like manner as colonists, shall be entitled to their land in the followina proportion and manner: Every head of a family shall be entitled to one league and labor of land; and every single man of the age of seventeen and upwards, shall be entitled to the third part of one le~aue of land. All citizens who may have previously to the adoption of this constitution, received their league of land as heads of families, and their quarter of a league of land as single persons, shall receive such additional quantity as will make the quantity of land received by them equal to one league and labor, and one third of a league, unless by bargain, sale, or exchange, they have transferred or may henceforth transfer their right to said land, or a portion thereof, to some other citizen of the republic: and in such case, the person to whom such right shall have been transferred shall be entitled to the same, as fully and amply as the person making the transfer might or could have been.-No alien shall hold land in Texas, except by titles emanating directly from the government of this republic. But if any citizen of this republic should die intestate or otherwise, his children or heirs shall inherit his estate, and aliens shall have a reasonable time to take possession of and dispose of the same, in a manner hereafter to be pointed out by law. Orphan children whose parents were entitled to land under the colonization laws of Mexico, and who now reside in the republic, shall be entitled to all the rights of which their parents were possessed at the time of their death. The citizens of the republic shall not be compelled to reside on the land, but shall have their lines plainly marked. All orders of survey legally obtained by any citizen of the republic, from any legally authorized commissioner, prior to the act of the late consultation closing the land offices, shall be valid. In all cases the actual seltler and occupant of the soil shall be entitled, in locating his land, to include his improvement, in preference to all other claims not acquired previous to his settlement, according to the law of the land and this constitution-provided, that nothing herein contained shall prejudice the rights of any other citizen from whom a settler may hold land by rent or lease. And whereas, the protection of the public domain from unjust and fraudulent claims, and quieting the people in the enjoyment of their lands, is one of the great du ties of this convention; and whereas the legislature of Coahuila and Texas having passed an act in the year 1834, in behalf of general John T . .Mason of New York, and another on the 14th clay of March, 1835, under which the enormous amount of eleven hundred leagues of
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