344 AVES ISLAND. 



Pickrell's agreement, that there was any reservation as to the ''Aves" 

 and all the rights and claims of the present plaintiffs, whilst the 

 proper allusion as to what did occur on this head is made in the 

 already quoted passage, which appears in the opening of the Vene- 

 zuelan note of the 27th of February last. The words quoted further 

 hack from the note in which Mr. Eames summed up the observations 

 made to his excellency, with the view of securing the new contract — 

 words which are a pure fountain of truth against him in this matter — 

 do not involve the sense which it is now attempted to give to them ; 

 hut they thoroughly do the reverse. Will any one ever imagine that 

 an island, in which the existence of guano was positively ascertained 

 — ridiculously exaggerated into myriads of tons — could have been 

 excluded from the Pickrell matter on a claim of the legation which 

 sustained him ? 



This note attempts to give some coloring of truth to such an excep- 

 tion, by insinuating that it was in consequence of it that there was' 

 " omitted all mention of the 'Aves' in the article, by which the trans- 

 ferees of Wallace, with a difference in his contract, are granted the 

 usufruct of the guano islands of the republic ; and afterwards another 

 article specified the 'Aves,' evidently with the object of releasing Vene- 

 zuela from all responsibility to said transferees, in the event that, on 

 account of this claim, or for any other reason, she should cease to pos- 

 sess or use it for her own benefit." Admitting that in article fifth of 

 the contract with Pickrell it was expressed that, if from any contin- 

 gency, or from any cause, Venezuela should lose or renounce her do- 

 minion over the island of Aves, lying in 15° 45' latitude, and longi- 

 tude 64° 45', the term of fifteen years, in reference to said island, 

 should be understood to have elapsed, without any obligation on the 

 part of the government to make any indemnification for the unexpired 

 time, it is, in spite of such admission, roundly denied that the claim, 

 not yet presented at that time, was the cause, immediate or remote, of 

 such a stipulation. The truth is, that ever since 1854 "Aves" Island 

 had been an object of contention between Venezuela and the Nether- 

 lands, and that her claims specially engaged the attention of the gov- 

 ernment at the time when the arrangement with Pickrell was being 

 made. It was solely and exclusively in view of this controversy of an 

 international character, that the secretaries of the treasury and of for- 

 eign relations conceived the idea of such an article, which anticipated 

 and excepted the case laid down ; and this, not through any doubt as 

 to the rights of the nation to the island, but because it might suit it 

 to cede that island, or in any other manner to dispose of it. 



But there is one reason_, above all others, of a conclusive character. 

 Mr. Eames' s efforts to obtain the reinstatement of Wallace's contract 

 either did, or they did not, include "Aves" Island. If they did not, 

 there was no room for the involvement of such a question with that of 

 the other Americans, nor for the reservations made in their behalf; 

 nor was there any for the sahitary influence which the satisfaction 

 given to one application would exert on the other, nor for any of the 

 views which Mr. Eames advanced upon that occasion. If, on the con- 

 trary, as it indubitably was so, he wanted the "Aves" to continue to 



