AVES ISLAND. 75 



conditions»as were imposed, trusting to our own government to protect 

 the rights of its citizens, and to procure for us redress, should this 

 assault upon us prove, as we deemed it, illegal. 



The commander of the Venezuelan force gave to the agent of each 

 party upon said island a paper in the Spanish language, of which the 

 following is a translation : 



. ''Domingo Dias, captain of the navy, second chief of the Venezuelan 

 squadrons, and commissioned by thesupreme government of the repub- 

 lic as supervisor of the Antilles in the Caribbean sea, have come to an 

 agreement, subject to the approval of my government^, with Charles 

 H. Lang, agent for Lang & Delano, of Boston, and Nathan P. Gribbs, 

 agent for Sampson & Tappan and P. S. Shelton, also of Boston, whom 

 I have found taking guano at this island. 



" 1st, They may continue loading with guano the three vessels now 

 taking cargoes. 



''2d. They may continue loading until such time as the company 

 arrives with whom the government have made a contract, or until 

 the arrival at the island of the approbation or disapprobation of the 

 government. 



"3d. And we, Charles H. Lang and Nathan P. Gibbs, promise to 

 loan to the garrison such auxiliaries as they may require. 



'"4th. And, in effect, place our artillery and armament at the 

 orders of, and under the flag of Venezuela, to whom the island apper- 

 tains. 



"5th. I, Domingo Dias, second chief of squadron, order the com- 

 manders of men-of-war that are cruising in the Antilles, to respect this 

 until the government give contrary orders. 



" Island of ' Aves de Barlovento,' 13th December, 1854." 



That this paper was forced upon the parties in a strange language, 

 as the only terms to be allowed them, and received by them only be- 

 cause they had been forcibly deprived of possession of the island and 

 were under actual duress; that any admission of title therein con- 

 tained refers only to the actual possession which had been forcibly 

 taken from the Americans by the Venezuelans, and so was based 

 upon a false, violent, and outrageous assertion of right by a Venez- 

 uelan officer, for which his government should be held responsible. 



That, under this permission, they continued loading the vessels 

 already at the island ; that several other vessels chartered by them 

 arrived, when the Venezuelan armed schooner returned, landed more 

 troops, and placed sentinels over all the houses and on the wharf in 

 the night ; that when our men attempted to resume their work in the 

 guano pits, they were threatened by the sentinels with being instantly 

 shot, and were thus compelled to stop ; that our citizens were then 

 notified to quit the island, with all their people and vessels, within 

 twenty-four hours, which they were compelled to do, abandoning their 

 houses, wharfs, boats, water, and other property of great value ; that 

 the commander of the Venezuelan schooner boarded all the American 

 vessels then at the island, and demanded to examine their papers, and 

 compelled the officers to exhibit them ; that many other American 

 vessels chartered by us afterwards touched at the island to procure 

 guano, and were not allowed to do so ; that your memorialists are 



