AVES ISLAND. 411 



matter in no way to be compromised or affected by any arrangement 

 wliicii miglit be made in respect to the rights under the Wallace con- 

 tract^ or by any aid which the undersigned might render in bringing 

 about such an arrangement." 



Substantially what do these words mean? "I countenance the Pick- 

 rell claim, protesting that I do not renounce the right to support after- 

 wards the Shelton claim/ ' Such protest or reservation, far from except- 

 ing Isla de Aves, far from making both claims consistent, shows a 

 deliberate purpose to slight the conflict involved by both, and therefore 

 does not relieve the government of the United States from the delicate 

 position in which it has been placed by its exacting, in favor of certain 

 American citizens, compliance with a contract which presupposes Vene- 

 zuela as the sovereign over Isla de Aves, and by afterwards refusing to 

 acknowledge the same sovereignty, in order to demand indemnification 

 in favor of other American citizens. 



Mr. Eames further states in his note of the 31st of March, that the 

 Pickrell contract "^omitted all mention of the Aves in the article guaran- 

 tying the usufruct of the guano islands of the republic to the assignees 

 of that contract, and afterwards, in another article, specified the Aves 

 apparently with the object of relieving Venezuela from liability to those 

 assignees, in the event that her jDOSsession and use of it, for her own 

 profit, should in view of this claim, or for any other reason, terminate." 



This allegation is contra producenf em, that is, contrary to what it is 

 designed to prove. The demonstration is very easy. "What really 

 occurred in the Pickrell contract was, that although Isla de Aves was 

 not specified in article first, it being comprised in the other guano 

 islands of the republic, it was, notwithstanding, distinctly mentioned 

 in article fifth, in order to relieve Venezuela from any liability to the 

 Philadelphia company, in the eventual case of a cession in any arrange- 

 ments with Holland. Mr. Eames alleges that the reservation had in 

 view not the claim of Holland, but that of Shelton, which he had 

 then in contemplation. So, then, such forced conjecture involves the 

 same object as the true cause of the reservation ; it supposes, likewise, 

 the including of Isla de Aves in the Pickrell contract, and therefore 

 this admission, through the interference of the American legation, 

 implies the recognition of Venezuela's sovereignty over the island. 



In order to obviate such a conflict, Mr. Eames, in September, 1855, 

 had at his command two alternatives equally reasonable, but also 

 equally unadapted, owing to the peculiar circumstances in which he 

 found himself with regard to the opposing claimants. 



One was, to sujDport the Pickrell claim to the express exclusion of 

 Isla de Aves. 



But Mr. Eames could not act in such a manner, for the powerful 

 reason that the very nature of the Philadelphia enterprise made the 

 exception impossible. The fact has been above established, that the 

 Pickrell protest referred specially to the guano from Isla de Aves, If 

 Mr. Eames had attempted to except it at the time, Mr. Pickrell would 

 not have consented to it, because the labors of the company being con- 

 fined to Isla de Aves, the claim would have proved of no effectual ben- 

 efit. This is confirmed by the fact of the Philadelphia company having 



