AVES ISLAND. 297 



he was beyond measure irritated because iiis wishes were not realized ; 

 and about the time of his departure he gave out, both personall j-and 

 through persons of a high character and of social standing, ^d of 

 others, his echoes immediately about him, that he had taken the res- 

 olution of using the engine of the press, whose nursling he was, to 

 wage war against Venezuela until he should compel Messieurs Buchanan, 

 and Cass to follow the popular movement, intending speedily to return 

 accompanied by public vessels. 



After demonstrating by the foregoing historique the groundlessness 

 of the charge pf dilatoriness brought against Venezuela, and also 

 how inaccurate it is to assert that the question has been for more than 

 two years pending between the two governments, the undersigned 

 proceeds to consider the arguments on which Mr. Eames rested for 

 insisting on his demand with a confidence so overweening as to deem 

 it unnecessary to continue the discussion. 



It is supposed by him that because Venezuela did not deny the main 

 facts upon which the reclamation is grounded, such a denial must be 

 taken as an admission of the facts themselves. In this category it is 

 laid down in the first instance, ''that the claimants through their 

 agents were the first discoverers of the guano on the Aves Island." 

 No attention was paid to this point, because it was considered to be of 

 no importance to the question. Passing by this — that the matter is 

 not proved, and that it might even be impossible to prove the negative, 

 which it- involves, and let it be granted that it is invested with all the 

 truth which is claimed for it, and then what would be the inference, 

 drawn from this? Does any one acquire a right to another man's land 

 because he had seen it before the lawful owner had done so? Then, 

 indeed, would the effects of property be extremely precarious ; all 

 things connected materially with property would have to be concealed 

 from the sight of those who have no right to it^ for from the moment 

 that they should be discovered by them they would be lost to the rightful 

 owner. The fruits which the tree may laave produced in the absence 

 of its owner, the buried mines of the earth, the existence of which 

 were unknown ; the rain-water which from time to time may come 

 down from the clouds ; all other matters embodied in the earth and not 

 previously noticed, might be contended for by him whom chance or an 

 unlawful act had put in the way of happening upon them before the 

 owner of the property. The American legation maintains that Aves 

 Island, though discovered by Spain, does not belong to her ; so that it 

 considers that the discovery by itself confers no title even when the 

 question turns upon the property ^'nulUus;" and, withall, it considers 

 such as a source of property with respect to what is incorporated with 

 the possessions of "somebody." The first and essential requisite of 

 occupation is that the thing to which a claim is preferred shall be the 

 property of no one. "Quod autem nullnis est, naturali ratione occu- 

 panti conceditu7\" Then it is that ownership can result from posses- 

 sion, which constitutes the second requisite. Now, the claimants having 

 failed to prove that Aves Island was "res mdlkcs" when their agent 

 went thither, no force attaches to their allegation as to their landing 

 and taking possession of it, &c. If the island was another's, these 

 acts, far from conferring the least title upon them, made them liable 



