AMERICAN INSTITUTE. l79 



Brooklyn; Leonard, Chambers, Cliilson, Daniel C. Robinson, and others — 

 27 members. 



President Pell in the chair ; Henry Meigs, Secretary. 



Alfred Gr. Benson was invited to speak of the guano of Jarvis' and 

 Baker's Islands. He said that his son was present, who had as agent 

 of the Guano Company, visited and examined the islands, and confirmed 

 the statements now made. 



Mr, Benson here spoke for his son, (who had been introduced to the 

 club as one who had visited the American Guano Islands,) recapitulating 

 the history of guano enterprises in the United States. In June, 1855, the 

 Farmers' Club had urged by resolution the government to take possession 

 of certain guano islands to which no other nations had claim. The Ameri- 

 can Guano Company was formed, trusting solely in the representations of 

 Captain Michael Baker, who had accidently discovered an immense deposit 

 of this fertilizer upon islands in the Pacific. The President of the United 

 States ordered a national ship to visit Baker's and Jarvis' Islands and 

 report upon their promise. Commodore Mervine visited the designated 

 vicinity and returned without landing upon them, saying that the alleged 

 guano was worthless, that the coast was inaccessible from rocks, and that 

 there was no anchorage for vessels. Secretary Dobbin ordered the Com- 

 modore to send another vessel to explore the islands, and the St. Mary^s 

 was sent. Her report confirmed the Commodore's, though, privately, the 

 gentleman who was in command of her admitted that there was anchorage 

 about the inlands Notwithstanding this, another expedition was sent out, 

 the bonds of $100,000 required by the United States government having 

 been given, buoys were laid, and two cargoes brought home. Mr Benson's 

 son rafted the timber on shore to build houses on the islands, and boated 

 the cargo off. In the late panic the company lost all its funds. But then, 

 when no underwriter in the Union would take the risk of sending a vessel, 

 Wm. H. Webb, the ship-builder, furnished a ship for the company, and in 

 it sent out a man in whom he could implicitly trust, to report how much 

 guano there was, and how accessible it might be. Sixty days since this 

 agent reported that the guano on Jarvis' Island was boundless iu amount 

 and entirely accessible. Mr. Webb then bought up $18,000 worth of the 

 shares, which had been hawked about the streets for $5 to $10 a share — 

 or one-fifth of the whole stock. A cargo of this guano had just arrived at 

 Brooklyn, under care of the sou of D. G. P. Judd, who, selling it at $38 

 a ton, was realizing a profit of $18,000 oif his cargo. Mr. Benson estima- 

 ted the amount of guano on Jarvis' Island at 5,000,000 tons, and on 

 Baker's Island at no less. He instanced experiments to show that it was 

 in no way inferior to the best Peruvian article. Another company had 

 lately been formed to bring guano from still other islands lately discovered. 



The following resolutions were adopted unanimously : 



Whereas, On the 22d of June, 1855, this body passed the following 

 resolutions : 



Resolved, That it is the duty of the American government to assert its 



