AVES ISLAND. 335 



have signed it. Fourthly, because if, as supposed, resort was had to 

 force, and the end attained, fraud could have been of no use, and thus 

 vice versa. Fifthly, because the title of Venezuela existed independ- 

 ently of any other consideration. Not of the latter, because^ first, 

 only three officers were ashore before the signing of the document and 

 in the act of concluding it. Secondly, because the evident superiority 

 of the Americans refute the possibility of fear which they allege. 

 Thirdly, because the agents stated the names of the constituent com- 

 panies, and provided the paper, ink, pen, and other appliances of 

 writing. Fourthly, because far from departing, they remained on the 

 island and availed themselves of the permit. Fifthly, because their 

 whole conduct is inconsistent with that of men who yield to violence. 

 Sixthly, because neither before signing, in the act of signing, or after 

 signing, did they offer the slightest resistance or protest. Seventhly, 

 because they did not protest in the United States. Eighthly, because 

 no act of violence is adduced, nor blows, nor wounds, nor death. 

 Ninthly, because the supposed threat of expelling them from the island 

 was in fact impracticable. Tenthly, because the officers of Venezuela 

 declare that no such thing occurred. Eleventhly, because there is no 

 proof of violence. Twelfthly, because the witnesses brought forward 

 to establish the fact of violence are the very individuals who pretend 

 that they were the objects of that violence. Thirteenthly, because a 

 document cannot be annulled by the verbal declaration of the very 

 individual who signed it. Fourteenthly, because the declarations 

 were taken without notice to, and without the intervention of Vene- 

 zuela, Fifteenthly, because they are copies certified by no one. Six- 

 teenthly, because Gibbs's declaration has been mutilated — for what 

 cause is not known. Seventeenthly, because it was not exhibited^ 

 except upon the advertence of this government. Eighteenthly, be- 

 cause the declarations of the Venezuelan officers contradict them at all 

 points. Nineteenthly, because, if force was used, fraud was useless 

 and vice versa. Twentiethly, because three of the declarations do not 

 mention force. Twenty-first, because in the unadmitted supposition 

 that threats had been uttered against them, having passed off unexe- 

 cuted, the Americans complied with the conditions of the permit, thus 

 confirming their own consent. Twenty-second, because all the pre- 

 sumptions make against them. Twenty -third, because they could 

 defend, and ought to have defended, a possession which they said was 

 a lawful one; and yet they did not do so. Twenty-fourth, because, 

 admitting that they had rights^ they renounced those rights by their 

 own act. Twenty-fifth, because the reasons on which they ground 

 their submission are wholly frivolous and incredible. Twenty-sixth, 

 because the declarants, with one exception, not understanding, as they 

 affirm, the Spanish language, their declarations fall back on Lang's, 

 their interpreter, himself one of the signers. Twenty-seventh, be- 

 cause they alleged no right to the island, but, on the contrary, stated 

 that they were there, as they had been in other islands of Venezuela, 

 for the purpose of filching guano. Another fact which makes conclu- 

 sively against the claimants, is the secret and unlawful manner in 

 which they acted in the dispatch of the vessels sent to Aves Island, 

 even to the infringement of the laws of their own country. From 



