sioned officers, soldiers, and sailors, upon either of the said establishments, their heirs or legal representatives, shall respectively be entitled to and receive the proportion and quantities of land following that is to say, every Colonel, 5000 acres; every Lieutenant-colonel, 4500 acres; every Major, 4000 acres; every Captain, 3000 acres; every subaltern, 2000 acres; every non-commissioned officer, who, having enlisted for the war, shall have served to the end thereof, 400 acres; and every soldier and sailor, under the like circumstances, 200 acres; every non-commissioned officer, who, having enlisted for the term of three years, shall have served out the same, or to the end of the present war, 200 acres; and every soldier and sailor, under the like circumstances, 100 acres; every officer of the navy, the same quantity of land as an officer of equal rank in the army. And where any officer, soldier, or sailor, shall have fallen or died in the service, his heirs or legal representatives shall be entitled to and receive the same quantity of land as would have been due to such officer, soldier, or sailor respectively, had he been living.

ACT OCTOBER, 1780, CHAPTER 3.

And each recruit, and also all our soldiers, now in service, that have already enlisted, or may hereafter enlist, by the first day of April next, to serve during the war, and who shall continue to serve faithfully to the end thereof, shall then receive a healthy sound negro, between the ages of ten and thirty years, or sixty pounds in gold or silver, at the option of the soldier, in lieu thereof, to be paid for or procured by equal assessment on property; and, moreover, be enentitled to 300 acres of land, in lieu of all such bounties given by any former laws.

OCTOBER, 1780, CHAPTER 27.

Be it enacted, That there shall be allowed to a Major-general 15,000 acres of land, and to a Brigadier-general, 10,000 acres of land, to be reserved to them and their heirs, in the same manner and on the same conditions, as is by law heretofore directed for the officers and soldiers of the Virginia Line in Continental ser

vice; and there shall be, moreover, allowed to all the officers of this State, on Continental or State establishments, or to the legal representatives of such officers, according to their respective ranks, an additional bounty in lands, in the proportion of one-third of any former lounty heretofore granted them.

And be it further enacted, That the legal representatives of any officer on Continental or State establishments, who may have died in the service before the bounty of lands granted by this or any former law, shall be entitled to demand and receive the same, in like manner as the officer himself might have done when living, agreeable to his rank.

ACT MAY, 1782, CHAPTER 47.

And be it further enacted, That any officer or soldier who hath not been cashiered or superseded, and who hath served the term of three years successively, shall have an absolute and unconditional title to his respective apportionment of the land appropriated as aforesaid; and for every year which every such officer or soldier may have continued, or shall hereafter continue in service, beyond the term of six years, to be computed from the time he last went into service, he shall be entitled to one-sixth part in addition to the quantity of land appropriated to his rank respectively.

ACT OCTOBER, 1782, CHAPTER 35.

And that all officers, seamen, and marines, or their representatives, shall be entitled to the same bounty in lands and other emoluments as the officers and soldiers of the Virginia Line on Continental establishment.

ACT OCTOBER, 1783, CHAPTER 4.

And be it further enacted, That the surveys under the direction of the superintendents, and the claimants having a right to survey from the priority of their numbers, shall proceed in the first place to survey all the good lands, to be judged of by the superintendents, in that tract of country lying on the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, as set apart by law for the said officers and soldiers, and then proceed in like manner to survey on the northwest side of the Ohio

River, between the rivers Scioto and Little Miami, until the deficiency of all military bounties in lands shall be fully and amply made up.

ACT OCTOBER, 1784, CHAPTER 16.

Be it enacted, That the Governor, with the advice of the Council, shall be, and he is hereby, authorized and empowered to suspend, for such time as he may think the tranquillity of the government may require, the surveying or taking possession of those lands that lie on the northwest side of the river Ohio, or below the mouth of the river Tennessee.

In consequence of this last act the Governor of Virginia issued two proclamations, suspending surveys, the latter of which is as follows:

PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, in pursuance of the act of the General Assembly entitled "An act authorizing the Governor, with the advice of the Council, to suspend, when necessary, the surveying of certain lands in the western country," his Excellency the Governor, with the advice of the Council of State, on the 6th day of January, in the year of our Lord 1785, did suspend the taking possession and surveying of any lands on the northwest side of the Ohio, or below the mouth of the river Tennessee, until authority for that purpose should hereafter be given, it appearing that the tranquillity of the government did at that time require such suspension; but whereas the United States in Congress assembled, on the 9th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1786, did resolve "that the surveyors, appointed pursuant to the ordinance for ascertaining the mode of disposing of lands in the western territory, should proceed in the execution thereof, within the east and west lines therein mentioned," and the superintendents of the surveys to be made on the lands allotted to the Virginia Line on Continental establishment, have requested that so much of the said proclamation as relates to the lands on the northwest side of the Ohio, should be annulled, and I have therefore thought fit, with the advice of the Council of State, hereby to annul so much of the said proclamation as relates to the lands on the northwest side of the Ohio. EDMUND RANDOLPH.

In the year 1784, the superintendent appointed by the deputation of officers, proceeded to Kentucky for the purpose of laying off and surveying the lands in the military districts of the Kentucky reserve, but found them in the possession of the Indians, and claimed by them. The settlers in the country earnestly represented to the Legislature of Virginia, that, if the surveys were persisted in, the infant and defenceless settlements in Kentucky would be involved in all the horrors and calamities of an Indian war. Accordingly, at the October session of 1784, the Legislature authorized the Governor of Virginia to suspend, for such time as he may think the tranquillity of the government may require, the surveying or taking possession of those lands which lie on the northwest side of the Ohio River, or below the mouth of the Tennessee River, and which have been reserved for the officers and soldiers of the Virginia Line, and the Illinois Regiment. In pursuance of this authority, the Governor of Virginia, on the 6th of January, 1785, issued his proclamation suspending the surveys. Thus Virginia, by her own act, put it out of the power of her officers and soldiers, after the 6th of January, 1785, to locate their warrants. This inhibition by the State authority continued until the 10th of January, 1786, when the prohibition was continued by the act of the General Govern

ment.

At that date, the treaty of Hopewell was concluded between the United States and the Chickasaw Indians, guaranteeing to the Indians, as part of their habitation and hunting-ground, all the lands below the Tennessee River, and providing that if any citizen of the United States, or any person not being an Indian, shall attempt to settle in any of the lands thereby allotted to the Chickasaws to live and to hunt on, such person shall forfeit the protection of the United States of America, and the Chickasaws may punish him or not, as they please.

The treaty of Hopewell remained in force until 1818, when the Indian title was extinguished. After that period Kentucky would not permit the location of military warrants to be made.

"From 1792 to 1800, that portion of Kentucky," says the Auditor of that State, "east of the high lands between the Tennessee

and the Cumberland rivers, and reserved for the officers and soldiers of the Virginia State and Continental Lines, was not held in much estimation by the early land speculators and settlers, owing to the fact of the fear of Indian hostility, and likewise a belief that all the good lands on the rivers and creeks had been appropriated by the military claims, and the remainder thereof was poor and barren. Kentucky valued them thus: In 1795, at $30 per 100 acres; in 1796, at $40 per 100 acres; and in 1800, at $20 per 100 acres.

Owing to all these difficulties, military warrants in vast numbers have remained unlocated, and Congress at different times have appropriated vast quantities of western lands to satisfy the demand, but so enormous has been the quantity required, that up to 1844 650,000 acres of warrants still remained unsatisfied and unlocated.

A LIST OF OFFICERS FOR WHOSE REVOLUTIONARY SERVICES VIRGINIA MILITARY LAND WARRANTS WERE ISSUED PRIOR TO DECEMBER 31, 1784.