464 AVES ISLAND. 



anterior claim I rej)eatecl to his excellency my confident conviction 

 tliat it would be effectually sustained by the government of the United 

 States," And with the same dispatch he incloses a note dated Sep- 

 tember 4, 1855, to Seiior Aranda, Venezuelan minister of foreign rela- 

 tions, referred to as his ^'protest" in question, and which purports to 

 be the substance of the observations which he then recently "had the 

 honor to address to his excellency the President of the republic in the 

 presence of the honorable minister of foreign relations and of Haci- 

 enda, in an audience solicited by him for the purpose of making known 

 to the government of Venezuela the views of the government of the 

 United States in relation to what may be called the question of the 

 guano islands." The representations in this note are remarkabl}^ in- 

 consistent with, and contradictory to, those made in the official reports 

 of the minister of foreign relations and Hacienda to the Venezuelan 

 Congress, and which are filed in the department, and those in the 

 dispatch of Seiior Gutierrez to General Cass, brought by Dr. Briceno, 

 special minister to the United States, and those in the pamphlet so 

 exceptionably published in this country by that official, and indeed 

 throughout all the Venezuelan correspondence. Extended and par- 

 ticular comment upon the irreconcilable statements made in these 

 documents, would give unprofitable length to this communication, and 

 the subject is a disagreeable one^ for a perusal of those documents will 

 show that a direct issue is made, the result of which depends vrholly 

 upon the veracity of the different statements by Mr. Eames on the one 

 hand, and the several ministers of President Monagas's administration, 

 present at the audience, on the other. These claimants then thought, 

 and still think, that a sincere earnestness on the part of our minister, 

 in obedience to the instructions of the department, would have ex- 

 cluded from the "^Pickrell contract" all mention of Aves Isle, or, if 

 mentioned, would have caused an express reservation of our rights in 

 terms that could not have been misunderstood or disputed, and that 

 at the same time he could even with more facility and greater advan- 

 tage have secured to the Philadelphia Guano Company under it all 

 tl.\Cly sought for with respect to the other guano islands. And. espe- 

 cially are they confirmed in this opinion by the representations of 

 Venezuelan authorities that the original draft of the " Pickrell con- 

 tract," including the Aves Island, was made or dictated by Mr. Eames 

 himself without reservation of our rights, and that among his chief 

 arguments used to the Venezuelan government to obtain its acquies- 

 cence was, that refusal so to revive the contract would imperil the 

 friendly relations between the two governments. 



The claimants attach importance to these facts, because, as the records 

 of the department will show, the transfer of the possession of Aves Isle 

 by the Venezuelan government to the Philadelphia Guano Company 

 thus obtained was seriously detrimental if -not totally destructive to 

 their interests in the isle, and to their claim for indemnity beyond 

 damages and actual losses resulting from the spoliation and eviction, 

 and the Venezuelan authorities continually referred to it as an admis- 

 sion by the United States of the title of Venezuela to the isle._ The 

 Philadelphia Guano Company, under their most nefarious and iniqui- 

 tous contract, procured in a great measure by the representation that 



