AVES ISLAND. 353 



After tlie nine propositions, which Mr. Eames thinks are not proved, 

 or not susceptible of proof, the first excepted, and yet which have 

 already heen proved, he goes on to say that the ' ' Aves ' ' was known and 

 used as derelict for a period of two hundred years, just as he had already 

 stated in the same note, namely : ' ' That, in the judgment of the United 

 States, this 'Aves' Island, having been known for a long period of 

 time, but not having been reduced to possession, nor included in a.ny 

 jurisdiction, was derelict, according to the strictest legal and lexico- 

 graphic sense of the word, in the month of June, 1854. ' ' And how can 

 Mr. Eames maintain that "Aves" Island was not reduced into pos- 

 session, nor included in any jurisdiction, when he himself has main- 

 tained in the same note that, according to the laws of the Indies, the 

 Windward Islands, the ''Aves" included, were part of the territory 

 subject to the jurisdiction of Santo Domingo? And how can Mr. Eames 

 maintain that "Aves" Island "was known and used as derelict for 

 two hundred years?" when the very laws of the Indies were on the 

 18th of May, 1680, ordered to be respected and observed, as may be 

 seen by the law at the head of the Digest, which defines the authority 

 of the laws of said Digest, among which are found those which exclude 

 the idea of the abandonment of "Aves" Island, so that two hundred 

 years have not elapsed, not even since that date, and much less since 

 any other posterior date, from which the abandonment of the island 

 could have commenced. This never took place; but Mr. Eames, wish- 

 ing to make it appear so, has been, in spite of himself, forced into such 

 contradictions. Mr. Eames involves himself in difficulties. He main- 

 tains that Aves Island is derelict, which presupposes that it had a 

 former owner, who abandoned it ; and at the same time he maintains 

 that it never was reduced into possession, nor included in any jurisdic- 

 tion, which is tantamount to saying that it never had an owner ; and, 

 again, and at the same time, he maintains that it was submitted to 

 the jurisdiction of the government of Santo Domingo, a dependency of 

 Spain, which means that Spain was the owner of the island. The 

 document upon which he grounds all this does not date two hundred 

 years back for its sanction, and yet he says that Aves Island was known 

 and used, as a derelict, for two hundred years. 



One by one have all the arguments of Mr. Eames' s note of 31st of 

 March last, been met and answered. And this has been done as 

 promptly as was consistent vfith the necessity of taking some measures 

 to sift out the truth and, among these, of procuring certain informa- 

 tion from the United States themselves, and abiling the consultation 

 of the government council, to which it was the duty of his excellency, 

 in his judgment, to submit the question, and upon whose opinion, 

 which it was necessary to await, the present note has been prepared. 

 New reasons have been advanced; the title of Venezuela to the Aves 

 has been produced ; adverse principles have been impugned ; how 

 much the other party ignored has been brought forth into knowledge; 

 what it considered to be impossible is demonstrated ; the conduct of 

 Venezuela is completely justified. She still more fully unravels the 

 causes which have forbidden her accepting a responsibility for damages. 



The duty of watching over the national interest, joined to an assur- 

 Ex. Doc. 10 23 



