AVES ISLAND. 275 



autliorities ; but sliould this expectation prove unfounded, and you 

 should have no assurance that such an acknowledgment will speedily 

 he made, you will close the legation, request your passport, and return 

 home. 



I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



LEWIS CASS. 



Charles Eames, Esq., &g. 



3Ir. Sanford to Mr. Cass. 



Derby, Connecticut, 



August 31, 1857. 



Sir: In the month of April last, there appeared in the ''Diario de 

 Avisos," a newspaper published in Caraccas, a communication, dated 

 Philadelphia^ 20th March, from a Mr. Leon de Cova, now or formerly 

 an agent of the Philadelphia Guano Company, making some assertions 

 intended to prejudice the Aves Island claim, and among others, that 

 Mr. Guthrie, while Secretary of the Treasury, speaking of this case, 

 had said to him, that "^ neither said Shelton nor his attorney, San- 

 ford, had a right to a dollar from our (the Venezuelan) government," 

 &c., &c. 



This statement, our minister at Caraccas, Mr. Eames, seemed to 

 think the Venezuelan government attached much importance to, and, 

 accordingly, on my return to this country^ I wrote to Mr. Guthrie, 

 inclosing the article, and asking him to inform me if the assertions of 

 the article with respect to himself were correct. 



The inclosed is his reply, stating that the account of what he is 

 ascribed therein as saying, is '^ either a mistake, a misapprehension, 

 or a fabrication." 



I inclose his letter to be filed in the department, and in order that 

 our minister at Caraccas, now in Washington, may have cognizance 

 of it, and be relieved of any apprehensions which these false assertions 

 may have caused him to entertain. 



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



H. S. SANFOKD. 



Hon. Lewis Cass, 



Secretary of State. 



Louisville, August 20, 1857. 



Dear Sir: On my return to Kentucky after an absence of six weeks, 

 yours of the 9th of July was received. 



The extract from the Venezuelan paper of what I should have said 

 in Washington whilst Secretary of the Treasury, about the claim of 

 Mr. Shelton against the Venezuelan government, for which you were 

 agent, is a mistake, misapprehension, or fabrication. I have no recol- 

 lection of such a conversation, nor of having expressed any opinion 



