358 AVES ISLAND. , 



Question. What were tliey doing? He replied that he had already 

 stated. 



Question. What had they there, and in what manner did they jus- 

 tify their presence there? Did they oppose the lauding of the Vene- 

 zuelan force, and allege any right to the island, either by considering 

 it as belonging to the United States, or as a thing common or peculiar 

 to them? He replied, that they had there some twelve houses and a 

 kind of wharf to facilitate the shipping of the guano ; that on exam- 

 ining them in regard to the matter of their presence there, Mr. Lang, 

 one of the agents of the two firms referred to, replied that they had 

 been on a number of the islands belonging to Venezuela; that on 

 many of them they had found guano ; that from some they had dug 

 this substance, as from the Brothers ; that they had taken a schooner 

 load, and that they had fixed themselves on the island of Aves be- 

 cause there it was not so easy for Venezuela to discover them. This 

 is the way in which they justified their presence there. In regard to 

 the landing, there was no resistance, and they not only alleged no 

 right to the island, but agreed with the deponent that it belonged 

 neither to the Union nor to themselves. 



Question. What took place between the Americans and" you, and 

 led to the drawing up of the document which you and two of them 

 signed ? He replied that on their answering in the manner they did, 

 and in pursuance of the orders of the government to prevent them from 

 continuing to take off guano clandestinely from our islands, he sum- 

 moned them to stop their labors. Thereupon they made known the 

 losses they had sustained, one of their vessels having stranded, and 

 another having been stoven in, and the sums which they had expended 

 on the houses and wharf, in order that in view thereof, they might be 

 permitted, on the score of humanity, to continue loading their vessels, 

 which had not yet sufficient guano on board to serve for ballast. This 

 is what took place between us, and occasioned the document to which 

 the interrogatory refers. 



Question. Who acted as interpreter to explain to Lang and Gribbs 

 the tenor of said document, or of the permission you gave them to con- 

 tinue taking guano ? He replied^ Mr. Lang, who spoke Spanish per- 

 fectly well, for he said he had navigated for a long time in the Pacific 

 on the coast of Peru, and who, if he had not said he was an American, 

 would have been taken for a Spaniard ; that he, Dias, did not know at 

 that time a single word of English, as the little knowledge of it he 

 now has was acquired in the United States, where he lived for one 

 year, from 1855 to 1856. It ought also to be observed that Captain 

 Manuel Cotarro, who commanded the schooner-of-war which conveyed 

 him, knew a little English, and assisted Lang, though imperfectly, in 

 the translation. 



Question. Whether said gentlemen, or others of those who accom- 

 panied them, were acquainted with the Spanish language, and state, 

 in that case, who they were ? He replied^ that of those who accompa- 

 nied them, two of the laborers, one a Peruvian and the other a Chilian, 

 spoke Spanish, but he does not know their names ; that the rest he has 

 stated. 



Question, Whether the Americans who signed the document were 



