AVES ISLAND. 43 



XXI. Constraint or coercion by menace or threats of a government, 

 or its officers, destroys contract with an individual. 



XXII. Admissions by agents. 



XXIII. Captain Gibbs's agency. 



XXIV. The Dias capitulation obtained by the compound means of 

 misrepresentation and fraud and constraint, or force or duress. 



XXY. Onus prohandi as to title rests on Venezuela. 



XXVI. Venezuela bound by the consequences of the fraud and 

 mal-conduct of her officers, and, having avowed them, cannot hereaf- 

 ter change the issue. 



XXVII. Form of relinquishment by agent immaterial. 



XXVIII. Insults to the United States by Venezuela and outrages 

 upon our persons and property in this case a just casus helli. 



XXIX. Damages and indemnity. 



Memoranda hy Philo S. Shelton, in Ms case, for State Department, 

 June, 1855. 



I. FACT OF DISCOVERY. 



Captain N. P. Gibbs, in command of the brig John R. Dow, in our 

 employ, whilst on a cruise, expressly for discovery of guano on desert 

 islands in the Caribbean sea, about last of March, 1854, or first of 

 April, discovered "Aves Islands," in latitude 15° 40' north, longi- 

 tude west 63° 38'. The principal one is named ''Shelton's Isle." 

 He personally landed on it, and assumed possession, having found 

 guano, of which he was in search, upon it, [vide extracts from his letter 

 or report to us, dated April 6, 1854, marked I, inclosed.] He returned 

 to the United States to get vessels to go back and take possession of 

 the guano and island, with a competent force, as soon as possible. His 

 formal affidavit will be procured of these facts as early as practicable. 

 We did not think it essential to procure and send it to you, insomuch 

 as the consummation (of the incJioate right thereby acquired) by 

 occupation, in a few weeks subsequently, is the most material. But 

 Captain James Wheeler's deposition (now filed, B) proves conclu- 

 sively the discovery ot the guano, &c., as stated. Wheeler was at 

 that time in our employ, and then engaged in shipping guano for us 

 from the Gulf of Mexico ; and whilst in the Gulf, Captain Gibbs told 

 him of the discovery he had recently made, and on his (W.) visiting 

 Boston in May, he (W.) communicated the facts to Lang & Delano. 



II. DESCRIPTION OF SHELTON 's ISLE. 



See map heretofore submitted, and that now sent, (I.) The isle is 

 about 4,000 feet long, and about 350 feet wide. It is a desert unin- 

 habited roch. It has, hawever, become inhabited. When he discovered 

 it, it was not susceptible of being inhabited, unless great artificial 

 improvements were made by sending tenements and soil thither ; and 



