CASE OF THE HARRIET. 185 



try, Spain held the important possession of the islands of the Malvinas 

 (Falkland Islands), and of all the others which approximate to Cape 

 Horn, including that known under the denomination of Tierra del 

 Fnego; this possession was justified by the right of being the first oc- 

 cupant, by the consent of the principal maritime powers of Europe, and 

 by the proximity of these islands to the continent which formed the 

 viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres, unto which Government they depended. 

 For this reason the government of the Republic, having succeeded to 

 every right which the mother country previously exercised over these 

 provinces, and which its viceroys possessed, continued to exercise acts 

 of dominion in the said islands, its ports, and coasts, notwithstanding 

 circumstances have hitherto prevented this Republic from paying the 

 attention to that part of the territory which, from its importance, it 

 demands. Nevertheless, the necessity of no longer delaying such pre- 

 cautionary measures as shall be necessary to secure the rights of the 

 Republic, and at the same time to possess the advantages which the 

 productions of the said islands may yield, and to afford to the inhabit- 

 ants that protection of which they stand in need, and to which they are 

 entitled, the Government has ordered and decreed as follows : 



Art. I. The islands of the Malvinas and those adjacent to Cape 

 Horn, in the Atlantic Ocean, shall be under the command of a political 

 and military governor, to be named immediately by the Government of 

 the Republic. 



II. The political and military governor shall reside in the Island de 

 la Soledad, on which a battery shall be erected under the flag of the 

 Republic. 



III. The political and military governor shall cause the laws of the 

 Republic to be observed by the inhabitants of the said islands, and 

 provide for the due performance of the regulations respecting seal fish- 

 ery on the coasts. 



IV. Let this be made public. 



Rodriguez. 

 Salvador Maria del Carril. 



The American charge cVaffaires to the Buenos Ayres minister. 1 



Buenos Ayres, 20th June, 1832. 



The undersigned, charge d'affaires from the United States of Amer- 

 ica near the Government of Buenos Ayres, has the honor to inform his 

 excellency the minister of grace and justice, charged provisionally 

 with the department of foreign affairs, that he has been instructed by 

 his Government to call the attention of this Government to certain 

 transactions of Mr. Lewis Vernet, who claims, under a decree of this 

 Government, dated the 10th of June, 1829, to be "the military and 

 civil governor of the Falkland Islands, and all those adjacent to Cape 

 Horn (including Tierra del Fuego), in the Atlantic Ocean." 



Under color of this decree, on the 30th day of July last, Gilbert R. 

 Davidson, a citizen of the United States, and master of a vessel called 

 the Harriet, sailing from Stonington, in the State of Connecticut, one 

 of the said United States, and owned by citizens of the said States, — 

 in a time of profound peace, while pursuing lawful commerce aud busi- 

 ness, was forcibly arrested by a body of armed men, acting under the 



l See British aud Foreign State Papers, 1832-'33, Vol. 20, p. 330. 



