AVES ISLAND. 133 



Majesty's steamer Devastation, to Commodore Henderson, rejporting 

 his visit to the above mentioned islands. 



I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, sir, your most 

 obedient humble servant, in the absence of the Earl of Clarendon. 



E. HAMMOND. 



G. M. Dallas, Esq., do , 



Extract of a letter from Commander Be Horsey to Commodore Hender- 

 son, dated August 1, 1854. 



''Having obtained information at St. Thomas that two or three 

 vessels had been seen at the small uninhabited islands of Aves, in 

 latitude 15° 40' and longitude 63° 36', and the trades hanging well 

 to the northward, enabling me to fetch down, I proceeded there, and, 

 on arriving, found three American vessels — a brig, a brigantine, and 

 a schooner — employed in shipping guano. They had been there about 

 ten days, and were expecting a fourth vessel, a bark, all owned by 

 the captain of the brigantine. The owner of the vessels informed me 

 that the guano was but slightly inferior to the Peruvian, and better 

 adapted for tobacco lands, and that it would be worth |35 per ton in 

 the United States. At a rough estimate, I should say there were 

 about 200,000 tons of guano on the island, which, at £7 per ton, 

 would make the island worth one and a half million sterling. 



State op New York, 

 County and City of New York, 



Before the subscriber, Joseph C. Lawrence, notary public of the 

 said city and State, by lawful authority duly commissioned and sworn, 

 and by law authorized to administer oaths and affirmations, and to 

 certify the same, on this seventh day of May, 1856, personally ap- 

 peared Richard Thornell, who, being by me duly sworn to testify the 

 truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, in a certain mat- 

 ter of claim against the government of the republic of Venezuela, in 

 favor of Philo S. Shelton and Sampson & Tappan, pending in the 

 United States Department of State, deposes and saith, on his oath, 

 that he is about 22 years old, is a native of Ireland, is by trade a 

 cooper, and at present resides in the city of New York, and is not, as 

 yet, fully naturalized a citizen of the United States ; he says he is 

 not interested in said claim in anywise, though he lost a winter'^ 

 work by the transactions the claimants complain of; he says that he 

 considers that there was 200,000 tons of guano on Aves Island, now 

 called Shelton' s Isle, in the Caribbean sea, when he first went there, 

 in July, 1854, with Captain Gribbs; one half of it, he thinks, could 

 be called first class ; and the best of it was worth — to any one who had 

 vessels and the privilege of taking it free, and the privilege of the 



