166 AVES ISLAND. 



treasury, and that sale was consummated on the 21st of that month in 

 the contract concluded with Mr. Wallace under that date. All this 

 v/as done without any knowledge of it, either by the undersigned, then 

 in the United States, or by his government. Subsequently, in May, 

 1855, the government of Venezuela, upon reasons deemed satisfactory 

 to itself, by executive resolution, declared the contract of Mr. Wallace 

 null and void, but still the armed Venezuelan occupation of the "^-Aves " 

 continued, in full view of the presentation by the undersigned, in April 

 preceding, of the present claim, with notice that the title of Venezuela 

 to that island at the time of her occupation of it was in no way recog- 

 nized or admitted by the government of the United States. Soon 

 after, while the case was in this state, and while active negoti- 

 ations on the subject by the undersigned were suspended solely 

 by the reference of the Dias "agreement" to the government 

 of the United States, the government of Venezuela, on the 28th 

 of July, 1855, by executive resolution reciting the annulment of 

 the Wallace contract, and specifically mentioning the "Aves," 

 declared its purpose to open that island, and all the other guano 

 islands belonging to the republic, to the access, working, and trade 

 of the citizens and subjects of all nations indiscriminately, upon 

 such equal terms and conditions as should be promptly thereafter pre- 

 scribed byihe executive power. This resolution was accompanied by 

 another of nearly even date, July 23, 1855, in which the Venezuelan 

 government declared its purpose to prevent by force the working of any 

 of the above named guano islands by any persons without its permis- 

 sion, and to execute the rigor of its laws upon any trespassers who 

 might be found so offending. About one month afterwards, at the 

 beginning of September, while the Dias ''agreement" was yet under 

 consideration at Washington, commenced the effort of the assignees of 

 the Wallace contract, through their agent Mr. Pickrell, to save their 

 rights vested under that instrument ; and that effort, with express 

 exception and reservation of the ''Aves," and all the claims and rights 

 of the present claimants therein, it became the duty of the undersigned 

 to aid, and such aid was given, subject always to that express exception 

 and reservation, in their full extent, repeatedly and emphatically 

 insisted on from the first, and placed on record before the Venezuelan 

 government, both during the pendency of the Pickrell negotiations and 

 afterwards. At the close of that negotiation, it notwithstanding ap- 

 peared that Venezuela, persisting in her settled policy of asserting and 

 maintaining jurisdiction over the "Aves," had determined, in full 

 view of all her responsibility in the premises, to specify that island in 

 the contract of the 29th of September with Mr. Pickrell. This policy 

 in regard to the "Aves," first adopted by Venezuela in her negotia- 

 tion with Mr. Wallace while that island was still in the possession of 

 the present claimants, carried into effect by their forcible expulsion, 

 and subsequently, in the face of their rights and claims, and the inter- 

 position of the government of the United States in their behalf, fully 

 adhered to in the continuance of her armed occupation, and solemnly 

 reaffirmed in her administrative resolutions of 23d and 28th July 

 before referred to, appears, in the insertion of the "Aves" in the con- 

 tract with Mr. Pickrell, to have been only so far modified in view of 

 the decided position adverse to that insertion taken by the undersigned 



