AVES ISLAND. 215 



unfortunate aspect in which this whole guano question, between Vene- 

 zuela and the citizens of the United States interested in it, now pre- 

 sented itself to the government of the United States. A whole series 

 of events of a grave and highly unsatisfactory character, each of them 

 a separate occurrence, hut all having a common reference to the rights 

 of American citizens in the guano islands, had followed each other in 

 rapid succession. The forcible dispossession of the American citizens 

 on the Aves, the contemporaneous conclusion of the Wallace contract, 

 its annulment by Venezuela in defeat of the rightful expectations and 

 to the great damage of those interested in it, were facts each of which 

 tended to aggravate the other, and to complicate the negotiation look- 

 ing to a satisfactory adjustment of any or all of them. The under- 

 signed earnestly desired his excellency to consider the grave additional 

 complication and difficulty which must ensue if the agent of the com- 

 pany now present, through the refusal of Venezuela, should find him- 

 self unable, after all his efforts, even when aided by the good offices of 

 the legation of the United States, to make any satisfactory arrange- 

 ment to protect the rights and interests which he represented. It was 

 the duty of the undersigned most respectfully to urge upon his excel- 

 lency's consideration that in the judgment of the government of the 

 United States this guano question was a matter of great and public 

 concernment, that it involved not only important rights and large in- 

 terests, but also a grave question of good faith, the determination of 

 which, under the circumstances in which it had arisen, could not but 

 have its effect upon the relations of the two countries ; and that the 

 undersigned, while carefully avoiding an expression which could be 

 possibly construed in any unfriendly or minatory sense, or in any 

 sense not perfectly compatible with the most perfect consideration for 

 the dignity of the Venezuelan government, yet felt bound in frankness 

 to make known to his excellency that both the people and the govern- 

 ment of the United States felt a deep interest in this subject, and 

 would see with extreme regret and sensibility any course now taken 

 by Venezuela which should result in a loss and injury to those of our 

 citizens interested in the contract above referred .to. On the other 

 hand, the undersigned did not hesitate to say that, in his judgment, 

 an opposite policy on the part of Venezuela, recognizing and restoring, 

 in a satisfactory manner, the rights of those citizens, would produce 

 an excellent effect upon the relations of the two governments, not only 

 as in itself an act of good faith, but also as leaving the very serious 

 question which had previously arisen between the two governments in 

 regard to the forcible occupation of the Aves Island by Venezuela to 

 be considered and adjusted upon its own character and circumstances, 

 without the additional aggravation which must be brought upon it by 

 the persistence of Venezuela in a course of policy productive of great 

 loss and injury to other citizens of the United States interested in the 

 Wallace contract." 



Thus formally and fully was the government of Venezuela, from the 

 very commencement of this negotiation, officially assured that the 

 claim of these claimants could in no manner nor in the slightest degree 

 be affected by it; that the Aves Island and all their rights and claims 

 therein were fully reserved and saved ; that those rights and claims 



