116 AVES ISLAND. 



thougli I have no positive knowledge thereof — and they all constituted 

 me their chief superintending agent, to take control and charge of 

 said isle for them, and to gather and ship the guano on the same, ac- 

 cording to their instructions ; and said parties and myself made the 

 necessary and proper arrangements to carry out said ohject. I vras 

 accordingly dispatched about the middle, or perhaps the 20th of June, 

 1854, in the same brig John E. Dow, to Shelton's Isle, there being 

 also shipped by said vessel a large quantity of heavy timbers and other 

 lumber prepared and framed, and fitted in Boston, to be well fastened, 

 in addition to wooden fastenings, with large iron bolts and braces and 

 rods, which, with nails and spikes and tools, were also shipped by said 

 brig, in order to erect a wharf or dock on the shore of said isle, at the 

 place I had ascertained by my soundings and examinations to be most 

 practicable. The said wharf, it was proposed, should extend upwards 

 of eighty feet from the shore into the sea, and was to be constructed by 

 placing or sinking into the sea upwards of twenty piers or horses, made 

 of heavy timbers, framed and fitted, and to be well secured by fasten- 

 ings and braces of iron as well as wood, and afterwards filling in the 

 same with heavy rocks, to be obtained at the isle, and also by sinking 

 such rocks around them as a support, and to protect them from the 

 surf, and likewise by placing large stringpieces and heavy planks upon 

 them securely bolted and spiked ; all of which I had ascertained when 

 at the isle in April was indispensable for a safe landing and for lading 

 the guano on shipboard. There were also extra tackles and falls and 

 cordage, and several extra water casks or tanks, and a large quantity 

 of water, and also of supplies and provisions — meat, fish, bread and 

 breadstuff's — and other articles necessary and proper for a large laboring 

 force at said isle, purchased by said parties and shipped to said isle by 

 said brig and by other vessels subsequently dispatched thither by them 

 up to the time they became apprized of my being dispossessed of said 

 isle on the 26th of December, 1854, as will be stated by me hereafter, 

 (which time, I believe, was about the 15th day of January, 1855.) That 

 materials for the erection of several houses (say seven) were also pre- 

 pared in Boston, and also materials for sheds and bunks, and upwards 

 of six dozen good wheelbarrows, upwards of ten dozen shovels and 

 several spades and grubs, upwards of six dozen picks, and divers hoes . 

 and other implements wherewith to gather the guano, and tackles and 

 falls, spars, ropes, boards, nails, hinges, locks, and the like, more than 

 four dozen baskets, and several large baskets or buckets, expressly made 

 for the lading of guano; and several dozen other buckets and tubs, 

 cooking and other utensils, the necessary articles for the proper accom- 

 modation in sleeping of the laborers, and medicine and other stores 

 for the preservation of their health, were also sent at different times 

 by said parties to said island ; and likewise several extra boats and 

 appurtenances were furnished by them for the convenient use of the 

 persons in their employ there. My employers also sent two cannon 

 (both six-pounders) and two dozen muskets, and twenty-five large 

 pistols, and several Colt's revolvers, and twenty-five cutlasses, and 

 twenty-five boarding pikes, and a large magazine of fixed ammunition, 

 and also a flagstaff' and United States flags for use on the isle. I took 

 in the brig John R. Dow, the trip last mentioned, some twenty-seven 



