188 CASES OF THE PEARL, LORIOT, AND HARRIET. 



wished to know distinctly from this Government whether it claimed on 

 its part any right or authority to detain or capture or in any way to . 

 molest, interrupt, or impede the vessels or the citizens of the United 

 States of America while engaged in fishing in the waters or on the 

 shores of the Falkland Islands and the other places included in the 

 decree of June 10, 1829. 



As his excellency has not, as yet, condescended to reply to the 

 inquiry, the undersigned thinks himself justified in the presumption 

 that the power and authority described in his application are assumed 

 by this Government. And, acting on this presumption, he will proceed 

 to lay before his excellency the views which his Government have taken 

 of this question, and to present some facts, having relation to the ques- 

 tion in issue, for the consideration of his excellency, which he sincerely 

 hopes may produce a happy termination of this unpleasant contro- 

 versy. 



To simplify the investigation upon which the undersigned proposes 

 to enter, he will, in the commencement, take the liberty to state the 

 question in this manner. 



The Argentine Republic claims sovereignty and jurisdiction over the 

 Falkland Islands, Terra del Fuego, Cape Horn, and the islands adjacent 

 in the Atlantic Ocean, by virtue of having succeeded to the sovereign 

 rights of Spain over those regions. 



As these sovereign rights thus claimed are altogether derivative 

 from Spain, the first inquiry naturally divides itself into two 

 branches: 



1st. Had Spain any sovereign rights over the above-mentioned 

 places? 



2nd. Did the Argentine Republic succeed to those rights? 



(The letter proceeds to show that Spain never became or even 

 claimed to be the owner of the Falkland Islands either by first discov- 

 ery or occupation (pp. 340-347), and continues:) 



Can this Republic, then, claiming no original title or rights, but 

 such only as are derivative, and which are derived altogether from 

 Spain, assume any higher titles than those which Spain herself as- 

 sumed? And Spain certainly never assumed any right to capture or 

 detain American vessels or American citizens engaged in the fisheries 

 at the places above mentioned. 



But, if it be hypothetically admitted that the full and entire right 

 of sovereignty was possessed by Spain, has Spain renouuced it? lias 

 Spain ever, by any acknowledgment whatever, yielded the rights which 

 she once possessed? Has Spain, as yet, relinquished, by any formal 

 act or acknowledgment, any part of her claim to supreme dominion 

 over these islands? If the rights of Spain are dormant, they are not 

 extinct; and the undersigned has little doubt of her ability to maintain 

 her actual rights (if any) over the Falkland Islands, for, although some 

 of the brightest jewels have been torn from her Crown, she is now a 

 great and powerful nation; and could her capacities be developed by 

 free and liberal institutions, she would soon resume much of her ancieut 

 grandeur. 



But, again, if the rights of Spain to these islands were undoubted, 

 and if, again, it be admitted hypothetically that the ancient vice- 

 royalty of the Rio de la Plata, by virtue of the revolution of the 25th 

 of May, 1810, has succeeded in full sovereignty to those rights, would 



