Richmond Enquirer

[From the Nashville [Tenn.] Whig.]

SOLDIERS' BOUNTY LANDS.

That part of the soldiers' bounty lands lying in the Missouri and Illinois territories, being five millions of acres, are in a rapid state of preparation, and will soon be ready to be allotted among the soldiers. Gen. Rector, the surveyor general, following the instructions of the government, has employed more than 50 companies of surveyors, comprising upwards of 400 men, & bound them in contracts to complete their surveys by the 1st day of June next.

To make sure of five millions of acres fit for cultivation, upwards of eight millions are ordered to be surveyed. None will be offered to the soldiers which is not fit for cultivation, and the surveys now include large bodies superior in fertility to the richest lands of Kentucky or Illinois.

Two and a half millions of acres will lie in the Illinois territory, in the fork of Mississippi and Illinois rivers, between the latitude 39 and 41 degrees north: in parallels corresponding with Washington city, Philadelphia, and the middle parts of Pennsylvania. This tract is washed by the Mississippi on the west, and the Illinois on the south east, and has an easy communication with lake Michigan, by Chicago, and may carry its commerce to N. Orleans or to N. York, when the canal of that state is finished. Slavery is not admitted in the Illinois territory.

The other two and a half millions will lay in the Missouri territory, between latitude 36 and 40 degrees north, and longitude 17 and 19 degrees west from Washington city. This tract is watered by the Mississippi, the Missouri and its tributaries the Great Osage and the Gasconade. Slavery is admitted in the Missouri territory.

These lands are the first of the western country for richness of soil, healthiness of climate, and navigable waters; advantages enhanced by a position near the centre of the great valley of Mississippi where the union of the great rivers and the centre of territory combine to fix so many establishments of trade and population.

The staples will be wheat, hemp and tobacco; lead, salt and fur.

Besides the bounty lands, upwards of five millions of acres of other public land will also be surveyed by the first of June next; making in all, in the territories of Missouri and Illinois, about fourteen millions of acres, subject at that time to the disposition of the government. The drawing of lots for the soldiers' bounties, and the public sales, may be expected to come on soon after.

The Indian title has been extinguished in the Missouri territory, to about 70,000 square miles; that is to say, to a tract of country about as large as the state of Virginia, and embracing all the latitude of that state.

The line between the whites and the Indians begins 300 miles up the Missouri river, at the mouth of the Kansas, in latitude 39 deg. 5 min. north, and runs north over a rich country, 200 miles, to the head of the little river Platte; then east, over naked sterile ridges, 150 miles, to the Des Moines, (river of the monks:) then down that river, 160 miles, to the Mississippi, south of the Missouri, the line begins at Prairie de Rocher, (fire Prairie.) 30 miles below the mouth of the Kansas, and runs south 254 miles down the river Arkansas; then down that river, supposed 250 miles to the Mississippi.

The two and a half millions of acres intended for the soldiers in the Missouri territory, are surveyed within those boundaries.

[We have this information from col. Benton, and give it as such, that those interested may rely upon it.—Franklin Monitor.]