130 AVES ISLAND. 



many workmen by said vessel, to gather guano at said isle ; and that 

 in June, 1854, said brig arrived thereat, and said Captain Gibbs, your 

 memorialist's agent, and the workmen accompan5dng him, forthwith 

 landed, erected houses and a wharf thereon, and continued in peace- 

 able and undisturbed possession ; and that your memorialist continued 

 to dispatch other vessels and workmen, and provisions, &c., until De- 

 cember, 1854, when they were violently dispossessed of and expelled 

 therefrom by an armed military force of the government of the repub- 

 lic of Venezuela, under circumstances of an aggravating character, 

 and combining gross fraud with violence, and being alike an outrage 

 upon your memorialist and the citizens of the United States, whose 

 flag, raised by its citizens there, was struck by the said military force, 



4. That your memorialist presented early in January, 1855, to the 

 proper executive department of the United States, his claim for redress 

 against the government of Venezuela, but as yet no satisfaction has 

 been accorded him, and said claim is still pending ; that the amount 

 of said claim is $341,000, of which $28,500 is for actual losses sus- 

 tained in damages occasioned by demurrage, false freights, and 

 forfeited charter-parties of his vessels employed in said business, and 

 for the value of the wharves, houses,, boats, implements, provisions, 

 and other property of which he was despoiled by said military force at 

 said isle ; and that the residue of said claim is a charge of $312,500 

 for 25,000 tons of guano, at $12 50 per ton, being, as your memo- 

 rialist believes, less than one fifth of the quantity and value of the 

 guano on the said isle at the time of his eviction ; and he also asked 

 for restoration of said isle. 



5. That annexed hereto is a deposition of said Captain Nathan P. 

 Giblrs, (a duplicate of which has been filed in the State Department of 

 the United States,) in said claim, and which sets forth the facts of said 

 case truly and at large. And that there are on the files of the State 

 Department sundry depositions, documents, and papers, exhibiting 

 the justice of your memorialist's claim to said isle and guano, and 

 showing also that his right is incontestable under the laws of nations, 

 and exhibiting also the wrongs and outrages committed upon him, 

 and the damages he has sustained ; as to all which as yet no atone- 

 ment hath been made. 



6. That, if not allowed the item for the guano on the said isle as 

 his property, the direct and consequential damages sustained by your 

 memorialist in the premises, in addition to those specified in said two 

 other items of the claim, would, with said items, amount to upwards 

 of $40,000, (those augumenting the aggregate to such amount having 

 been in the stating the claim to the State Department estimated as 

 covered by the item charged for the said guano therein, and therefore 

 omitted to be specifically stated, and also the property of which he 

 is despoiled, being estimated at the cost in the United States, merely, 

 as is shown by the deposition of Captain 'Gribbs,) and your memorialist 

 also shows that since December, 1854, a large amount in quantity and 

 value of the guano on said isle has been abstracted under the authority 

 of the government of Venezuela, for which, your memorialist respect- 

 fully submits, said republic of Venezuela should be compelled to pay 

 to him, upon the restoration of said isle. 



7. That the republic of Venezuela has not and never had a shadow 



