20 AVES ISLAND. 



to manufacture a king for them, and as, in fact, nothing ever lived 

 there until 1854, except aquatic birds, we are informed that she founded 

 her- claim on the assertion that an officer of the British navy once made 

 a survey of it. This kind of title might as well he preferred by the 

 British to about half of our uninhabited Florida Keys, and to the 

 Alacranes in the Gulf of Mexico ; for she has been surveying in that 

 region for a quarter of a century past. And she may likewise just as 

 well claim several islands off of the coast of California and in the Gulf 

 of California on the same ground. It would not be at all surprising 

 if she proved that the red cross of St. George was formally raised on 

 Shelton's Isle, and loyally saluted by a salvo of cannon and small 

 arms, drinking the health of its sovereign, and singing ''Britannia 

 rules the waves," &c., as acts of sovereignty. The Dutch, we learn, 

 have also put forth their claim, and have, since our ejection, driven 

 Venezuela off by force, or the latter has allowed and admitted their 

 right; which the Danish, it seems, had conceded Venezuela possessed. 

 Spain, doubtless, will claim also, and Portugal and Denmark, as con- 

 tiguous to some place or other ; and it is quite likely France, if not 

 alone, in partnership with England, will set up like pretensions, as 

 their alliance, it is said, extends over all creation, and the guardian- 

 ship of all creation, and the cultivation of ^'■ideas'' over all creation. 



We have one answer to all these "people," and that is, whoever 

 discovered Isla de*Aves, or Shelton's Isle, 200 or 250 years ago, is of no 

 consequence; forasmuch as no positive acts of ownership, no exercise 

 of sovereignty, no possession or occupation, actual or constructive, was 

 ever had or attempted by any body, Spanish or Dutch, Portuguese, 

 French, Venezuelan, or English, or Yankees, till 1854; and when we 

 took possession and occupied it, it was uninhabited and vacant, aban- 

 doned and derelict. It is too late for any of these people to hunt up 

 old papers and surveys, and the like, and to trace back to history to 

 discover who first discovered it. These things are out of date, and do 

 not deserve consideration in this practical age — the age that Napoleon 

 III calls the age of "ideas," and that we call the "age of progress." 



There is no land, nor earth, nor, properly speaking, soil, on Shel- 

 ton's Isle. It, and the trifling isles near it, are, as before said, barren, 

 desolate, naked, vacant rocks, elevated but a few feet above the ocean. 

 The survey we had made of it in 1854, a copy of which we send you, 

 we will vouch is superior to the alleged British survey, manufactured, 

 we doubt not, since. Until we discovered guano there, no possible in- 

 ducement or motive could exist for any individual to occupy it. It is 

 most desirable that this country should possess this island on account 

 of the great advantage to our agriculturists of the Atlantic States, given 

 by that best of all newly discovered fertilizers, of which there is a de- 

 posit on it, and it is due to that branch of our industry that some exer- 

 tions should be made to prevent the odious monopolies existing on the 

 other side of this continent in that article, and which it is sought to 

 perpetuate there, and also here, at the expense of our farmers. Except 

 upon the Alacranes, on the gulf coast of Yucatan, Shelton's Isle is the 

 first discovery on the eastern side of the continent having such deposit. 

 It is not doubted there are other barren and desolate and derelict rocks 

 containing it (of as good, if not better, quality than the Pacr/?c guano, 



