AVES ISLAND. 19 



adjacent, contiguous, and appurtenant country, naturally tributary to 

 them, yet no respectable authority can be found to warrant Venezuela, 

 as the successor of any Spanish discoverers, in laying claim to a barren 

 rock at least 500 miles from any part of her coasts, and totally dissev- 

 ered and disconnected from them. Why, it is much nearer the Island 

 of Dominica and Guadaloupe; and, in fact, Puerto Rico is but half as 

 far from Isla Aves as is the Venezuelan coast. How the authorities 

 of Venezuela came to put forth the claim they have, and enforce it as 

 they did against us, can only be accounted for on the supposition that 

 they were deceived and misled by third parties seeking to make a 

 s|3eculation for themselves in the premises regardless of law or right. 



It is out of the question to admit that a State may, after discovery 

 by her flag, or the flag of her antecessors, abandon such island, neglect 

 to use it for any purpose, cultivation, fishing, hunting, or wooding, 

 leaA'-e it derelict for a series of years ; nay, even since landing on it, if 

 they ever did land on it, and then when other people, with greater 

 enterprise, seek to use it for beneficial purposes, drag forth from the 

 oblivion of centuries the dormant claim of discovery. Such claim is 

 not merely dormant, it is dead ! Especially when such claim is urged 

 on the flimsy ground of constructive right merely, as an appurtenance 

 to main land separated by the ocean from it, and 500 miles distant ; 

 should it be disregarded? [F7<:?e authorities before cited : ''Facility 

 with which adjacent vacant land may be reached iil a short time, and 

 settled and cultivated and defended, or as compared with the proba- 

 bility and facility of the same things from another quarter," is an 

 important consideration. The Russian right to the possession of the 

 desolate country north of Sitka, uncontested and peaceful for many 

 years, is founded on this principle. An island ''must be a natural' 

 appendage to the coast," "geographically appurtenant and tributary" 

 to it, to justify the possession of the coast "reaching it," and making 

 such possessory title valid without "actual occupation of such island."] 

 We learn that England, as usual in such cases, has put in her claim 

 to this rock. That was to be expected. She is famous, and always 

 was, for "finding things," and is doubtless well sustained with all 

 sorts of muniments of title and proofs of title, made exactly to suit the 

 case. As there never has been an Indian on the Isla de Aves out of which 



.subdue, and occupy and possess lands in America, and the right of the Indian was held to 

 be subordinate to that of the Christian discoverers and occupiers. The possessioH necessary 

 to be exercised is personal action on the land and excluding action of others, full of perma- 

 nent control or power over it, and intention of appropriation to claimant's own use; all this 

 must be united to constitute possession. Occupation is pedis possessio, with power of ex- 

 cluding others at pleasure; it is de facto, and not constructive possession, that is necessary. 

 Intent to occupy and hold must be manifested by outward and external acts of a positive 

 character. By the common consent of nations these acts are, in discovered countries, use 

 and settlement. Continuous use is an indispensable element of occupation. The possession 

 must be real, must form settlement, practical use. It must not be unreasonably delayed. 

 IVIonuments, hoisting flags, making land-marks, fixing salutes, and erecting crosses, and the 

 like, are empty ceremonies if unaccompanied by continued occupation. So are mere surveys. 

 On the voluntary desertion or abandonment of first discoverers of lands, and especially of a 

 barren and uninhabited rock in the high seas, the same becomes thereby derelict, or "no 

 man's land," and the next discoverer may ocsupy and hold it. The right to Nootka Sound, 

 in dispute last century between England and Spain, is an example of this, and there are 

 many others. 



The terms employed in this note are extracted from authorities cited in the text and others 

 employed in them. 



