82 AVES ISLAND. 



circumstances have constrained me to become deeply interested, and I 

 am controlled only by an anxious desire to conform to the views of the 

 department . 



May I beg you to answer this communication to me here, where I 

 shall probably be some weeks. 



I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



H. S. SANFORD. 

 Hon. William L. Marcy, 



Secretary of State, &c. 



Mr. Marcy to Mr. Shelton. 



Department oe State, 

 Washington, January 4, 1856. 



Sir: In order that this department may frame further instructions 

 to Mr. Eames in regard to your claim against the government of Vene- 

 zuela, you are requested to prepare and transmit such a statement of 

 your losses and damages at the Aves Islands as will cover, substantially, 

 all the elements of your claim. 



It occurs to me — and the suggestion is offered for the consideration 

 of all the parties interested — that it would be decidedly to the advan- 

 tage of the several claimants, viz : Messrs. Lang & Delano, Wheel- 

 wright & Cobb^and your own house ; to confer upon the subject together 

 and agree upon some gross amount which shall embrace all claims, and 

 which shall be distributed by the claimants among themselves in such 

 proportions as may have been previously agreed upon. 



A letter of like tenor to this has been addressed to the other claim- 

 ants mentioned. 



I am, sir, &c., 



W. L. MARCY. 



Philo S. Shelton, Esq., Boston. 



Same to Wheelwright & Cobb, Boston. Same to Lang & Delano, 

 Boston. 



Mr. Sanford to the Pi 



'38 Clinton Place, New York, 



January 5, 1856. 

 Sir: In connection with my former communication to you, written 

 at your intimation, in relation to the right of Mr. Shelton as dis- 

 coverer and possessor of Shelton 's Isle, and the outrage of Venezuela 

 upon those rights, and his claim for indemnity, &c. I have now 

 deemed it my duty, in behalf of Mr. Shelton, to inclose to you a notice 

 signed by the president of the Philadelphia Guano Company and the 

 Venezuelan consul at Philadelphia, inhibiting all vessels, except au- 



