332 AVES ISLAND. 



This document, in the first place, sliows a preamble, by which Col- 

 onel Dias, relying on the commission received from the government 

 to watch the uninhabited islands in the Caribbean sea, states that, on 

 condition that his government shall approve it, he grants to Lang and 

 Gibbs: 



First: The privilege of continuing to take in guano on board of the 

 vessels which they had then loading. 



Secondly : That they should do so until the arrival of a company, . 

 with which the government had contracted, or until the decision of 

 said government should be received. 



On their part, Lang & Gibbs bound themselves — 



First : To extend all the assistance which the garrison of the island 

 might require. 



Secondly : To put their artillery and armament at the orders and 

 under the flag of Venezuela^ to which they acknowledged that the 

 island belonged. 



Finally Colonel Dias directs all commanders of vessels of war cruis- 

 ing along the Antilles, to respect his grant until the government 

 should otherwise ordain. And all three of them sign the document in 

 Aves Island of the Windward, on the 13th of December, 1854, Lang 

 appending to his name, and in the English language,, the words 

 "agent for Lang & Delano, of Boston." 



Now, the signers of the document understood perfectly well, as ap- 

 jjears from the declarations, that it was a document allowing Lang and 

 Gibbs to continue taking in guano, provided they were to put their 

 armament under the authority of Colonel Dias, and imposing upon 

 them the obligation of assistingfthe garrison left on the island with water 

 and provisions. They add that they were most positively assured that 

 the document contained nothing by which they assented to the exist- 

 ence of any title to the island in Venezuela. Thus Saiford asseverates ; 

 thus P. Gibbs, and especially thus, the shrewd N. C. Gibbs ; so that 

 the violence and fraud consisted, according to the declarants, in the 

 words of tire document, which embraces the acknowledgment that the 

 island belongs to the Venezuelan flag, and in all the rest they agreed, 

 knowingly of what they were doing, and with their free consent. So 

 certain is this, that N. C. Gibbs states that had he truly known the 

 contents of the paper, he would, at all hazards, have refused to sign 

 it ; that is, that had he known that "it contained any word admitting 

 the title of Venezuela." He, without any doubt, was ignorant that 

 " it was a mere copy of his permit, which contained orders that they 

 should not be molested ; and that they should assist the soldiers, with 

 their men^ guns, and other arms, to keep ofl" intruders ; and that he 

 consented to supply said soldiers with provisions and water ; " and he 

 thought that "if the paper was such, it could not damage him, and 

 its effect would be to prevent all new difficulties." 



Even setting aside what has been stated in the commencement of the 

 document and the close of the fourth article, and reducing it to the 

 mere fact of the permit, it stands against the claimants in full force as 

 an acknowledgment of the dominion and sovereignty of Venezuela. 

 They, in the sense of their legation, were exercising a lawful pursuit, 

 using an article, their own property, and availing themselves of the 



