of the wood land; which said quantity, so reserved,
should be held, used, and occupied by the said indians so long
as they, or any of them, or their descendants, should continue
to inhabit the said settlement: and the said commissioners
were further authorised to covenant that there should be
allowed and paid to each individual of the said indians who
then claimed title to, and received rent from the said lands,
such annuity as might be agreed upon, provided that the
aggregate amount of such annuities should not exceed the sum
of six hundred dollars: that the said annuities should
commence on the first of January ensuing the date of the
agreement, and that the annuity allowed as aforesaid to any indian
should, upon his death, descend and be continued to such
person or persons as under the laws of the state would be
entitled to have the personal estate of such indian in case of his
dying intestate and leaving personal estate, and be transmitted
in the same manner, provided that no annuity should be
transmitted to any but the immediate descendants of the Indian to
whom it was granted, and that upon failure of such
descendants the annuity should cease. The provisions concerning
the execution, acknowledgement and recording of this
agreement it is not thought material to mention.
The commissioners, after the completion and execution of
the said contract, where to cause the lands to be surveyed:
they were also to have the quantity to be reserved as
aforesaid for the indians laid off, and distinctly marked and
bounded. The remainder was then to be laid off in lots of not
less than one hundred nor more than five hundred acres,
unless by the interference of creeks, branches, roads, or angles,
it became necessary to deviate in some degree from that rule;
the lots to be numbered, marked, and bounded; and a
complete plot and certificate to be prepared, and lodged with the
clerk of the county to be filed and retained for safe custody.
The agent of the state, after receiving the proceedings of
the commissioners, which, with a duplicate of the plot and
certificate of the survey, were to be transmitted to him, and
after a notice, and upon terms, prescribed in the act, was
authorised to proceed, in his discretion, to dispose of the lots
by public sale.
The indians were to be debarred from the privilege of
selling, leasing, granting, or in any manner disposing of the land
to be reserved to them as aforesaid, or any part thereof and a
penalty was affixed to any attempt to purchase or lease from
them contrary to the act; and, if no contract should be
effected in virtue of this act, before the first of August then
ensuing, the agent was authorised in his descretion, to prosecute a
suit or suits at law or equity, as the case might require, to
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