AVES ISLAND. 123 



V 



overcome my party or have driven us away. I liad reason to appre- 

 hend, however, that he might attempt it, and I was desirous to avoid 

 any extremities in which bloodshed might have ensued. Though I 

 had no doubt that we could have taken him and all his men, and his 

 schooner-of-war, I did desire to avoid such necessity, and, from Dias's 

 representations, I was not satisfied that my government might not 

 have taken such action as to the guano isles in that sea as would have 

 made such resistance improper^ and also I did not know how soon the 

 superior naval and military force, represented by Dias as coming there, 

 might arrive ; and, as we had no reason to expect a government 

 vessel-of-war of the United States to protect us from their attack, we 

 should have been at their mercy; and, besides all these considerations, 

 if Dias had not dishonestly misrepresented the purport of the paper, it 

 was harmless. I have since seen the translation of the paper Dias 

 signed and gave to me, which I learn Mr. Shelton sent to the State 

 Department of the United States so soon as he received it from me, in 

 February, 1855, and also a copy of the copy signed by myself and 

 Lang, and kept by Dias, and a translation of it procured from the said 

 department by Mr. Shelton ; and by said translations it appears said 

 papers are substantially alike, and I unequivocally declare that Dias's 

 representations to me of their contents and purport were false, dishon- 

 est, and fraudulent ; and if I had known or suspected the import of 

 said copy so signed by me, I would not have signed it, even under his 

 menaces and threats of military force to expel me from the isle, but I 

 would have resisted him at all hazards, ^nd if overcome, appealed to 

 my government for redress. On the 23d of December, 1854, the same 

 schooner (as I believe) came back ; as she approached she hoisted the 

 Venezuelan colors, and the soldiers on the isle hoisted the same, and 

 they exchanged salutes, in which one of the soldiers was mortally 

 wounded, and who afterwards died. She landed twenty more sol- 

 diers, and sailed immediately for St. Thomas with the wounded soldier, 

 but came back to the isle on the 25th, anchored about 5 o'clock, p. m., 

 and about 10 o'clock, p. m., sent most of her crew ashore fully armed. 

 They charged their muskets, and sentries were then placed around all 

 our houses and stores, and over all our property, and at the guano 

 pits, and on the wharves and over our cannon, and they forbade the 

 hoisting of our colors any more. I was then in bed. When they first 

 landed, I did not anticipate any difficulty, as I supposed Dias's paper 

 would prevent it. The next morning I did personally hoist the colors, 

 in despite of the armed sentry at the flag-staff, and I directed my men 

 to go on with their work. They did attempt it, but were charged 

 upon by the sentries with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets, and de- 

 sisted only when in peril of their lives ; and so also with respect to 

 some guano in barrows, which I directed laborers to wheel to the 

 wharf; they did so till stopped by the sentries, who presented their 

 bayonets and levelled their muskets towards them. Those on board 

 of my vessels, laying off from the wharves a short distance, were ex- 

 pecting me to load as usual, until I signalled them to come ashore 

 immediately, and they put off ; but the boats were not allowed to land 

 by the sentries. The United States flag that I had hoisted was hauled 

 down, and it was not hoisted any more. The Venezuelan flag was 



