ORDINANCE of the Administrators, on the Certificates for lands to be granted and the Whites or Free People who must be placed on plantations

THE Marquis de Fayet, &c.

Jean-Baptiste Duclos, &c.

Upon what has been represented to Us, that there is in this Colony a great number of settlers who have several tracts of land and, being almost never able to establish them all, content themselves with placing only invalid nègres on them to keep possession; that this abuse is very dangerous, because these places, where there are no Whites, all serve as refuges for marrons and as lairs for thieves and murderers, who are only too frequent in this Island; that the neighbors of these same places are considerably troubled by them, and that the consequences may be still more serious through the plots that can be formed in these gatherings of nègres. Wishing to remedy this, as also to bring order to the possession of lands, and finally desiring to secure safety and tranquillity in these Colonies, We have judged it necessary to make the Regulation that follows: