Tlie Beginning of Formal Colonization
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recommendations to the Council. The Junta concluded that, irrespective of prices, the wealthy should be limited to 30 sitios, and cattlemen of lesser means, to 10 sitios. Persons obtaining lands should be required to settle and improve them within two years. In disposing of the king's domain, the Junta recommended that preference should be given the landless. As for prices, the Junta was inclined to be liberal. It recom- mended the adoption of a price _scale from IO to 60 pesos per sitio, according to land quality and water availability. In preparation for his own recommendations to the king, the fiscal of the Council of the Indies had reviewed the various recommendations in November, 1804. He concluded that the prices suggested by the San Luis Potosi Junta were equitable and should be adopted, but that there was no reason to enact measures pertaining to payment procedure or to settlement and improvement requirements, since these matters had already been provided for and clearly defined in the Laws of tl1e lndies. 11 The king had adopted the recommendations of the Council, and in the final decree of February 14, 1805, made the stipulation--contrary to his fiscal' s opinion of its necessity-that in the future, all royal lands obtained for cattle raising were to be occupied and improved at once. 71 Louisiana f1tdian settlements on tlie Sabine. Commandant General Salcedo had to cope with problems other than those of defence, land policies and infiltrations of undesirable settlers. Early in July, 1806, four Choctaw chiefs sought permission to move their people to Texas. In transmitting the request to Salcedo, Governor Cordero called his attention to the fact that the lands between the Trinity and Sabine rivers had already been granted to the Tinzas. He suggested, therefore. that the Choctaws be permitted to occupy the lands along the coast between the Colorado and the Trinity. Salcedo, who had a more comprehensive plan for the dt!velopment of the province and the distribution of its lands among Indians and white men replied to the governor that there were good reasons for not assign- ing the coastal plains to the Choctaws. He pointed out that the Tinzas and the Choctaws were good friends, and should be allowed to settle in the same area along the Sabine River, where there were game, good water, and rich soil in abundance. He asked Cordero, therefore, to suggest 11 Laws of 11,, lndi,s, Book VIII, Title XXVI, Law XVI: Book IV, Title XII, Law XI. 71 Informe del Consejo, November 23-December IS, 1804. A. G. / ., .A 11du11cio a, MJzico, 88-1-4 (Dunn Transcripts, 1800-1819).
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