38 AVES ISLAND. 



tionable ability to protect themselves, and are precisely tlie four of all 

 others that we would not at any time yield an inch to_, unless in a case 

 of unquestionable right on their side; and we claim the prerogative 

 of indulging such fancy (as some will perhaps regard it) without 

 affording just cause for censure from any. We did not include Vene- 

 zuela, as we did not anticipate any intermeddling by her ; and, besides, 

 even if we had anticipated that her officials could have lent themselves 

 to the gang of speculators that have inveigled her into this scrape^ 

 insomuch as she is a sister American republic, poor and weak, and 

 likely to be kept so by bad men, we would probably have expressly 

 excepted her from the list, given in the last letter, of those to be re- 

 sisted. Our anxiety to give no ground for any accusation of filUhus- 

 tering on neighbors less powerful than ourselves, which of late years 

 has been so freely imputed to citizens of the United States, and for 

 which our country is so much reproached, would also have prompted 

 to such exception. We did not wish to involve our government in 

 any trouble on our account with any foreign power, but, if unavoida- 

 ble, we preferred a "foeman worthy of our steel." It was this desire 

 that influenced us in writing our letter of January 15 to you, to say 

 (whilst we earnestly insisted that Venezuela had not a shadow or sem- 

 blance of right, and protested against her unjustifiable proceedings,) 

 we did not then '^ask the island to be protected as a national territory" 

 of the United States, and limited our application for your interposi- 

 tion to demand from Venezuela indemnity for having ^' trampled in an 

 outrageous manner" upon our rights and interests as individual citi- 

 zens, and for her spoliation of our property. We left the questions of 

 redress for the violation of the national rights of our country in respect 

 to this isle, and of atonement for her insults to the flag of the United 

 States (as it became us to do) entirely to the President and yourself, 

 on whom the laws devolved them. You, and not we, had them in 

 charge. Some persons have attributed our difficulties in this case to 

 what they choose to characterize as a want of spirit and an overstock 

 of prudence, and that our troubles with the fillihusters of Venezuela 

 are but another exemplification of the unprofitableness of that " most 

 rascally virtue." We are confident, however, that the President and 

 yourself, and the considerate portion of our countrymen, will appre- 

 ciate our motives and commend them. And we are equally confident 

 they will not cause any relaxation of efforts to effect just redress for our 

 wrongs." 



If, as is possible, we have misconceived your letter, and that, in the 

 employment of the word duress, you adopted it as sometimes loosely 

 used in common parlance, and not in reference to its technical common 

 law signification ; and likewise, that in your reference to such defense 

 of duress only you did not mean to exclude those of mistake, misrepre- 

 sentation, or fraud, or a compound of one or of all, with duress or con- 

 straint, to overthrow the admissions, &c., in the alleged agreement. 

 Hoping this may be so, we have, since the receipt of your letter, sought 

 for authentic information from all sources available to us, and we ex- 

 pect to forward to you, if not with this letter by the mail after, con- 

 clusive proof of misrepresentation and fraud practiced to effect its being 

 signed by Captain Gribbs, (if that produced is the one he did sign,) 



