44 AVES ISLAND. 



also by carrying provisions and water there, till the latter could be 

 procured by deep boring in the rock. The pretence that before we took 

 possession it was ever inhabited or occupied by any humag, being for 

 any considerable length of time is utterly false. Its appearance then 

 showed this conclusively. 



We have learned that it was visited in March, 1835, by her British 

 Majesty's ship Race Horse, and that then, and formerly, some strag- 

 glers from St. Thomas occasionally visited it, and gathered eggs there ; 

 and in a publication, in a pamphlet called the "Nautical Magazine," 

 stated to be an account of the island, it is said there was an ''egg 

 collector's " hut there then, "and a tomb in the center of the island," 

 being that of "the governor of the egg collectors ;" but the description 

 of the form of the isle, and its length and width, &c., do not corre- 

 spond with the fact. No appearance of any tomb, or of any hut ever 

 having been there, existed in 1854, when Gibbs first landed. The 

 Magazine account is, therefore, more or less /awe?/. The latitude stated 

 nearly agrees with ours, but no longitude is given. 



The Danes, (if the occasional visits of the St. Thomas egg collectors 

 can be regarded as actual permanent use and occupation,) may have 

 had some right in 1835. But this was abandoned; and, in 1851 and 

 in 1854, it was uninhabited and "derelict."' 



'^^ Johnston's Grazeteer," published in London in 1851, says: "Aves 

 or Bird Island is a small group of islands in the Dutch West Indies, 

 southeast of the Island of Buen Ayre — so called from the vast number 

 of birds which frequent there ; the only inhabitants are a few Dutch 

 fishers;" [those are latitude 12° north, longitude 6*7° 40' west, more 

 than 180 miles further south, and 240 miles further west than SheI/- 

 ton's Isle.] "II. An uninhabited island, 147 mile west of Dominica, 

 latitude 16° 40' north, longitude 63° 38' west." The Islands of Guad- 

 aloupe and St. Thomas are nearest Shelton's Isle. (See Wyld's and 

 Johnson's atlas. See Bouillet's Diet. Univer. d' Hist, et de Geog., as 

 to Aves Island being near Curasao, and claimed by the Dutch. 'These 

 are not Shelton's Isle. 



nr. FACTS OF OUR OCCUPATION. ■ 



In June, 1854, we dispatched several vessels to Shelton's Isle to 

 occupy it and procure the guano. We did not delay after Captain 

 GiBBS' return and the report of his discovery. We dispatched them 

 forthwith^ and continued to do so, up to the 15th January, 1855, when 

 we Jirst heard of the isle being invaded by Dias; and of Gibbs being 

 ordered off,. &c. Our occupation of it ivas notorious during all that time. 

 Lang & Delano, upon Wheeler's disclosure to them, sent vessels also 

 in June. Our vessels were the brig J. R. Dow, N. P. Gibbs, master, 

 (brought home by the mate. Smith ;) brig Cronstadt, Howland, master, 

 (who died at the isle, and also some of his crew;) ship Junius, Erskinb 

 master; ship James N. Cooper, Nickels master ; bark Carlo Maurin, 



Safford master, (dispatched from Liverpool;) bark Amazon^ ^— 



master; brig Viator, master ; brig Mary Pearce, master, 



and others, whose names we cannot here remember, not having papers 



