304 AVES ISLAND. 



to the truth of its contents in relation to this question, he merely 

 begged the minister, who acceded to his request, to soften somewhat 

 the warmth of tone in which he had, naturally enough, written one of 

 its paragraphs. 



Had Mr. Eames pursued another line of conduct ; had he abstained 

 to intervene in the manner in which he did in the Pickrell question ; 

 had he seasonably presented Shelton's claim — ^matters would not have 

 come to the state in which they are now found. But he postponed it 

 because he could not, at the time, bring it forward for want of the doc- 

 uments in the case ; and this delay of his, or of the parties in interest, 

 which must necessarily have resulted in this_, namely, that the scanty 

 price which some Americans paid for the guano would not be sufficient 

 to satisfy the claims of other Americans, is now imputed to the gov- 

 ernment, although it had urged the examination of this question in 

 preference to every other. It is easy to conceive how the prosecution 

 of pretensions so diverse, and even mutually conflicting, may have 

 contributed to bring about existing differences . Pickrell' s defense 

 necessarily supposes and implies a most unequivocal recognition of the 

 property of Venezuela in, and her sovereignty over, Aves Island ; 

 whilst that of the claimants stands out against such a right, and leads 

 to the conclusion that the pretended employment of force against them 

 is a sufficient title to acquire sovereignty, but not private property, 

 although both of these things are one and inseparable. Either the 

 title of the country is good — and in that case it must cover the emi- 

 nent and private domain of the island — or it is vicious, and cannot 

 justify any form of acquisition. To make a show of disclaiming do- 

 minion over a thing in the very act which recognizes it — an act vol- 

 untary, and more than voluntary, since it was Mr. Eames himself who 

 was urging on a contract with Pickrell for the working of the guano — 

 is a matter which cannot be easily understood. 



The losses and damages that may have resulted to the Americans 

 occupying Aves Island — losses and damages which, as it has been 

 seen, must be very limited — are to be referred to those who, knowing 

 that they had no right to it, proposed at all hazards to occupy and use 

 that island, without reflecting that from the moment that their pro- 

 ceeding could become known, they would have to depart thence and 

 suffer all the consequences of their unlawful act. 



On the other hand, the government holds it to be a fair cause for 

 surprise, that up to this hour it should not have been clearly informed 

 as to who are those who claim indemnity at its hands for the occur- 

 rences at Aves Island. If^ as it appears, the claimants are all the 

 individuals to whom the declarations produced have a reference, then 

 there is just ground to affirm that the island continued to be in com- 

 mon, its occupation by some only notwithstanding, and that, by the 

 fact itself, the republic was not excluded from participating in the 

 island. Indeed, the depositions speak of Shelton & Co., of Lang &- 

 Delano, and lastly of George W. Nickels; but the American legation, 

 in order to be self-consistent, and under the supposition that the ques- 

 tion turned upon res derelicta, were bound to maintain that those only 

 of the claimants who first really took possession had acquired the dere- 

 lict. If the claimants, protected by the American Cabinet, are reduced 



