AVES ISLAND. 141 



Wheeler has also preferred his claims in the deposition I transmitted 

 to the department on the 9th of May last. Wheelwright & Cobb have 

 also preferred claims to the department based on said spoliations. I 

 regard this last as connected with those of Lang & Delano and 

 Wheeler, and in fact derived from and founded thereon, and that they 

 are all one and the same. P. S. Shelton and Sampson & Tappan's 

 claims^ represented by me, are not in anywise connected with the 

 others, and my principals do not recognize the others alluded to in the 

 correspondence between the department and myself. Nevertheless, 

 neither my principals nor myself feel it to be a duty to intermeddle in 

 the other claims in any degree, except so far as to see that they do not 

 in anywise compromise or affect injuriously the rights we conceive 

 belong to us. We have reason to believe that the other claims may 

 affect us in that way, unless we take steps in time to prevent such re- 

 sult. In this view of the case it is highly important to Mr. Shelton 

 and Sampson & Tappan, that the letter of Lang & Delano to the 

 Hon. Mr. Gushing, Attorney General of the United States, dated 

 August 29, 1854, and in reply to which your official letter to them ot 

 12th September, 1854, was written, should be preserved to be used by 

 us as testimony in said case, and especially is it important to Captain 

 James Wheeler that it should be so used. He is referred to in it as 

 "the agent" of Lang & Delano. You will see the importance of this 

 letter by referring to Captain Wheeler's short affidavit, dated June 8, 



1855, and that of June 15, 1855, filed in the department in the month 

 of June, 1855. I was not enabled when last in Washington to ascer- 

 tain whether the original or a copy of the letter of Lang & Delano to 

 Mr. Cushing was on the files of the State Department. 



To show further the pertinency of that letter and its impertinence in 

 connection with Captain Wheeler's three affidavits, I have now the 

 honor, at the request of the assignees of Captain Wheeler, who have 

 received from him an irrevocable power of attorney to their use of said 

 contract, and of all his rights under it, and of all the claim he asserts 

 to Shelton'.'? Isle, to inclose a copy of the original contract between 

 Captain Wheeler and Lang & Delano. The assignees will forward 

 the letter of attorney and assignment hereafter. You will perceive 

 that, of course. Captain Wheeler's assignees will be entitled to receive 

 a moiety of whatever Lang & Delano, or those who are connected 

 with them, may receive on account of the guano, or of the island, or 

 of the profits they would have made. It may be observed that the 

 agreement inclosed makes no reference to Aves or Shelton's Isle, 

 which it appears by your letter to Lang & Delano of September 12, 



1856, they claim to have discovered by their agent_, referred to in 

 their letter to the Attorney General of the 29th August. In Lang & 

 Delano's letter to you, dated January 15, 1855, they state that they 

 had the pleasure to address you in September, and to which they re- 

 ceived an answer September 12th. I presume this is an error on their 

 part, and that they mean to refer to their letter to the Attorney Gen- 

 eral, to which you replied September 12th, as I understand there is no 

 letter of that kind from them to you on file. 



May I ask for a copy of the letter of Lang & Delano to the Attorney 

 General, as above specified. 



