314 AVES ISLAND. 



The laws hereinafter laid down, and ruling both in Spain and Vene- 

 zuela, were also violated by those who made entry in Aves Island and 

 other national islands, besides the principles of the law of nations 

 already quoted, which are so many laws to the observance of which 

 the nations are reciprocally bound. 



"Waif property, {pienes mostrencos ,) the movable or selfrmoving 

 pro]3erty that is found to have been lost or abandoned, and the owner 

 of which cannot be ascertained, is called mostrencos in Spanish, because 

 it is to be pointed out, exhibited, and published, in order that the 

 owner may be informed of its discovery and claim his right." 



' ' Waif property is not to be confounded with vacant or with ah 

 intestate property. Vacant property is that, which being immovable, 

 has no ascertained owner ; ab intestate property is that which remains 

 without an owner through the demise of one who has left no will, and 

 who has neither descendants, ascendants, nor collaterals to succeed to. 

 his rights. This three-fold class of property is alike in this — that all 

 of them lack owners, ascertained owners at least, whilst there is this 

 distinction — that waifs are movable, landed estates immovable, and 

 that ah intestate property may be both movable and immovable. Be- 

 sides this, property may be in the condition of a waif through loss or 

 estray; it may be vacant for causes sometimes unascertained; and 

 again, it may be ah intestate from the death of the owner. Notwith- 

 standing this, all these properties are commonly known under the 

 general name of 'mostren&os' property, to be pointed out, made patent, 

 and reclaimed." 



' ' By the law of nations the ' mostrenco/ vacant, and ah intestate prop- 

 erty ought to belong to the first occupant, because it is really res nul- 

 lius, no man's property; but by the positive law, princes reserving to 

 themselves the right of occupation, have appropriated it as their own; 

 and that which belonged to no one tkej have, not without reason, ap- 

 plied for the common benefit. Our legislation has moved in this course, 

 and it gives to such property the forms which we are about to exhibit." 

 (Escriche's Law Dictionary.) 



If the authority of Venezuelan law be called for, although all the 

 quotations herein made work as law, we refer to the prohibitions in- 

 volved in the following paragraphs of the law on seizures of the 10th 

 of May, 1839, and in force- in the j^ear 1854: 



''Art. 2. The penalty of seizure shall extend to everything that may 

 have been landed, or may be found landing without a lawful permit or 

 landing, or intended to be landed without a manifest and a written 

 permit of the proper custom-house or competent authorities in ports 

 not declared open, on coasts, in bays, creeks, or rivers, in canoes^ boats, 

 or other crafts, of what tonnage soever ; and the vessel itself shall in- 

 cur the same penalty, Vv^ith all its tackle and apparel." 



"Art. 8. To all the effects of the foreigner which may have been 

 landed, and which may be found concealed, collected, stored, or depos- 

 ited, or in any other manner whatsoever in the houses, bays, stations, 

 or other points of the coast or uninhabited points removed from the 

 inspections of the custom-houses and of the ports of entry, which places 

 lie under suspicion of fraud from their locality and their proximity to 

 bays, creeks, rivers, or ports not open to entry." 



