AVES ISLAND. 415 



''1. Continue to load tlie vessels that are actually taking in cargo. 



"2. Thej'" may continue to load until the arrival of the company 



with whom the government has entered into contracts, or until the 



arrival of the approbation or disapprobation of the supreme government. 



" 3. And we, Charles H. Lang and Nathan P. Gribbs^ engage to lend 



the aid that the garrison of the island rnay require. 



" 4. And to that effect we place our pieces of artillery and armament 

 at the orders and under the Venezuelan flag, to which the island be- 

 longs ; and, 



"5. I, Dias, second chief of the Venezuelan navy, do order the com- 

 manders of men-of-war cruising in the Antilles, to respect the conces- 

 sion until the sunreme government may dispose otherwise. 



"NATHAN P. GIBBS. 

 ''CHARLES H. LANG, 

 " Agent for Lang & Delano, Boston, 

 "DOMINGO DIAS. 

 "Island of Aves, [to windward,] 



"DeceniberlZ, 1854." 



It now becomes proper to make mention of this incident, which 

 proves the last assertion'. As is already apparent, however favorable 

 for Venezuela, her government has not required it for the justification 

 of her conduct in the claim. 



The agent for the two Boston houses acknowledged, in the above 

 quoted document, the legitimacy of Venezuela's authority over Isla de 

 Aves. The moment they thought of a lucrative claim upon that 

 republic, the first thing to which they ought to have called the atten- 

 tion of their government, if they had actually been wronged, or 

 deceived, in the act in question, was the existence of the permit of 

 December 13. So remarkable an incident could not have been over- 

 looked, through forgetfulness, in a claim the justice of which depended 

 precisely upon the value that might be attached to that document. 



However, it will be seen that Shelton and associates did not think 

 of the exception of fraud and violence, until the American legation 

 found itself unexpectedly stopped in its proceedings by the permit of 

 December 13, 1854. 



The claimants laid the case before the government of the United 

 States, January 15, 1855, without mentioning the incident operating 

 against them. This is the manner in which it was discovered by Mr. 

 Eames, and the impression it made on him. The following are para- 

 graphs from his note to Mr. Marcy, dated at Caraccas, April 26, 1855, 

 in which he goes on to relate what had occurred after his interview 

 with the secretary of foreign relations, about the latter part of March, 

 as has been stated above : 



"Soon afterwards, and while I was still seeking to ascertain the 

 exact nature of the admission, which I should have to encounter in 

 prosecuting the reclamation of the claimants, there was put in my 

 hands, by a merchant here, a paper which purported to be a copy of 

 an agreement entered into and signed at the Island of Aves, on the 

 13th of December last." * * * * " Upon comparing this paper 

 with the documents accompanying your instruction, which purported 



