AVES ISLAND. 223 



government of Venezuela. But even for such a j^retext, no opportu- 

 nity is left. The island of Aves in question was not forgotten. It was 

 put where it belonged, in the map of another region, and far outside 

 of any pretended Venezuelan jurisdiction. 



Besides the maps of Venezuela in its various forms, the atlas intended 

 for public instruction contains a map of the World, a map of North 

 and South America, and a map entitled " a map of the coasts of Terra 

 Firma, from the Orinoco to Yucatan ; of the Antilles ; and of the 

 greater part of the Lucayan Islands, with routes of navigation and 

 discovery by Columbus and other navigators." And upon this map, 

 in its proper place up among the ^'Little Antilles," known as the 

 "^ Windward Islands," in the immediate vicinity of Saba, Monserrat, 

 and Guadaloupe, and three degrees of latitude away from that portion 

 of the sea shaded as containing the group of Venezuelan islands, we 

 find the Aves in question plainly delineated and named. 



Here, then, is seen the positive and purposed exclusion, by the gov- 

 ernment of Venezuela, of the ''Aves" from any claim of Venezuelan 

 jurisdiction in its furthest reach. Turning now to the geographical 

 volume made up from the Venezuelan archives, we find under the 

 chapter of ''Islands," the Venezuelan government, through its com- 

 mission, rendering its reasons, and very sound reasons, for this exclu- 

 sion, in stating that the " northernmost " of the seventy-one Venezu- 

 elan islands are those of the chain "extending along the coast of the 

 Province of Caraccas," and nearly "in the same parallel of latitude 

 with the Dutch islands of Curasao, Bonaire, and Oruba." For this 

 reason, doubtless, the chart of Venezuela, and all the maps of Colombia, 

 and of Venezuela and its provinces, while excluding the Aves in ques- 

 tion, are extended so as to include this northernmost chain of islands 

 claimed as Venezuelan. 



Thus is fully demonstrated the proposition above stated, that the 

 government of Venezuela, as late as 1845, formally and officially repu- 

 diated, and announced to the world her repudiation, of all pretension 

 of title to this Island of Aves. There is no pretense any where that 

 this repudiation was in any way revoked, or did not stand in its full 

 force in June, 1854. 



The cogent effect of this fact in manifesting the enormity of the out- 

 rage perpetrated on these claimants, for which redress is demanded, 

 cannot escape the attention either of the United States or of Venezuela. 



Resting upon these grounds, his position that the Venezuelan pre- 

 tension of title to the Aves in 1854 has not sufficient foundation to 

 require discussion, the undersigned will now, out of respect to the 

 Venezuelan government, proceed to examine the proposition above 

 cited, that "the island belonged to Venezuela prior to 1854 as the suc- 

 cessor of Spain, who discovered it." A brief analysis will suffice to 

 explode this proposition and scatter it to the winds. 



In the first place, it is manifest that this proposition, in order to 

 present any precise legal or political meaning, must be modified in its 

 terms. The phrase " successor to Spain," without qualifying words, 

 means "general successor to Spain." Venezuela is no such " general 

 successor." Her succession is special, and limited by the important 

 possessions which Spain has retained ; by the possessions of other powers 



