336 AVES ISLAND. 



information sent by tlie legation of Venezuela in Washington, it ap- 

 pears that in the custom-house at Ba-ltimore there is no entry made of 

 the arrival of the brig M. H. Coniery, which left Boston, on ballast, 

 for Mogador, on the 22d of June, 1854, and proceeded to Aves Island; 

 nor that the same custom-house shows any registry of the clearance of 

 the ship Kentucky, which sailed for Aves Island in the month of 

 September, 1854. 



That the bark Carlo Mauran, the master of which, says Gibbs, was 

 Safford, and which was dispatched from Liverpool, at what date is not 

 stated, did not sail directly for Aves Island in December, 1854. 

 Neither the custom-house of New York, Philadelphia, nor Baltimore, 

 shows a registry of her clearance. 



That the brig John K. Dow went from Boston to St. Thomas in 

 March, 1854, for account of Sheltonand others. N. P. Gibbs deposes 

 that he sailed from Baltimore in this brig in the month of March, 

 1854, at Shelton's cost, upon an excursion to the Caribbean sea in- 

 search of guano islands, and that having found the Aves, and gone to 

 Boston, he sailed thence about the middle, or the 20th, perhaps, of the 

 month of June, 1854, for Aves Island, with lumber, &c. The vessel 

 • goes out with a destination to St. Thomas, and Gibbs says for an ex- 

 cursion to the Caribbean sea. He conceals his true destination, and 

 deceives the American authorities themselves. In the month of March 

 he undertakes a voyage from Boston, and in his declaration he substi- 

 tutes for that port the port of Baltimore. Are such falsehoods the 

 concomitants of an honest and lawful occupation ? 



There is another point which deserves notice. This Gibbs was act- 

 ing in common with Lang. Both, in the beginning, were in Shelton's 

 service. They agreed to divide the island and the guano between them- 

 selves, leaving the question of ownership to their principals. They 

 moved in accord on every point. It even appears that Lang's opinion 

 was the preponderant one; Gibbs, at least, to justify his conduct in 

 signing the document, invokes the example of Lang. Besides this, 

 the latter understood Spanish, and was, with Gibbs, the organ of 

 communication. In spite of all this, it is noticed that the legation is 

 inclined to separate the case of the one from that of the other, leaning 

 to Gibbs 's side. 



Lastly, all the declarations appear to have been taken in June, 1855, 

 either by anticipation or after Mr. Eames had suggested that the docu- 

 ment altered the character of the question, and that the Americans 

 should be applied to for explanations in relation to it. It is easily to 

 be conceived that in such a juncture nothing was to be expected but 

 that by every means at hand they should bend themselves to the secure- 

 ment of the triumph of their interests at the expense of truth, and of 

 everything else that stood as an obstacle in their way. , Thus it was, 

 and in no other way, that those declarations were framed, 



Mr. Eames considers it to be a most extraordinary and unjustifiable 

 thing that, in order to shut the door against this claim for indemnifi- 

 cation, we should insist on a paper which was signed solely to prevent, 

 and which did prevent a conflict, and perhaps a very probable destruc- 

 tion of life. 



This is mere declamation, as we shall proceed to prove. The threat 



