406 AVES ISLAND. 



ing, would be less strange than that of the American citizens, who 

 ground it upon the untenable assertion of the abandonment of the 

 islet in question. 



The omission of Colonel Codazzi is no proof at all. True it is, that 

 his labors were the result of the special commission intrusted to him 

 by the legislative power^ who remunerated his services in an appro- 

 priate manner, 



Howbeit, it does not follow that his work is strictly official^ and 

 much less that it has been approved of as every way perfect and exact 

 by the government of Venezuela. 



It would indeed be exceediogly strange to lay aside that documental 

 proof which clears off the pending controversy, in order to make it 

 dependent upon the insignificant and unforeseen accident of the imper- 

 ceptible point of an islet, at that time worthless in all respects, being 

 omitted in some maps. 



We have it then that Isla de Aves, being included in the captain- 

 generalship of Venezuela at the time of the emancipation from Spain, 

 became an integral part of Colombia, This republic being dissolved 

 in 1830, Venezuela constituted herself into an independent nation, 

 comprising all the territory of the aforesaid captain-generalship. It 

 was so declared by her fundamental constitution and in the treaty of 

 peace and recognition between Venezuela and H. C. M., who, in article 

 second, " recognizes the republic of Venezuela as a free, sovereign, 

 and independent nation, composed of the provinces and territories 

 expressed in her constitution and other subsequent laws, and also of 

 any other territories or islands to which she may be entitled. ' ' 



PROPOSITION THIRD. 



Isla de Aves never abandoned, derelict. — In order to overthrow the 

 specious grounds of the claim in all the branches of its argumentation, 

 let it be supposed for a moment that Venezuela did not succeed Spain 

 in her rights over Isla de Aves. The conclusion that the islet was not 

 under possession in July, 1854, is not thus the more logical nor 

 legitimate. 



Hence, it is not possible to imagine there is in the Carribean Sea, 

 already so well known and explored, a foot of land unoccupied by 

 some nation. 



Isla de Aves, then, if not the property of Venezuela, should belong 

 to Spain, as has been shown in proposition first. But Spain has not 

 claimed Isla de Aves as her own, nor has France nor England claimed 

 it as annexed to any of their respective colonies. Does it follow, then, 

 that it stood abandoned at the time mentioned? No; because, sup- 

 posing that to be the case, there would yet be an opening for the pre- 

 tensions of Holland with regard to the island. 



It would not be consistent with the wisdom which distinguishes the 

 government of the United States in its administration^, nor with the 

 principles of justice which guide its conduct, independent of the inde- 

 structible proofs of rightful property presented by Venezuela, to give 

 more importance to the mere allegations of two or three American 

 citizens, who, for the sake of speculation, maintain the abandonment 



