AVES ISLAND. 333 



advantages inlierent to an acquisition, wliicli tlie wliole world could not 

 dispute. What ! could tliey consent tliat what belonged to them, as 

 masters, to do by right, should be granted to them as a favor by a fevf 

 intruders ? that they should have a short period of time allowed them 

 for their pursuits, when they had the power to carry it on indefinitely? 

 that they should be reduced under the authority of the government of 

 Venezuela, when they were independent of all ? that they should sub- 

 mit to conditions, although they were so resolute ? When, in the range 

 of the history of mankind, was any master of a thing ever seen thus 

 to abdicate his rights? But if they did all this ; if, more than this, 

 they carried out, by act of compliance, the obligations which they had 

 contracted in exchange and return for the permit which they had freely 

 accepted, acknovvledged, and made use of, how dare they maintain 

 that they considered themselves as exclusive masters of the island and 

 of its guano? Of the guano, the price of which they had in part to 

 make good by the provisions, which they actually supplied ? Did they 

 not know that the bare fact of admitting on the island a garrison, 

 allowed to remain stationed there, occupying, guarding, and governing 

 it in the name of Venezuela, was on their part an explicit acknowl- 

 edgment both of their own lawless possession and of the title of the 

 republic to that island ? What can be the meaning of this obligation 

 to feed the garrison^ and feeding it in reality? And this, at what 

 time ? Why, when Colonel Dias, being absent, and having left behind 

 him ten men "who troubled no one," "whom Gibbs employed as 

 laborers," and an officer whom "he entertained in his own cabin," 

 and all of them living in good understanding with the eighty Ameri- 

 can laborers. All pretext^ even the slightest, had ceased to justify the 

 idea of ascribing their conduct to the effect of fear.- To allow Colonel 

 Dias and his men to come ashore ; to consent that they should occupy, 

 garrison, and control the island ; to receive and obey his orders ; to 

 accept and sign his permit ; to comply with the condition of delivering 

 up their armament and supplying provisions, under which conditions 

 the permit was granted ; to remain there in harmony and concord with 

 those appointed as their guard ; to feed, and even, indeed, to employ 

 the soldiers at work, after the pretended threats had passed away, and 

 they had men, vessels, and arms ; all these constitute a series of facts 

 that speak loudly against the claimants, and the power of which it 

 were vain to attempt to destroy. This is sufficient to decide the ques- 

 tion^ since the foregoing reflections are suggested by the testimony 

 itself of the claimants, examined in the light of their own statements. 

 It has already been stated that the object of Venezuela was to prevent 

 the exportation of her property, which was carried on in her islands ; 

 and it is evident that in order to attain it, she required the application 

 of force, since its absence had encouraged foreigners in disregarding her 

 rights. Still it was applied neither to procure Lang's or Gibbs' s signature 

 to the permit, nor to enforce their departure from the island of Birds ; 

 so much so, that in the act of speaking of a permit, and of signing the 

 document. Colonel Dias, Commander Cotarro, and Lieutenant Pereira 

 were the only persons ashore. Indeed, it is no matter for wonderment 

 that force should not have been required to obtain that some men, who 

 had possessed themselves of an island to which they knew they had no 



