AVES ISLAND. 44 L 



As it is understood that the successor of, Mr. Eames will not leave 

 for his post before the close of the coming month of August, the de- 

 partment would be pleased to know whether the claimants have any 

 further statements to make in respect to the final settlement of the 

 case, and whether they would prefer that Mr. Eames should be in- 

 structed to proceed to an arrangement or that it should be deferred 

 until the arrival of Mr. Turpin at Caraccas. 

 I am, sir, &c., 



LEWIS CASS. 



Henry S. Sanford, Esq.., Neiu York. 



Mr. Appleton to Mr. Turpin. 



No. 3.] Department OF State, 



Washington, August 24, 1858. 

 Sir : The papers herewith furnished you, and those which you will 

 doubtless find at your legation, will afford you full information as to 

 the circumstances and present position of the Aves Island case. The 

 spoliation and outrage at this island occurred in December, 1854, and 

 from that time to this the government of the United States has steadily 

 insisted that Venezuela should repair injury to our citizens which had 

 been done under authority of the Venezuelan government. Proofs 

 were offered of the extent of this injury, and in the case at least of 

 Messrs. Shelton & Co., these were as full and explicit as they were 

 promptly furnished. The 34th article of the treaty between the United 

 States and Venezuela had thus been complied with, and the way pre- 

 pared for employing the remedy which that article contemplates. Yet 

 when the present authorities of Venezuela entered upon their duties, 

 the just claim of the United States in behalf of its citizens who had 

 been injured by the Aves Island outrage, had been neither adjusted 

 nor acknowledged to exist.- This was a condition of affairs which 

 could not be suffered to continue. It was impossible that the govern- 

 ment of the United States could permit its flag to be insulted and its 

 citizens wronged, as they were insulted and wronged in the case re- 

 ferred to, without insisting upon reasonable redress, and, if necessary, 

 pursuing that redress by force. It has not been unmindful, however, 

 of the difficulties which have existed in Venezuela in respect to its 

 political affairs, nor of the embarrassments which necessarily sur- 

 rounded the existing authorities of Venezuela when they were called 

 to the management of their government. A certain delay was una- 

 voidable from these considerations, but the United States had great 

 confidence that the new government of Venezuela would lose no time 

 in terminating this delay and doing justice to those claimants who 

 had been so seriously injured by the proceedings of Venezuela, and so 

 long deprived of their rightful reparation. The dispatch of Mr. Her- 

 rera, minister of foreign relations, inclosed with that of Mr. Eames of 

 the 7th ultimo, has a tendency, I am glad to say, to justify this hope. 



