AVES ISLAND. 165 



any ground upon wliicli the riglit of these claimants to indemnification 

 can be denied or questioned. Any such denial would, in the judg- 

 ment of the undersigned, impose inevitably upon Venezuela the ne- 

 cessity of maintaining the monstrous proposition that these claimantSy 

 having first discovered guano upon that derelict, uninhabited, and un- 

 inhabitable island, which had never been embraced within the jurisdic- 

 tion nor reduced to the possession of any power, had. in that state of 

 the island, no right to land upon it and work upon it ; that in fact, 

 from the day when they went there, in June, 1854, up to the day when 

 they were driven away, in December of the same year, they were from 

 the first and all the time, law-breakers and trespassers, engaged in 

 active, open, and persistent violation of the territorial sovereignty of 

 Venezuela. To suppose that tlie intelligent government of Venezuela 

 could ever undertake to maintain such a proposition, would not, in the 

 judgment of the undersigned, be respectful. But if this proposition 

 be not maintained in its full extent, how can this claim for indemnifi- 

 cation be resisted ? If the claimants were, as against Venezuela, law- 

 fully in possession of the island when Venezuela found them, then 

 surely they, may rightfully claim full reparation for being driven away 

 by her public force. 



It would seem^ therefore, that in this case little remains to be done 

 but to fix, justly, the amount of indemnification to which the claim- 

 ants are entitled. This amount should embrace, in the judgment of 

 the undersigned, /rs^, a fair and just remuneration for all the actual 

 and immediate injury infiicted upon the claimants in the form of prop- 

 erty of various kinds, seized or sacrificed, or expenses or liabilities 

 under contracts, or damages under charter-parties, necessarily result- 

 ing from the sudden brealdng up of their business, and their precipi- 

 tate and compulsory departure from the island. These items of the 

 claim are in their nature positive and susceptible of exact statement 

 and proof, and their adjustment will probably not be difficult. Secondly, 

 these claimants allege that they are also entitled to a fair and reasonable 

 indemnification for the loss of the profits which would have accrued to 

 them from the prosecution of their business in the guano on the island of 

 "■Aves" if they had not been wrongfully disturbed and expelled by the 

 Venezuelan forces. The claimants estimate this item of their claim at a 

 large amount, and they have laid before their government testimony 

 upon which they appear to rely as confirming, not only the fairness, but 

 the moderation of their estimate. Without discussing, at this time, the 

 question whether this second branch of the claim which seeks indem- 

 nification for the loss of estimated profits should be adjudged to stand 

 in its nature and in its whole extent precisely upon the same footing 

 in all respects with the first branch of the claim already referred to, 

 the undersigned is yet clearly of opinion that the facts of the case 

 as they appear, unquestioned and of record, strongly and urgently 

 command this branch of the claim to the justice of the Venezuelan 

 government, and require for it a favorable consideration and a fair 

 adjustment. 



At the very moment, in December, 1854, when Venezuela was moving 

 forwards to the expulsion of these claimants from the "Aves" island, 

 she was engaged in selling the guano thereon for the benefit of her 



