To his excellency, the Governor, and Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida: The undersigned, citizens of Monroe County, in said territory, respectfully represent: That some three years since by a law of the Legislative Council, the County of Monroe was divided, and a new county, called Dade, was set off from it. At the time the county was thus divided, the inhabitants of Monroe, with one or two exceptions, had no knowledge that such a division was in contemplation; and those living at Key Vacas, constituting the great bulk of the inhabitants of Dade, as we are informed and believe, were equally ignorant of the measure. It was, and still is opposed by the great mass of the people of both counties, as premature, impolitic and destructive [?] of their best interests, by retarding for an indefinite period the wholesome administration of law. The whole population of the southern district of Florida is principally confined to a chain of islands between Key West and Indian Key, including the two latter. By a census taken in April last, Key West had 600 inhabitants; Key Vacas upwards of 200, and Indian Key, at this day, has a population of but four families and ten white men, excluding wreckers, afloat with no fixed habitation. There are no inhabitants in the County of Dade, except at Key Vacas and Indian Key. Before the division of the county, it was with great difficulty, that offences could be punished, on account of the scarcity of legal jurors. In capital cases where the proof was evident, the accused invariably availed himself of his right of [peremptory] challenge and escaped punishment. Since the division of the county, Monroe is in quite as bad condition in this respect as before; while in the County of