AVES ISLAND. 17 



should require of Venezuela full and prompt reparation for the wrongs 

 and injuries done to us, and of which we have heretofore complained. 



And now, sir, we would respectfully ask you to reperuse the letter 

 and remonstrance of the undersigned, addressed to you officially, dated 

 Boston, January 15, 1855, on the files of your department. 

 . That letter, you will perceive, states the principal facts in relation 

 to the discovery in March, 1854, and the taking peaceable possession 

 of, and the actual occupation in a few weeks subsequently by our 

 agents, in merchant vessels of the United States, bearing its flag, with a 

 company of seamen and laborers, of the Ma de Aves, or " Bird Island." 

 These islands, as they are called, are merely barren rocks, situated in 

 the Caribbean sea, in about 15° 40' north latitude, and 63° 38' west 

 longitude from Greenwich. The principal isle (Shelton's Isle) is 

 about a mile in circumference; had not in March, 1854, any soil, or 

 land, or houses, or trees^ or herbage of any kind upon it, and was 

 never inhabited by man before our agents landed on it. The others 

 near it are still smaller. Our agents discovered a deposit of guano on 

 the principal isle, before then unknown, and the presence of which 

 gives the chief, if not sole, value to the island. On being informed of 

 this, we fitted out from the United States, for the express object of 

 procuring cargoes of that article, as merchandise, several vessels with 

 extra crews and laborers, and at no trifling expense. We made con- 

 tracts for the supply of that article at prices which would, if we could 

 have carried them out, yielded us a handsome profit. We shipped 

 materials for houses^ and provisions thither for our laborers ; and we 

 provided barrows, implements, and tools, launches and other conve- 

 niences, wherewith to gather and lade the vessels with it. We sent 

 materials for M^iarves and landing places to be erected on the edge of 

 the rock, so that our vessels could come near to it. We intended to 

 establish there a permanent settlement, and purposed the transporta- 

 tion of soil thither by our vessels on their outward voyages from the 

 United States, wherewith to make gardens, and plant shrubs and 

 trees. 



Who, we ask, had any right to complain of this, much less to pro- 

 hibit us from so doing ; or after our arrival there and commencement 

 of operations and continuance thereof for several months, to eject us 

 by force from the island, seize our property carried thither, and forbid 

 our return? Doubtless the existence of this desolate rock has been 

 known for nearly two centuries, and perhaps longer. It is not im- 

 probable that French, English, Danish, Dutch, Spanish, and Portu- 

 guese and American merchantmen, and also men-of-war, likewise the 

 noted pirates that formerly infested those parts, have often visited 

 Shelton' s Isle ; but it is not believed any government or individuals 

 ever thought of it as a possession, and certainly none ever occupied it 

 till last year, when we planted the stars and stripes upon it. 

 Mere discovery, unless it is followed by occupation, confers no right 

 upon a government or upon an individual, either to an island or to a 

 barren rock in the ocean, or to the sliore of a continent, whether inhab- 

 ited by idolatrous savages or utterly uninhabited. The merely seeing 

 an island or other land, or a rock at sea, though before unknown, and 

 landing thereon, and leaving it again, — in other words, mere tempo- 

 Ex. Doc. 10 2 



