84 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI for his services. He proceeded to lay out the site of his village and to have the surround- ing lands surveyed. The surveyors who did this work were Col. Israel Shreve, Peter Light, and Col. Christopher Hays. It seems that his instructions to these surveyors was really the beginning of the present system of land survey, and that the United States gov- ernment adopted the method devised by Mr. Morgan, in a subsequent survey of the public lands.
- Morgan thus describes the site which he
had chosen for his town of New Madrid: "We have unanimously resolved to establish our new city above-mentioned with the date (of this letter) some twelve leagues below the above-mentioned Ohio, at the place formerly called L'Ance la Graisse, below the mouth of the river called Chepousea or Sound river in Captain Hutchins's map. Here the banks of the Mississippi, for a considerable distance, are high, dry, and delicious, and the terri- tory west of the San Francisco river is of the most desirable quality for corn, tobacco, hemp, cotton, flax, and indigo, although ac- cording to the opinion of some, too rich for wheat, in such manner, that we truly believe that there is not a single arpent of uncultiv- able land, nor does it show any difference throughout the space of one thousand square miles. The country rises gradually from the Mississippi and is a fine, dry, agreeable, and healthful land, superior, we believe, in beauty and quality to those of any part of America. "The limits of our new city of Madrid will extend about four miles south on the bank of the river, and two to the west of it, so that it is divided by a deep lake of the purest fresh water, 80 varas wide and many
- Houck, "History of Missouri," Vol. II. p. 64.
leagues long, running north and south and empting by a constant and small current into the Mississippi after flowing through the center of the city. The banks of this lake, which is called Santa Anna, are high, beau- tiful and pleasant; its watei-s are deep, clear, and fresh ; its bottom is of clean sand, with- out logs, grass, or other vegetables; and it abounds in fish. ' ' On each side of this fine lake, streets, one hundred feet broad, have been marked out, and a road of equal width about the same. Trees have been marked, which must be pre- served for the health and recreation of the citizens. "Another street, one hundred and twenty feet wide, has been marked out on the bank of the ^Mississippi, and also the trees noted which must be kept for the above-mentioned objects. ' ' Twelve acres have been kept in the center of the city for the purpose of a public park, whose plan and adornment the magistrates of the city will look after; and forty lots of one and one-half acres apiece, have been consid- ered for those public works or uses which the citizens may request or the magistrate or chief order, and another twelve acres reserved for the disposition of the King. A ground- plot of one and one-half acres, and a lot of five acres, outside the city will be given to each one of the first six hundred settlers. "Our surveyors are now working on the extensive plan and proving up the grotmd plots of the city and the outside lots, and measuring the lands into sections of 320 acres apiece, in addition to those which they choose for the settlement of the people who may come (here). These portions and the con- ditions of the settlements are also in accord- ance with a plan universally satisfactory.
