AVES ISLAND. 387 



1st. Tlie minister of Venezuela, in his speech of audience, an- 

 nounced the determination of his government to conduct the negotia- 

 tion in this capital, and signified his hope that its solution would be 

 in conformity to the principles of justice. 2d. The President replied 

 substantially that the envoy would find the best disposition, if, as was 

 to be believed, he came here animated with the spirit of justice for the 

 necessary settlement. 3d. The Secretary of State, on the 11th of 

 January, acknowledges the reception from the undersigned of the last 

 note of Senor Grutierrez, and offers to consider it as soon as it should 

 be translated. 4th. The consideration that, as it only needed, accord- 

 ing to your excellency's system of government, to fix the amount of 

 the indemnity, the special mission of Venezuela was entirely without 

 immediate object, and no investigation having been made, either as to 

 the amount of the alleged injuries and damages embraced in the 

 reclamation, there was lacking a basis of negotiation in regard to this 

 point, and such a consideration is so much the more huge as the gov- 

 ernment of Venezuela does not know this day whether, in case it de- 

 clares itself responsible for the compensation abstractedly demanded, 

 the agent, who, according to your excellency, is in Caraccas, unites 

 all the representations of the damage, or whether there are others, as 

 he is induced to believe is the case from the additional motion of Mr. 

 Wilson, made in the Senate on the 18th of the expiring month. 



As will be perceived, the interpretation to which allusion has been 

 made was not a forced but a very logical one. Moreover, it was alto- 

 gether compatible with the most exaggerated claims of the interested 

 parties protected by your excellency's government, since nothing would 

 be lost even in time, if, as is to be expected, they should present a basis 

 for the settlement of the damages, in their own fashion, within the 

 short period that the audience of the envoy extraordinary might take. 

 The practical utility of a contrary course is not comprehended^ nor 

 that of attaching importance to the false imputations which the secret 

 agents of the reclamation are propagating through the American press, 

 attributing sinister intentions to the executive authority of Venezuela 

 in appointing a special plenipotentiary for the affair — imputations 

 which, by the way, it is to be hoped, are not made by your excellency's 

 circumspect government, although it overlooks the honorable prece- 

 dents of the statesmen who are attacked. 



So powerful are the reasons that sustain the interpretation which 

 has been referred to, that now the undersigned, satisfied as he is that 

 the government of the United States has not, and cannot have, any 

 wish or interest to refuse to Venezuela even the means of declaring 

 herself honorably responsible for the damages claimed, if justice de- 

 mands it, expects, from the impartiality and rectitude of the cabinet 

 in Washington, a change of procedure in deference to the very claim- 

 ants who are protected. The minister of Venezuela calls the respect- 

 able attention of your excellency to this matter, which is^ in truth, 

 serious. 



The employment of force, which can only be supposed in the afilair 

 through the unavoidable necessity of considering it under all its 

 aspects, would assuredly secure no more favorable nor more prompt 



