AVES ISLAND. * 103 



.atter by the Tennessee, (steamer,) to Venezuela. They will be for- 

 warded, however, by the usual channel of intercommunications between 

 the department and Caraccas, that is, through Messrs. Dallet Brothers, 

 of Philadelphia, 



I am, sir, &c., 



W. L. MAECY. 

 H. S. Sanford, Esq., 



38 Clinton Place, New York. 



Mr. Sanford to 3Ir. llarcy. 



38 Clinton Place, New York, 



March 8, 1856. 



Sir: Your letter of the 20th ultimo was duly received. Upon a 

 recent visit to Philadelphia on the 25th ultimo, I made inquiry of 

 Messrs. Dallet & Brothers, mentioned in that communication as hav- 

 ing been intrusted with your last dispatches to the United States min- 

 ister at Carraccas, and also with my letter of the 12th ultimo to Mr. 

 Eames, and its inclosures ; and I ascertained that those packets and 

 others, postmarked Washington, in January, then yet remained with 

 them. I trust it will not be deemed officious for me to advise you that 

 the steamer Tennessee sails from this port for La Guayra on the 22d 

 instant, as you will perceive by the annexed advertisement. I have 

 supposed this liberty will be excused in consideration of the importance 

 of the case of Messrs. Shelton and Sampson & Tappan, (represented 

 by me,) and the anxiety they feel as to its early settlement by the Yen- 

 ezuelan government. Every day's delay (for causes heretofore ex- 

 plained,) decreases their prospect of receiving or securing just indem- 

 nity. 



I learned authentically when in Philadelphia, that the Philadelphia 

 Guano Company have, during the last two months, dispatched more 

 than a score of vessels and a large force of laborers from the United 

 States to the Caribbean sea for guano ; part of which are to be em- 

 ployed in "skinning" Shelton's Isle of the guano remaining on it, for 

 shipment to Europe and elsewhere. I was also informed that at least 

 twelve vessels were ice-bound in the Chesapeake with guano from Shel- 

 ton's Isle. I learned also that all the choice guano remaining on the 

 isle was to be first selected, leaving to the last the middling and ordinary 

 qualities, and other courses were pursued by which to make it seem here- 

 after that the quantity of guano on the island, and its quality and its 

 value were not so great nor so high as we have represented, and thereby 

 decrease our damages. I learned, also, that between December, 1854, 

 when we were evicted, and the summer of 1855, when the last contract 

 with the Philadelphia Guano Company was perfected, the Venezuelan 

 government authorized large quantities of the best guano on the island 

 to be abstracted therefrom for shipment to Europe and elsewhere, by 

 others than the company, and the shipment was under the supervision 

 of its military officers and officers of the customs, stationed on the isle 

 since the day we were driven off. I have deemed it proper to advise 



