120 AVES ISLAND. 



have been addressed to the proper functionaries of the British govern- 

 ment, and in which it is stated that said isle had then upon it 

 " two hundred thousand tons of guano, but slightly inferior to the Peru- 

 vian." I have not seen nor heard anything since I made my first 

 estimate to make me suppose that it was in any degree extravagant, 

 and, on the contrary, my subsequent examinations^ and the knowl- 

 edge acquired during several months' stay on the isle in the summer 

 and fall, and till December 26, 1854, engaged in gathering the guano, 

 satisfied me that my judgment in that estimate was not erroneous. I 

 have knowledge of all the guano taken from the isle after I took pos- 

 session in July, 1854, until my eviction by the Venezuelan officers, as 

 I shall hereafter state, and I do not think, as I have before stated, it 

 exceeded in the aggregate 9,200 tons ; and I would again state, that 

 the cargoes shipped were not selected or picked from the best guano, 

 but were gathered as it was most convenient, as we expected to take 

 all there was on the isle if the demand for it continued ; and that, in 

 fact, we took it as it lay, to facilitate access to the shipment of the 

 best guano. I deem it proper to state here that I have heard that re- 

 ports have been made, stating that the quality and quantity of guano 

 on the isle were much less than my estimate ; but that does not affect 

 my conviction of its correctness, for I know that it requires practical 

 experience with respect to gathering the article, to judge of the quan- 

 tity that can be obtained from a place of deposit, and likewise expe- 

 rience and considerable skill to gather it advantageously ; and I place 

 limited dependence on the estimates of those called engineers, however 

 able and scientific, if without such experience acquired by having been 

 engaged in the business. From my knowledge of the business, a 

 very large percentage is likely to be lost, in respect to quantity and 

 quality for market, if gathered by inexperienced persons." After the 

 business of my employers at said isle was broken up, as I will state 

 hereafter, I received applications for my services to gather the guano 

 on said isle and elsewhere, from persons connected with the Philadel- 

 phia Gruano Company, which I declined, and several of which letters 

 my employers have. 



TO THE NINTH. 



On the 13th day of December, 1854, a schooner-of-war of the gov- 

 ernment of Venezuela, commanded by Domingo Dias, an ofiicer of the 

 Venezuelan navy, as he represented, came to the isle, and said Dias 

 landed, and stated that he came by authority of his government to 

 take possession of the isle and guano, as belonging to that republic. 

 He landed one cannon, and ammunitiou, and ten soldiers, armed with 

 muskets and other arms, in charge of another officer, inferior to him. 

 Dias told me that his government had sold or leased, or was about to 

 sell or lease, the isle to a company in Philadelphia, in which com- 

 pany, he said, were interested gentlemen of great influence and high 

 in office in both countries, who had united to make money out of the 

 guano on the islands in the Caribbean sea, and that their influence was 

 so powerful that it could not be resisted. I told him I had discovered 

 the guano when the isle was derelict, and that I should not leave till 



