Bernal

The confirmation of this claim was resisted on the part of the United States on the ground of fraud. The court being desirous that the fullest opportunity should be afforded to the appellants and the numerous parties interested in defeating this claim to establish the charge, has devoted an entire week to its investigation. A mass of testimony has accordingly been taken, but it is for the most part so inconclusive, irrelevant and conflicting that the district attorney in his concluding argument forbore to allude to it and based his objections to the confirmation of the claim almost exclusively upon the suspicions suggested by a comparison of the original title papers with the expediente from the archives. A brief review of the testimony may not. however, be inappropriate.

The claim of the appellees is for a tract of land, or more correctly, perhaps, for two tracts, known as the “Rincon de las Salinas” and the “Potrero Viejo,” as shown by the map accompanying the expediente. In support of *1124 this claim, the appellees have offered in evidence the original documento or title paper issued by the governor to the party interested; a map certified to be a copy of that which…