Pétion grants parcels of five to twenty-five carreaux to retired soldiers and officers.

It was on 30 December that he made his intelligent and wise New Year’s gift to all those who, like himself, had watered with their blood the lands of Independence and served the Republic faithfully. To each soldier or noncommissioned officer in retirement he gave, in the name of the Fatherland, a grant of five *carreaux* of arable land, to be possessed in full ownership in perpetuity, by themselves and their heirs, with the right to dispose of it as might seem good to them. He conceded on the same title to each battalion commander fifteen *carreaux* of land, ten *carreaux* to the sub-lieutenants, lieutenants and captains, and to the colonels twenty-five *carreaux*.