signed, pursuant to departmental orders, for the transfer of the archives to the latter State, while steps have been taken to bring about the final closing by the 1st July next of the business of the surveying district for both States in question. With great respect,

JOS. S. WILSON.

NOTE. Then followed list of field-notes, record volumes, and property belonging to the United States, deemed unnecessary to accompany this paper.

CHRONOLOGICAL DATA.

First Period.

Foundation of St. Louis, under the French government, 15th February, 1764. Treaty ceding Louisiana to Spain first made public, 1764.

Government assumed, under French organization, by St. Ange, 1765.

Second Period.

Spanish troops, under d'Ulloa, first take possession of St. Louis, 1768.
Pidro Piernas, lieutenant governor, May 20, 1770.

Francisco Cruzat, lieutenant governor, May 19, 1775.

Fernando de Leyba, lieutenant governor, June 14, 1778.

Francisco Cruzat, lieutenant governor, September 24, 1780.

Manuel Perez, lieutenant governor, November 25, 1787.

Zenon Trudeau, lieutenant governor, July 21, 1792.

Carlos Dehault Delassus, lieutenant governor, August 29, 1799.

Third Period.

Louisiana ceded by Spain to France, October 1, 1800. (Delassus remaining in office as lieutenant governor.)

Fourth Period.

Louisiana ceded by France to the United States, April 30, 1803.
News of transfer first received at St. Louis, July 9, 1803.

Formal possession delivered, December 20, 1803.

Major Amos Stoddard received possession on 9th May, in the year 1804. Ou the opposite page fac-similes are given of the signatures of the first officers in command of the post of St. Louis and Upper Louisiana, under the French and Spanishgovernments, from the year 1764 (or 1765) up to the year 1803.

St. Ange was military and civil commander; Lefebvre and Labuxiere were judges; the six following them were all lieutenants governor.

Livre Terrien No. 1.

The first grant or concession made in the town or village of St. Louis is recorded on page 1 of Livre Terrien No. 1, and is made by St. Ange and Lefebvre to Joseph Labuxiere, for a lot of 300 feet in front by 150 in depth. Grant dated April 27, 1766.

The last grant by St. Ange and Lefebvre is also to Joseph Labuxiere, dated August 12, 1766. See Livre Terrien No. 1, folio 5, second page.

The first grant by St. Ange and Labuxiere is to Julien Roy, dated August

12, 1766. See Livre Terrien No. 1, folio 6.

The last grant by St. Ange and Labuxiere is to Bapt. Bequet, the miller, dated February 7, 1770. See Livre Terrien No. 1, folio 70.

Livre Terrien No. 2.

In Livre Terrein No. 2 are recorded the surveys, by Martin Milony Duralde, the first official surveyor in the colony of St. Louis, executed by him, of the lots

ville, in his own right, claims a lot in the town of Saint Louis, containing one hundred and twenty feet in front by two hundred in depth, bounded," &c.

Livre Terrien No. 2.

In Livre Terrein No. 2 are recorded the surveys,

by Martin Milony Duralde,

the first official surveyor in the colony of St. Louis, executed by him, of the lots

in the common field of St. Louis adjoining the village, and of those in the northern part of the Grand Prairie common field. In the latter part of the same book are recorded the surveys of Pierre Chouteau of the lots in the northern part of the Prairie des Noyers common field.

Livre Terrien No. 3.

The first concession by Lieutenant Governor Pedro Piernas was made to Amable Guion on the 12th of June, 1771. See Livre Terrien No. 3, page 4, folio 1. The last concession by Piernas is to Joseph Mocqué, dated the 24th April, 1775. See Livre Terrien No. 3, folio 8, second page.

The first concession by Francisco Cruzat is to Pedro la Puente, dated the 25th June, 1775. See Livre Terrien No. 3, folio 9, page 1.

The last concession (during his first term) by Cruzat is to Francis "Vizonet," (Bissonet,) dated 29th May, 1778. See Livre Terrien No. 3, folio 15, page 1. The first concession by Lieutenant Governor Fernando de Leyba is to Nicholas Leconte, dated St. Louis, 23d July, 1778. See Livre Terrien No. 3, folio 16.

Livre Terrien No. 4.

The last concession by Leyba is to Pierre Doriox, dated the 31st March, 1780. See Livre Terrien No. 4, folio 3, page 1.

There now follows a concession made by Silicio Francisco de Cartabona, lieutenant of the regiment of infantrie, &c., and lieutenant governor par interim, &c., to Augustine Amiot, dated 7th September, 1780. See Livre Terrien No. 4, folio 5, page 2.

The first concession by Francisco Cruzat at the commencement of his second term is to Augustin Choteau, (Chouteau,) dated 14th August, 1781. See Livre Terrien No. 4, folio 4.

The last concession by Francisco Cruzat at the end of his second term, is to Santiago Clamorgan, (James Clamorgan,) dated 18th October, 1787. See Livre Terrien No. 4, folio 18.

The first concession by Manuel Perez is to Joseph Tallon, (Taillon,) dated 23d April, 1788. See Livre Terrien No. 4, folio 18, second page.

The last concession by Manuel Perez is to Pedro Gañon, (Gagnon,) dated 22d May, 1792. See Livre Terrien No. 4, folio 27, first page.

The first concession by Zenou Trudean is to Juan, Roger, an Indian, dated the 3d of May, 1793. See Livre Terrien No. 4, folio 27, second page.

Livre Terrien No. 5.

The last concession by Zenon Trudeau, as found on the last page of Livre Terrien No. 5, is to Auto. Reilhe, under date of the 20th of July, 1797.

Livre Terrien No. 6.

Livre Terrien No. 6 contains nothing but the surveys, executed by Mathurin Bouvet, of the several lots in the villages of St. Ferdinand and village à Robert, with the approvals of Zenon Trudeau at the end of the book, one of which approvals is dated November 2, 1794, and the other October 17, 1796.

There are no concessions recorded in the Livres Terriens as made by Lieutenant Governor Dehault Delassus. There are some original papers representing concessions on file in the office of recorder of land titles, but they are scattered about and only found mixed with other papers in bundles. It is entirely impossible to find out which was the first concession he made, or which was the last.

From Hunt's minutes, book No. 1, pp. 107, 108, and 109, "Andrew Landreville, in his own right, claims a lot in the town of Saint Louis, containing one hundred and twenty feet in front by two hundred in depth, bounded," &c.

Auguste Chouteau, being duly sworn says that as soon as peace was made, in seventeen hundred and sixty-two, between France and England, Mr. Dabbadie being director general and military and civil commandant of the whole Province of Louisiana, granted the necessary powers to a company, under the name of Laclede, Ligueste, Maxan & Co., to trade with the Indians of the Missouri, and those west of the Mississippi above the Missouri, to the river Saint Pierre; in consequence of which Mr. Laclede took command of the first armament or expedition, accompanied by Auguste Chouteau and others, and they started from New Orleans on the third of August, A. D. seventeen hundred and sixtythree. On the third of November, A. D. seventeen hundred and sixty-three, Mr. Laclede with his company arrived at Sainte Genevieve, but finding no place suitable for the storage of his goods, and being still too far from the Missouri, he proceeded on to Fort Chartres, which was still in possession of the French troops. On the tenth of February, A. D. seventeen hundred and sixtyfour, Mr. Laclede sent Auguste Chouteau, this deponent, at the head of a party of mechanics of all trades, amounting to upwards of thirty in number, to select a place suitable for an establishment such as he proposed. On the fifteenth of February, A. D. seventeen hundred and sixty-four, they landed at a place which they thought convenient for the purpose of the company, and immediately proceeded to cut down trees, draw the lines of a town, and build the house where this deponent at present resides. Mr. Laclede on his arrival named the town Saint Louis, in honor of the King of France.

After the foundation of Saint Louis, which was on the fifteenth of February, A. D. seventeen hundred and sixty-four, the most remarkable events are―

The arrival on the seventeenth of July, A. D. seventeen hundred and sixtyfive, of Mr. St. Ange de Bellerive at Saint Louis with his troops from Fort de Chartres, together with the government officers. After his arrival, Saint Louis was considered as the capital of Upper Louisiana. On the eleventh of August, A. D. seventeen hundred and sixty-eight, Mr. Rious arrived at Saint Louis, and took possession of Upper Louisiana in the name of his Catholic Majesty the King of Spain.

The revolution at New Orleans, on the twenty-ninth day of October, A. D. seventeen hundred and sixty-eight, caused the evacuation of Upper Louisiana by the Spanish troops, and their departure for New Orleans the seventeenth of July, A. D. seventeen hundred and sixty-nine. On the twenty-ninth of November, A. D. seventeen hundred and seventy, Mr. Pierre Piernas arrived in Saint Louis with the troops under his command, and again took possession of Upper Louisiana in the name of his Catholic Majesty. On the twentieth of June, A. D. seventeen hundred and seventy-eight, Mr. Laclede died at Arkansas.

66

"Annce du grand coup."-On the sixth of May, A. D. seventeen hundred and eighty, Saint Louis was attacked by fourteen hundred Indians and Canadians.

Annee des grandes eaux."-The Mississippi rose twenty feet above the highest known water-marks. This deponent went in a boat (for the purpose of procuring plank) from Saint Louis, through the woods growing in the American bottom, to Kaskaskia. This was in April, A. D. seventeen hundred and eightyfive.

Annce des galeres."-The arrival of the galleys with Spanish troops, under the command of Colonel Don Carlos Howard, A. D. seventeen hundred aud ninety-seven.

“Annee du grand hiver."--The year of the cold winter was the winter of A. D. seventeen hundred and ninety-nine and eighteen hundred. Réaumur's thermometer was (as far as he recollects) thirty two degrees below zero.

"Annee de la picotte."-The fifteenth of May, A. D. eighteen hundred and one, the small-pox made its first appearance at Saint Louis.