296 i. AVES ISLAND. 



who had thought him en route, by virtue of the leave given to him. 

 It is to he supposed that Mr. Eames might have desired to he in Wash- 

 ington by the time of the inauguration of the new President ; still he 

 would delay his departure, in order to take along with himself the 

 approval of a treaty, and the recognition of the pretended duties of 

 certain Americans. Thus it was that whilst the treaty was imperilled 

 in the Congress, he abstained from pressing the other matter. So 

 soon, however, as the crisis had been gone through, he returned to the 

 charge with increased vigor, as if, on one side, he was impatiently 

 fretting for his absence from the United States, and on the other, for the 

 lack of a speedy and favorable settlement of the Aves claim, which 

 held him here as though in a state of imprisonment. In this stress, 

 he considered that by throwing out a threat in the shape of a peremp- 

 tory demand, and an application for his passport, he would advance 

 the attainment of his wishes ; thus leaving room for a belief that the 

 relations of both countries were in danger, and a dissemination of the 

 alarm which this rumor was calculated to produce, especially in the 

 midst of the peculiar condition in which the republic stood under the 

 reform of its organic laws. 



From himself, perchance, proceeded the news, published also in an 

 American newspaper, to the effect that his excellency, the President, 

 had refused to ratify the treaty concluded in the course of last year. 

 There is the truth of the case. That convention was approved by the 

 congress of Venezuela just as it had been negotiated by the plenipo- 

 tentiaries, but a like result was not obtained in Washington, for the 

 American Senate agreed on all its articles, with the exception of some 

 words in the twenty-eighth article, which were stricken out. Speak- 

 ing of this result, Mr. Eames said that it ought not to prevent the 

 ratification, as the legislature of this country had had the Spanish 

 text only under their eyes, and the Senate of the United States the 

 single English text; the change made in the letter was in noway 

 essential, much less so as the omission went to lay down, with greater 

 accuracy, the limits of one of the grounds of extradition, leaving the 

 English clause mutilated, with the same sense, however, as the Span- 

 ish gives in its integrity. The secretary of foreign relations answered 

 him, that he did not judge that the executive power had the right to 

 alter the text of a law, such as the treaty had already become, even 

 though it should be in the copy of the English, which was presented 

 to the congress as a faithful version of the Spanish text ; that an omis- 

 sion from one part of the treaty required a like omission from the 

 other part ; and lastly, that due attention would be given to the matter 

 before definitely passing upon its merits. Besides, Mr. Eames had 

 not by him the instrument of ratification, nor was it possible that it 

 should have been sent to him pending this difficulty. Hence it is 

 absolutely inaccurate to say that the executive power declined, in that 

 instance, complying with an obligation contracted towards the United 

 States. The difficulty — and the thing is self-evident — has grown out 

 of their own action. But it may be said that through a wish of 

 charging our adversary we impute assumed facts to him. 



Now, such a degree of exasperation was exhibited by Mr. Eames 

 that, as though some serious offense had been committed against him. 



