462 AVES ISLAND. 



claimants, immediately on being advised of it, in January, 1855, made 

 earnest representations to the federal government, and asked for its 

 interposition to procure redress. In seeking tliis redress, the claimants 

 soon found that they had not merely the Venezuelan government to 

 encounter ; a powerful combination of speculators in Philadelphia, 

 New York, and Baltimore, known as '^the Philadelphia G-uano Com- 

 pany," composed of many persons in those cities possessed of reputed 

 large pecuniary means, and at that time wielding no little political 

 influence, it was soon seen, was by far our most formidable antagonist; 

 and for the reason that its efforts to circumvent the payment of our 

 just demands were chiefly exerted, and its influence most injuriously 

 felt at Washington and upon the United States minister at Caraccas. 

 This company claimed Aves Island under a conditional purchase from 

 Venezuela made by contract with the Monagas administration on the 

 25th December, 1854, (based upon a previous understanding as to the 

 eviction,) after the claimants had been six months in possession, though 

 those conditions were not fulfilled, and the bills of exchange, the con- 

 sideration of the sale, (called the "Wallace contract,") were protested, 

 and the contract subsequently, in July, 1855, declared null and void 

 by the Venezuelan government on account thereof, the same opposition 

 to our just claims continued from the same parties. In relation to the 

 "Wallace contract," Mr. Eames, in a dispatch dated April 6, 1856, 

 gives its details, and adds: " I have permitted myself to go into these 

 details in this dispatch, by reason of the expressed wish of the de- 

 partment that I should sift the nature of the transaction, and the 

 motives which induced this government to occupy the Aves. There 

 is, in my judgment, ground to believe that the act of occupation took 

 place as a necessary condition precedent to the drawing of the drafts. 

 The occupation took place on the 13th of December, just in time to be 

 known here on the day when the contract was signed ; that is, the 

 21st of the same month, the drafts being drawn and delivered four 

 days afterwards." And he further says, "it is currently reported 

 that high official men here, then in power, were to share in the profits 

 of the contract. No fact has come to my knowledge which makes this 

 statement improbable." And in September, 1855, the contract was 

 renewed through the zealous and extraordinary interposition of the 

 American minister, (indicating that the United States government 

 took a great interest in its revival,) and this Island of Aves in terms 

 included in it, with express exemption of guarantee of title by Vene- 

 zuela ; and this last contract, called the "Pickrell contract," was so 

 procured by the active "good offices" of the American minister, os- 

 tensibly in compliance with a suggestion contained in a dispatch dated 

 June 20, 1855, from Mr. Marcy, then Secretary of State ; but it is 

 considered in flagrant violation of the explicit instruction of Mr. 

 Marcy "to forbear to do or say anything in favor of the Philadelphia 

 company which will in any way affect the (our) claim," which the 

 same dispatch informed the minister our government intended to en- 

 force. 



Mr. Eames seemed from the outset not merely indisposed to do any- 

 thing to advance and sustain the claim, but the claimants then thought, 

 and have seen no reason to change their opinion, that he was hostile 



