148 AVES ISLAND. 



saw the island and landed on it. This is utterly incorrect, and they 

 will not venture to name the vessel or the master, and if the depart- 

 ment should require them to do so they will evade it. We trust the 

 department will call for such specification at least^ if not for proof. 

 They say, also, that they subsequently sent a vessel to hunt for that 

 island, but got no guano, and the pretended excuse is, that the master 

 they then sent was probably unacquainted with the article. They do 

 not say that he found this island he was sent to find^ and though the 

 excuse, as the probable one, (not finding the guano,) would seem to 

 imply that he did find that island. The island that he did find, there- 

 fore, if he found any, was not Shelton's Isle, for he could not mistake 

 as to the guano there. They then say that in June, 1854, they sent 

 a vessel first to Aves Isle (though they give the latitude and longitude 

 wrong) with 0. Lang, agent, who there found guano. This it seems, 

 is their first pretended discovery distinctly alleged. ' And they next 

 say their instruction to their agent was, if they found the article of 

 Mexican guano to remain on the island and to take possession, &c. 

 And they say further, they were at considerable expense to find and 

 to get possession of the isle, &c. 



Now, sir, we call your attention to the three affidavits of Captain 

 Wheeler, of June 8, 1854, January 15, 1855, and of 6th of May, 1856, 

 on file in your department. Captain Wheeler was Lang & Delano's 

 sole agent. Mr. Sanford has advised us that he has forwarded to you 

 a copy of their correspondence with Wheeler dated June 21, 1854, 

 which the assignees of Wheeler allowed him to do. This fully proves 

 that the alleged agency in June, 1854, of Charles li. Lang, was set up 

 to cut Wheeler, whose name is suppressed throughout by them, of all 

 his claims, if he had any under his agreement; and Captain Wheel- 

 er's affidavit of the 15th June, 1855, shows how and by what means 

 Lang & Delano obtained their first knowledge of Shelton's Isle, and 

 confutes all their long rigmarole subsequently made to the State 

 Department completely. These papers show that they first sought a 

 surreptitious advantage of P. S. Shelton and Captain N. P. Gibbs, and 

 next sought to take a like advantage of Captain Wheeler, and actually 

 claimed to be the first discoverers themselves and undermine all the 

 others. Captain Gibb's affidavit, and Captain Wheeler's, show con- 

 clusively who were the discoverers of the guano. We do not conceive 

 that their statement of there being only 50,000 tons of guano on the 

 island is at all important. It cannot surely prejudice us or militate 

 against us. It shows they know nothing of the facts, and their claim 

 or statement of damages since filed shows how unguarded they are, 

 for it is impossible to reconcile them. We have been disposed not to 

 interfere with respect to the just demand that Lang & Delano may 

 have for actual false freights, if any, and for pay for their wharf and 

 property on the island taken from them, but this, even, is all founded 

 on the permission of our agent. Captain Gibbs, in July, 1854, as 

 alleged in his and Wheeler's affidavits, and also to Captain Wheeler 

 to occupy part of the island ; but we protest that they are not entitled 

 to claim any share of the guano otherwise, We deem it our duty to 

 protest against their claim ; and so far as it may in any wise aifect 



