126 AVES ISLAND. 



again. With respect to the second item of |20,000, 1 know of several 

 vessels of my employers, or of vessels engaged by them, or to whom 

 they had engaged freights of guano from the isle, but as to this item 

 of charge they can, doubtless, furnish more particular statements than 

 I can give. I know they had made extensive arrangements as to the 

 guano trade in reference to this isle, and incurred great expenses 

 thereby, most of which were lost to them. The following named ves- 

 sels, I remember, were at the isle when we were evicted, on the 26th 

 day of December, 1854: the bark Amazon, the brig Viator, and the 

 brig Mary Pearce. The ship James N. Cooper was expected, and did, 

 I believe, go out in ballast. All these vessels were sent out by my 

 employers, and I understood they had others. The Amazon and 

 Viator were driven off with but little cargo on board, and the Mary 

 Pearce was sent away empty, and the James N. Cooper, I believe, was 

 not allowed to take any guano. 



In reference to the third item of |8,500, I have already stated par- 

 ticulars, showing that, in my judgment, it is much less than it might 

 justly have been made. In reference to the entire statement, I feel no 

 hesitation in expressing my deliberate and sincere conviction that if 

 my employers were entitled to hold possession of the isle, and to use 

 the guano as their own property, and if entitled to payment for it 

 from Venezuela, (without reference to. the expenses of discovery which 

 I have before alluded to, and without reference to the expenses and 

 losses encountered by the abandonment of the Arenas business, and 

 without reference to the embarrassment and losses consequent to Mr. 

 Shelton from this interruption and interference with his business, by 

 which he was compelled to suspend ;) but simj^ly and solely consider- 

 ing the actual and direct losses and damages from the deprivation of 

 their property, the aggregate amount there stated is beneath what 

 might be justly claimed. And even if they are not allowed any com- 

 pensation whatever for the guano not gathered upon the isle, I verily 

 believe their said actual losses in the premises, including the expenses 

 of discovery, and also the said Arenas sacrifices, and also their direct 

 and actual losses in consequence of their being compelled to abandon 

 their arrangements for receiving, storing, and selling the guano in 

 the United States and elsewhere, could not be reimbursed under forty 

 thousand dollars at least. 



TO THE TWELFTH. 



I have no personal interest in this claim, direct or indirect, imme- 

 diate nor remote, in anywise. I was employed as agent, at a salary 

 and for a certain price per ton ; I have settled with my employers ; 

 but I think in justice I should have more than I received, but I am 

 not promised anything, nor do I expect anything from this claim. I 

 have some feeling in it. I feel humiliated as an American citizen at 

 the insult to my country's flag, and at the outrage upon myself and 

 my countrymen at the isle, yet unatoned for; and I feel, too, sympa- 

 thy for Mr. Shelton, whose rightful property, as I conceive, was 

 despoiled from him whilst in my care, as his agent, by the fraud and 

 trick and force of the officers of the Venezuelan government, and I 



