in the capacity of a colonizer, was bound to introduce settlers to a num- ber exceeding two hundred and fifty families, to each of which he was to assign a tract of land of not more than 400 square arpents. These requisitions were complied with on the part of De Bastrop, as far as he was permitted; many families were introduced and measures taken to erect a mill, and to make other improvements; but he was prohibited by the local government from carrying out his designs, as it neglected to transport the settlers and to furnish them with pro- visions and seeds. Consequently, De Bastrop was not allowed to ful- ſil his obligations, being compelled to abandon the enterprise forever, as Spain, on the 30th of April, 1803, transferred to the United States, through France, by a secret treaty of 1800, the magnificent province of Louisiana, which then stretched from the great lakes of the North to the waters of the Mexican Gulf. On the 9th of August, 1796, another grant of 458,963 acres (536, 904 arpents) was also made by the Spanish government to James Clamorgan, a merchant then residing at St. Louis, with the object of establishing a rope manufactory to supply his Majesty’s navy and the Havana with cordage; procuring farmers from Ganada to engage in the cultivation of hemp; and to give instructions in its manufac- ture. This grant called for the tract of land now lying partly within the boundaries of Missouri and partly in Arkansas, on the western bank of the Mississippi, beginning at the place which is opposite the head of an island situated about 100 arpents below the Little Prairie, about 30 miles below the village of Neow Madrid. The continuance of hostilities between Spain and England prevented Clamorgan from obtaining his farmers from Canada, and from commencing the culture of hemp, until Louisiana was transferred to the United States in 1803. On the 3 of March, 1817, Congress granted four townships of un-

occupied land(92, 160 acres) lying in that part of the Mississippi Ter-

ritory now comprised within the counties of Greene and Marengo, in the State of Alabama, to Charles Villar, agent of an association of emigrants from France, for the purpose and on the conditions of settlement of at least one adult to each half section contained in the said four townships, and for the cultivation of the vine, the olive, and other vegetable productions, no settler being entitled to more than 640 acres; the grantee to pay the government of the United States the sum of§184, 320(§2 per acre) on or before the expiration of four- teen years. It was further stipulated that, within three years from the date of the contract, there should be made upon each tract allotted to the respective associates a settlement by themselves, in- dividually, or by others on their account; that, on or before the ex- piration of seven years, there should be cultivated at least one acre of each quarter section, taken aggregately, in vines; and that there 2 A