AVES ISLAND. 34S 



States, or of Mr. Eames; and now to assert that he excepted the 

 " Aves," when he Avas lending his assistance to, Pickrell, is a conduct 

 which cannot be properly characterized. Never did the President of 

 the Eepnhlic, or the Secretary of Foreign Kelations, or that officer for 

 the Interior and Justice, or any other person connected with the gov- 

 ernment, hear Mr. Eames say that he made such an exception, and the 

 testimony of all those persons is now invoked in opposition to Mr. 

 Eames's. JSFo such exception was made. Nor is it certain that the 

 note of the Secretary of Foreign Eolations omits all mention of the 

 principal and conspicuous facts which are revealed in the protection 

 extended to Pickrell. The secretary spoke, as he ought to speak^ in 

 this manner: "On such occasions as Mr. Eames had conferences on 

 this subject with the undersigned, and with his predecessor, both of 

 them stated to him the views of the government as to that claim, in 

 relation to which no written answer was hitherto given, both, because 

 at the time a mere announcement of it was made, and when it was 

 mentioned in an official note of the legation, it was so in an incidental 

 manner on the occasion of Mr. Pickrell's application, and of the ques- 

 tion between Venezuela and the Netherlands. Mr. Eames himself 

 repeats, in the note alluded to and in which he puts in a formal de- 

 mand, that he deems it necessary to consult his government on the 

 agreement made with Colonel Dias, in view of which he is induced to 

 delay the presentation of the subject." ''The government hopes that 

 the foregoing observations will be considered as justifying the serious 

 objections which it entertains in regard of a claim, the formal discus- 

 sion of which is just in limine, now that the legation has received the 

 documents and other vouchers which it was expecting to accompany 

 the presentation of said claim^ which, therefore, cannot be invested 

 with the pressing character that would naturally attach to a matter 

 fully examined in every light ; a matter not unattended by serious objec- 

 tions^ requiring much reflection in the very act of its presentment; a 

 matter which from the start had labored under a variance of opinion 

 on both parts." 



From the explanations which appear in the beginning of this note, 

 it will have been seen that this was all that the secretary of relations 

 could say, or ought to say, because, in truth, nothing else had taken 

 place, as may be easily inferred from the contents themselves of the 

 communication of the 20th of December, 1856; and hence the tumbling 

 down, as a baseless fabric, of all that Mr. Eames recalls and lays down 

 for the purpose of establishing the fact that there was an omission, 

 with the view of giving force to certain arguments, of circumstances 

 which, in his judgment, it was absolutely necessary not to allow to pass 

 in silence. The government of Venezuela was not called on to inquire 

 whether Mr. Eames was or was not in Caraccas in the month of De- 

 cember, 1854. Neither is it accurate to say that Mr. Eames clearly 

 and peremptorily refused to sanction the contract, inasmuch as it re- 

 ferred to the Aves, although, in the yi>ar 1855, in a conversation with 

 Mr. Aranda, the minister of foreign affairs^ he touched upon a claim 

 which certain individuals, which found the island, intended to bring 

 forward. . 



Equally inaccurate is it to say that during the negotiation touching 



