300 AVES ISLAND. 



sold by Lang, its owner, to Lieutenant Nicholas Pereira for the price 

 of one pound sterling. The others, with the exception of one, which 

 was ceded for the use of the troops, and which belonged to Gibbs, were 

 unroofed and ruined by the Americans themselves, previously to their 

 departure from the island. 



Neither is it probable they could retain a peaceful and undisturbed 

 possession of the guanO;, as it is well known that the Dutch held the 

 island to be theirs, and other nations preferred claims to it, and as, 

 according to their affirmation, they were visited by an English vessel, 

 the captain of which told them that his nation had purchased the island 

 from Spain, as appears from the deposition of the above mentioned 

 Lieutenant Pereira. If they were not driven more early away from 

 their lawless occupation, the fact is to be ascribed, so to say, to the 

 seclusion of the spot, or, in other words, to its latent position, a cir- 

 cumstance which induced the Americans to select it for their opera- 

 tions ; for, having first gone to other islands of Venezuela, as they 

 were easily seen in the act, they withdrew from them under no other 

 impulse than that of fear. It is a point not to be overlooked in this 

 question, that the very individuals found on Aves Island were the 

 identical ones who had already gone to other national islands. 



It is readily conceived that they should have desired to carry away 

 all the guano which they found ; but, unfortunately, will is not the 

 best rule of right, nor yet a thing which can justify the self appropria- 

 tion of another's property. Let it be noted that hitherto no answer 

 has been attempted to be made on the subject of guano exported from 

 Venezuelan territory, in every place where it has been explored and 

 robbed by the Americans^ who have, at the least, made themselves 

 liable for the value of the substance which they have taken, and for 

 damages consequent on their act, not to speak here of the wrong com- 

 mitted against national sovereignty. If the government of the United 

 States claims the guano of Aves Island on the ground that the claim- 

 ants have acquired a right to it, and because the island was not within 

 the jurisdiction of Venezuela, it is but reasonable that, even setting 

 aside Aves Island, they should take upon themselves to answer for the 

 guano which has been taken from places to which the dominion of 

 Venezuela has never been questioned, and from which fact, therefore, 

 they never could have claimed the guano as their own. Will it be 

 maintained that Los Hermanos, Los Festigos, and Los Monges islands 

 constitute no portion of her property? Mr. Eames, in his reply, has 

 ignored this important chapter, although the note of this government 

 laid down, in explicit terms, the responsibility of the American gov- 

 ernment to the government of Venezuela for said appropriations of 

 guano. Now, therefore, we must insist on this reclamation, which is 

 grounded upon manifestly proved usurpations. That cabinet which 

 is so observant of justice, cannot fail admitting that on both points, we 

 have it on our side. 



In Mr. Eames' opinion, the abstaining also of putting in a denial 

 goes for an acknowledgment that the Americans "were violently ex- 

 pelled and driven from such possession in December^ of that year, by 

 the government of Venezuela, acting through the means of a public 

 armed force." 



