' AVES ISLAND. 331 



that Dias would attempt to eject him, and that he wished to avoid the 

 effusion of blood. The decision and the desire are so incompatible, 

 that it is not perceived how they could have emanated from one and 

 the same individual at the same time. If they were so resolved on 

 resistance, and so sure of the issue of the conflict, how comes it that 

 he refrained in order to avoid coming to extremities? Did he not care 

 about them when he came to the conclusion not to yield? Will the- 

 man who had no intention of yielding, except to superior force, ex- 

 plain how violence could have been inflicted upon him by a force which 

 he despised, because he deemed it insufficient to compel his departure, 

 and because he entertained no doubt that he could capture the Colonel, 

 his men, and his schooner? Neither could the second schooner have 

 been adequate to subdue and eject his people, because the detachment 

 of fifteen men which she had brought put things in the same condition 

 in which they stood during Colonel Dias's visit, whilst, with the ar- 

 rival of other vessels, the Americans had bettered their condition. 



Mr. Eames insists that the two Americans who signed the document 

 acted under the influence of violence and fraud, being completely in 

 error as to its contents, from the fact of their not understanding the 

 Spanish language in which it was couched. 



It will not be irrelevant here to transcribe the permit, which plays 

 such a part in this matter. Copied literally, it states as follows : 



"'I, Domingo Dias, a captain of vessel, second chief of the Vene- 

 zuelan squadron, and commissioner of the supreme government of the 

 republic, to watch over the uninhabited islands belonging to it in the- 

 Caribbean sea, have agreed, provided that my government shall ap- 

 prove it, that Messrs. Charles H. Lang, agent of the firm of 'Lang & 

 Delano/ of Boston, and Nathan P. Gibbs, agent of the company of 

 Sampson & Tappan and P. S. Shelton^ also of Boston, whom I have 

 found taking guano out of this island, shall — 



''First: Continue to take in cargo in those vessels which are now 

 loading. 



"Secondly: That they shall continue to take in guano until the 

 arrival of the company, with which the government has made a con- 

 tract, or until the approbation or disapprobation of the supreme gov- 

 ernment shall reach the island. 



"Thirdly: And we, 'Charles H. Lang and Nathan P. Gribbs, bind 

 ourselves to afford all the assistance that may be required by the gar- 

 rison of this island. 



"Fourthly: That, to this effect, we put our pieces of artillery and 

 our armament at the disposition and under the flag of Venezuela, to 

 which the island belongs ; and 



"Fifthly: I, Domingo Dias, second chief of the squadron, order 

 the commanders of the war vessels cruising in the Antilles, to respect 

 this grant, until the government will have otherwise disposed. 



"Aves Island of the Windward, December 13, 1854. 

 "Signed, 



"NATHAN P. GIBBS. 

 "CHAELES H. LANG, 

 ''Agent for Lang & Delano, of Boston. 

 "DOMINGO DIAS." 



