AVES ISLAND. 299 



basis of tlieir appropriation of it, witli like reason might they claim 

 the guano of other Venezuelan islands, since it cannot be seen why 

 they should not thus apply the new and unauthorized principle which 

 assumes that the discoverer of a thing which is an adjunct to another 

 thing, though it should belong to another person, acquires rights to 

 that thing without taking in consideration those of the owner of the 

 principal. 



But, it is added, neither does Venezuela deny "that the claimants^ 

 a short time after the discovery of the guano in Aves Island, in the 

 summer of 1854, took possession of it, at no slight cost, and peaceably 

 and uninterruptedly kept that possession for several months ; nor that 

 they intended to keep such peaceful possession until they had exhausted 

 the valuable substance of that article." 



The silence of the government on' that point does not imply an 

 acknowledgment of what is here asserted, and it proceeded from the 

 same cause mentioned above. It has been said and it is proper here 

 to repeat it, in order that it may remain deeply impressed upon the 

 minds of the American Cabinet, that the principal question under 

 view is not the discovery of this valuable, nor the expenditures which 

 the appropriation of it entailed, nor yet the period of time for which 

 they intended to continue possessing the island ; for if there was no 

 good faith on the part of the occupants, all these considerations must 

 be of no avail. To substantiate that good faith, they would have to 

 bring forward the facts, which would go to establish this other fact, that 

 Spain, which is admitted to have been the discoverer of the island, had 

 determined to abandon it, because she wanted it no longer. Then, 

 indeed, would it appear to have passed from a condition of private 

 property of a nation to that of a derelict, and to come within the pos- 

 sibility of being acquired by any one. But presumptions are not suf- 

 ficient ; let the doctrine of Kliiber speak : " From the moment that a 

 State leaves or abandons the ownership of an island, for instance, it 

 ceases to constitute a portion of its territory, and thenceforward belongs 

 to no one, (res nullius.) From that moment it is lawful for any other 

 State to appropriate it to itself and reduce it to its dominion. Still an 

 unmistakable declaration, either expressed or tacit, is required to put 

 an end to the previous right ; but as no mere conjecture or supposition 

 can be equal to such a declaration, much less can it work the forfeiture 

 of the property by prescription." (Kliiber, Broit des gens, &c.) 



But on the other hand, in the proof, if it be proper so to call it, ad- 

 duced by Mr. Fames in support of his action, there is nothing to sustain 

 the assertion that the claimants went into heavy expenses in the under- 

 taking. To judge by the declarations of the functionaries of Venezuela 

 who were on the island, and whom the distortion of truth could in no 

 way benefit, there was not there more than a dozen of huts, frame 

 built, a sort of a wharf, some sixty or eighty wheelbarrows, the neces- 

 sary spades, some timbers from the wreck of a vessel, and other articles 

 procured from the same. So that, if to what is herein described be 

 added the freight of the vessels engaged, and if we lay aside all inter- 

 ested exaggerations, we will have a correct idea of the extent of 

 the speculation. What the value of the huts was, all of them built 

 of old stuff, may be inferred from the fact that the best of them was 



