208 AVES ISLAND. 



Proceeding, tlien, upon the conclusion that Venezuela in presenting 

 the alleged "agreement" or "convention/' as entered into by her 

 with these claimants and attempting to sustain its validity, has pre- 

 cluded herself from maintaining that they were, as against her, law- 

 breakers, whom she might lawfully expel by force. The undersigned 

 will now, in reply to the observations of the Hon. Mr. Gutierrez on this 

 point, establish beyond all doubt the total invalidity of that alleged 

 "agreement" as against these claimants. That the positive and direct 

 proof of force and fraud in extorting the signatures to that paper, 

 deemed upon very mature and careful consideration by the government 

 of the United States fully sufficient to invalidate and avoid it, should, 

 when presented to the government of Venezuela, be pronounced insuffi- 

 cient is matter of regret and surprise. 



The purpose of the honorable minister's observation, that the depo- 

 sitions duly specified and transmitted by the undersigned in his note 

 of the 20th of December last were "mere copies," is not distinctly 

 perceived. It is impossible for the undersigned to doubt that copies of 

 depositions transmitted in due course of business from the Department 

 of State at Washington to this legation^ and then by this legation duly 

 transmitted in copy to the government of Venezuela, will have with 

 that government precisely the force, neither more nor less, of the 

 originals, of which they purport to be copies. The phrase "mere 

 copies," applied to such papers, is inappropriate. They are more than 

 "mere copies," they are authenticated copies. 



The Hon. Mr. Gutierrez alleges that the deponents are interested in 

 this claim, and intimates that they are therefore incompetent witnesses. 

 This is not an exact statement nor a correct inference. The deponents 

 are the salaried agents of these claimants, having no proved interest 

 whatever in the claim, and as such they form a class of witnesses recog- 

 nized as fully competent by the tribunals of all countries. 



The Hon. Mr. Gutierrez observes that if the agents of these claim- 

 ants had resisted or protested at the time or made immediate reclama- 

 tion of their property, then their assertion that they signed the alleged 

 "agreement" upon compulsion would be credible. They did all this; 

 they did reluct and resist, and signed at last not only under a mistake, 

 but avowedly and only to avoid violence and bloodshed at the hands of 

 the public force of a government. They complained at the moment of 

 the whole proceeding, including the seizure and sacrifice of their prop- 

 erty, and made reclamation for full reparation without delay before 

 their government, and that reclamation was at once presented clearly 

 and strongly hy the undersigned, in pursuance of his instructions, to 

 the government of Venezuela. So prompt, indeed, was all this action 

 of reclamation, that it outran all knowledge by the undersigned and 

 by his government of the alleged "agreement," and caused that paper, 

 when authentically made known by the Venezuelan government, to 

 appear then before the undersigned as new matter in the case, and as 

 such, and only as such, fit, on its face, to be referred to his govern- 

 ment for explanation and consideration. 



But on this point of force and fraud in that alleged "agreement" 

 the Hon. Mr. Gutierrez principally complains of the absence of the 

 testimony of one of its signers. This cause of complaint the under- 



