170 AVES ISLAND. 



dated Caraccas, January 20, 1856, which I desire to have filed with 

 the papers relating to the Shelton's Isle case, to which I invite your 

 particular attention, as containing an authentic account of the coope- 

 ration of the minister of the United States at Caraccas in obtaining 

 the contract to the Philadelphia Guano Company, by which Shelton's 

 Isle was ceded to it. 



I have the honor to be, with great respect, your obedient servant, 



H. S. feANFORD. 



Hon. William L. Marcy, 



Secretary of State. 



Extract, translated from the report of the Secretary of Finances to the 

 Congress of Venezuela, Caraccas, January 20, 1856. 



The bills of exchange, in favor of the general treasury, drawn on 

 John Tucker by Mr. J. D. Wallace, the grantee of a privilege to take 

 guano, for a period of fifteen years, from Aves Island, of the wind- 

 ward, and other islands ^of the republic, containing guano, having 

 been protested for non-acceptance, the executive power, in furtherance 

 of the opinion of the council, on the 22d of May ultimo, declared the 

 annulment of the contract of December 21, 1854, which, at the pre- 

 ceding sessions, had been transmitted, in its original form, to the 

 honorable the chamber of representatives. Having it in contempla-* 

 tion to bring the management of that article, with a view to the 

 greatest advantage, under the control and the agency of fit officers, 

 until the legislature should decide in the matter, the executive power, 

 ^among other measures, adopted that of instituting an inquiry abroad, 

 through the diplomatic agents of the nation, and others, specially 

 authorized to that eftect, to secure the information necessary to en- 

 lighten him fully in the premises, such as the price of our guano and 

 of that of Peru and of Mexico in the United States; the kind most in 

 ■demand in their markets ; the chemical a,ction likely to produce the 

 article ; the means to be used to obtain, through a simple scientific 

 process, a knowledge of the best quality of that produce, in conse- 

 quence of the greater or less quantity of certain substances, resulting 

 from chemical decomposition. The executive power also adopted a 

 measure having, for its object, the keeping up of a naval station of 

 two war steamers cruising about the islands to prevent the fraudulent 

 •exportation of the article, in quest of which various vessels swarmed 

 in our seas ; the sending of a few cargoes of the article in order to 

 introduce it into the principal markets of Europe and America ; the 

 station on Aves and Monges Islands of officers to watch over the guano 

 and see to its exportation, to which end minute instructions were issued 

 to them; the denouncing of seizure and other legal penalties for all 

 vessels apprehended for fraudulent taking of the guano, or which may 

 be at the islands taking such article without the due authority ; the 

 ascertainment in which of said islands the guano is found, and what 

 the quantity and quality are. In consequence of the last requirement, 



