290 AVES ISLAND. 



explanations of the parties interested. Out of this grew the declara- 

 tions which accompanied the demand of last December. 



In the course of September, 1855, Mr, Pickrell came to Caraccas as 

 the representative of the Philadelphia Guano Company, and from the 

 fact of the annulment of the contract with Wallace, which had been 

 transferred to them. From that time that matter claimed Mr. Eames's 

 attention, in preference to all else. Presented to Mr. Pickrell, he 

 became his inseparable companion ; the advocate of his cause ; inter- 

 vening in the discussion of all the points debated with him ; coming 

 daily to the government-house urging its settlement ; purporting to 

 take the Secretary of Foreign Eelations and of the Treasury to his 

 residence, in order not to lose a single moment, even on a holiday ; 

 offering to smooth all difficulties in the way of the new arrangement; 

 and wielding, as a powerful instrument, the certainty of trouble with 

 the United States. Every one of these is a clear indication that he 

 had taken this business at heart, and that his ministry was not con- 

 fined to merely good offices. Mr. Fames intervened in the matter 

 more largely than Mr. Pickrell. In this connection it now occurs, 

 and the fact is recorded in a memorandum, that in the first interview 

 of the Secretaries of State and of the Treasury with Mr. Pickrell, at 

 which, as at all other subsequent ones, Mr. Fames was present, doubts 

 were expressed on the part of the organs of the government as to the 

 validity of the joowers of this private agent, because they contained no 

 clause which, as in all like cases, should make his acts binding upon 

 the company. This observation, not addressed to Mr. Fames, and by 

 him not allowed to be translated for Mr. Pickrell, and not understood 

 by him, because it had been made in the Spanish language, Mr. Fames 

 answered with the statement that the instrument was in due form, and 

 that, from his knowledge of the laws of the United States, he could 

 assure the ministers that the company was bound by wliatever act 

 which Pickrell, as their attorney, might perform, although it was not 

 actually so mentioned in the instrument. 



At the same interview Mr. Fames stated that he had been instructed 

 to make a reservation, and that was, that the good offices which he 

 was directed to interpose in behalf of Mr. Pickrell were not to be 

 understood as affecting a claim made and likely to be presented by 

 Americans, who were in possession of Aves Islands before its occupa- 

 tion by the government of Venezuela. At the same time Mr. Aranda, 

 the Secretary of Foreign Eelations, pointed out the impropriety of 

 blending two distinct and, to a certain extent, incongruous questions. 

 For in the very act, on one side, of supposing the right of Venezuela 

 to the Aves Island to be perfect, its ownership was, on the other, con- 

 troverted; whence he concluded that, in his opinion, if both phases 

 had to be held up, it were better to take up that to which allusion had 

 been made in the former instance. 



Mr. Pickrell' s business proceeded in its course, under the patronage 

 of Mr. Fames, the minister resident. As, however, it did not do so 

 with all the desired speed, and as the propositions of the government, 

 initiated for the purpose of bettering the improper and vicious contract 

 of 1854, did not suit the present negotiators, Mr. Fames carried his 

 good offices to the point of considering it most urgent and absolutely 



