156 AVBS ISLAND. 



to be employed by it, under tbe command of Venezuelan officers, for 

 tbe wbole period, during wbich sucb revolution may last, and without 

 any indemnification of any kind. 



Article ten. The vessels of the contractors in the event of actual 

 injuries or from stress of weather, shall not be held to the payment of 

 any harbor dues as required by law. 



Article eleven. The doubts and controversies, which may arise as to 

 the meaning of all or of any of the articles of this contract, shall be 

 settled by arbitrating umpires and amicable adjusters, appointed, one 

 by each of the parties, with a third one in case of a disagreement ; the 

 decision to be made in this capital, with an express renunciation, on 

 the part of the contractors of the right of domicil, without any preju- 

 dice to any right whatsoever, which may be enforced against the con- 

 tractors out of the territory. 



Article twelve. To the fulfillment of this contract, all the contractors 

 pledge their persons and their property, present and future. 



Article thirteen. If, at the expiration of six months, reckoning from 

 the payment of the forementioned bills of exchange, no beginning will 

 have been made in the taking out of the guano ; the present contract 

 shall be null. 



SIMON PLANAS. 

 JOHN. D. F. WALLACE. 



J/r. Sanford to the President. 



Brevoort House, New York, 



December 14, 1856. 



Sir : You will pardon me for again calling the attention of the 

 Executive to the case of the claim of Philo S. Shelton, and others, of 

 Boston, against the Venezuelan government for an atrocious spolia- 

 tion committed in December, 1854. It is yet unsettled, and the 

 claimants are almost in despair of justice being obtained for them for 

 a long time to come. The case has been fully made known to the 

 Executive, and the documents and proofs showing its justice^ are all 

 on file in the State Department. 



On the 18th of August last, the President approved an act entitled 

 "an act to authorize protection to be given to citizens of the United 

 States who may discover deposits of guano." Notice was given by 

 Mr. Shelton long before the passage of the act, of the discovery by his 

 agent for him, early in 1854, of Bird Island, or Shelton's Isle, in the 

 Caribbean sea, and the deposits of guano thereon, verified by affidavit 

 describing said Island, and the latitude and longitude thereof, and 

 that possession was taken in the name of the United States, and that 

 the same was not, at the time of the discovery thereof and of the 

 taking possession and occupation thereof by claimants, in the posses- 

 sion or occupation of any other government, or of the citizens of any 

 other government, according to the requirements of said act. All the 



