214 University of California Publications in History
General Cortes of the Nation with respect to the cession mentioned
and stipulated in the second and third articles, I approve and ratify
all and every one of the articles referred to, and the clauses which
are contained in them; and, in virtue of these presents, I approve
and ratify them, promising, on the faith and word of a King, to
execute and observe them and to cause them to be executed and
observed entirely as if I Myself had signed them; and that the
circumstance of having exceeded the term of six months fixed for
the exchange of the ratifications in the sixteenth article may afford
no obstacle in any manner, it is My deliberate will that the present
ratification be as valid and firm, and produce the same effects, as
if it had been done within the determined period. Desirous at the
same time of avoiding any doubt or ambiguity concerning the
meaning of the eighth article of the said treaty in respect to the
date which is pointed out in it as the period for the confirmation
of the grants of lands in the Floridas, made by Me or by the compe-
tent authorities in My royal name, which point of date was fixed
in the positive understanding of the three grants of land made in
favor of the Duke of Alagon, the Count of Pufionrostro, and Don
Pedro de Vargas, being annulled by its tenor; I think proper to
declare that the said three grants have remained and do remain
entirely annulled and invalid, and that neither the three individ-
uals mentioned, nor those who may have title or interest through
them, can avail themselves of the said grants at any time or in any
manner; under which explicit declaration the said eighth article
is to be understood as ratified. In the faith of all which I have com-
manded to despatch these presents, signed by My hand, sealed with
My secret seal, and countersigned by the underwritten, My Secre-
tary of Despatch of State. Given at Madrid the twenty-fourth of
October, one thousand eight hundred and twenty.
 FERNANDO.
 EvAmISTO PEREZ DE CASTRO.