AVES ISLAND. 153 



tliat the negotiation of this contract by Mr. Wallace took place during 

 my absence from Caraccas on a short visit to the United States, by the 

 permission of the President. Mr. Wallace arrived here after my de- 

 parture and had left before my return. I heard nothing of the con- 

 tract, and knew nothing of any negotiations upon the subject until 

 February, 1855, when the existence of the contract was made known 

 to me, and an abstract of its terms put into my hands by one of the 

 merchants of this city, who, as stated in my No. 10, had previously 

 purchased of this government the drafts drawn in its favor by Mr. 

 Wallace. 



I have not yet found an opportunity to make a successful application 

 for the two other papers mentioned in your No. 30 — the official report 

 of Dias and and the protest of the British charge d'affaires. The 

 report of Dias may, I think, be difficult to procure. The protest of 

 the British charge d'affaires may probably be obtained, but I do not 

 think that the Aves claimants are right in supposing that they will 

 derive any help from that document, because my recollection of it after 

 hearing it read, is as stated in my No. 13 to the department, that it 

 proceeded upon the idea that Venezuela being in full jurisdiction over 

 all the guano islands, had opened them all, to all nations, by the res- 

 olution of July 26, 1855, (transmitted in my No. 12,) and was, there- 

 fore, by her own obligatory act, inhibited from in anywise recognizing 

 or conceding any exclusive right of American citizens in any of the 

 said islands. Certainly it is not easy to perceive how such a protest, 

 based as it is upon an act of Venezuelan jurisdiction over all the 

 islands^ including the Aves — asserting as it does the obligation, and, 

 of course, the validity of that act as against any exclusive American 

 right or privilege in the islands — and claiming as it does under that 

 act a common British usufruct in all the guano deposited, can strength- 

 en the case of American citizens claiming indemnification on the 

 ground of their exclusive right, as against Venezuela, to the guano on 

 the Island of Aves. It was in conformity with this view, that while 

 the British, legation hereupon, at least, an implied recognition of Ven- 

 ezuelan title, and in avowed maintenance of British interests under 

 Venezuelan jurisdiction over all the islands, was thus by protest oppo- 

 sing my efforts to save the rights of American citizens under the Wal- 

 lace contract in the other guano islands except the Aves, in' pursuance 

 of your instructions, I, in the most express terms, as appears by my 

 Nos. 13 and 20, and their inclosures, refused to sanction or counte- 

 nance in any manner the insertion of the Aves in the contract with 

 Mr. Picker ill, thus leaving to Venezuela no option but either to forbear 

 from making that insertion, or else, if she persisted in that course, 

 then to do the act of inserting the Aves as she had done the previous 

 act. of occupying it, at her proper peril, and in view of the announce- 

 ment that all the rights and claims of its first American occupants 

 were fully reserved and would be sustained. 



To the view of the case in which, under your instructions, this action 

 was taken by me in behalf of the claimants, the British protest ap- 

 pears wholly opposed. Still, as they ask your aid-to obtain that paper 

 as part of their case, I will endea\'or to jDrocure it if practicable, with 



