AVES ISLAND. 115 



and was uninhabited, and that there were not} any appearances or in- 

 dication thereon of its ever having been occupied by men ; and I was 

 fully convinced from its appearance, that if it ever had been so in- 

 habited, it had been entirely abandoned for a long time, and was 

 what is usually called a derelict and desert isle, I thereupon, as far 

 as I then could, took possession of said isle and of the guano thereon for 

 and in behalf of Mr. Shelton, my employer, and he being a citizen 

 of the United States, in behalf also of my government and country, 

 as I conceived I had full and lawful right to do ; and in so doing I 

 believed I was acting properly, and that thereby the jurisdiction over 

 said isle became vested in the United States of America, and that Mr. 

 Shelton acquired, in virtue of such premises, a right to take and ap- 

 propriate said guano on said isle, and when in the actual possession 

 thereof, was entitled to hold the same against and over all others who 

 could not show a higher and better title than he had, or until forbidden 

 by some law of the United States, or by the Executive of the United 

 States in the fulfillment of legal duties. After fully examioing said 

 isle and the guano thereon, and taking samples of said guano^ I sailed 

 from thence on the 7th or 8th of April in said brig, and visited some 

 other keys in said sea, and then proceeded with all dispatch to Arenas 

 and other guano islands in the Gulf of Mexico, where Mr. Shelton' s 

 vessels and men engaged in the guano trade were then chiefly employed. 

 Captain James Wheeler was then superintending agent at Arenas for 

 said Shelton, being in charge of said business there, and had the brig 

 Cronstadt, the barque Thorndike, and the ship Lanark, and perhaps 

 other vessels whose names do not occur to me, subject to him. I then 

 informed Captain Wheeler in confidence, as such agent, of my dis- 

 covery for our employers, and we dispatched all Mr. Shelton' s vessels 

 there home as speedily as practicable, and I conveyed the laborers (some 

 fifty odd in number) in the brig John E. Dow to New Orleans and 

 discharged them, and abandoned the Gulf guano trade with the view 

 of enabling Mr. Shelton, as soon as I could return to the eastern States 

 and get our vessels provided with proper materials and laborers, to go 

 again to Shelton' s Isle and continue the possession thereof, and after 

 erecting the necessary structures, to gather guano thereon and ship the 

 same to the United States, as I had by letter advised my principal, Mr. 

 Shelton. The said Captain James Wheeler, however, who also went 

 in said brig to New Orleans, immediately left said city in a steamer for 

 a northern port, on his way to Boston, where, failing to induce Mr. 

 Shelton to decide until I should arrive as to sending vessels to the isle 

 and laborers under him as agent, gave private information to Lang & 

 Delano of what I had communicated to him as agent of Mr. Shelton, 

 in confidence, respecting Aves or Bird Isle, and the guano thereon, and 

 persuaded them to fit out a vessel and send him thither for themselves. 



TO THE FOURTH. 



I arrived at Boston from New Orleans in said brig John K. Dow 

 about the 9th or 10th of June, 1854, and saw Mr. Shelton and Messrs. 

 Sampson & Tappan, of Boston, the last-named gentlemen having been 

 interested with the former — ^they may have been interested before then. 



