ARTICLE XXI. Examination vessels at sea. of In order to prevent all kind of disorder in the visiting and examination of the ships and cargoes of both the contracting parties on the high seas, they have agreed mutually that whenever a vessel of war, public or private, shall meet with a neutral of the other contracting party, the first shall remain out of cannon-shot, and may send its boats with two or three men only, in order to execute the said examination of the papers concerning the ownership and cargo of the vessel, without causing the least extortion, violence, or ill-treatment, for which the commanders of the said armed ships shall be responsible, with their persons and property; for which purpose the commanders of said private armed vessels shall, before receiving their commissions, give sufficient security to answer for all the damages they may commit; and it is expressly agreed that the neutral party shall in no case be required to go on board the examining vessel for the purpose of exhibiting his papers, or for any other purpose whatever. ARTICLE XXII. One of the parties vessels of the other sea-letters, &c. To avoid all kind of vexation and abuse in the examination of the papers relating to the ownership of the vessels belonging to the citizens of the two contracting parties, they have being engaged in war, agreed, and do agree, that in case one of them should be to be provided with engaged in war, the ships and vessels belonging to the citi zens of the other must be furnished with sea-letters, or passports, expressing the name, property, and bulk of the ships, as also the name and place of habitation of the master or commander of said vessel, in order that it may thereby appear that said ship really and truly belongs to the citizens of one of the parties: they have likewise agreed that such ship, being laden, besides the said sea-letters, or passports, shall also be provided with certificates containing the several particulars of the cargo, and the place whence the ship sailed, so that it may be known whether any forbidden or contraband goods be on board the same; which certificates shall be made out by, the officers of the place whence the ship sail[e]d, in the accustomed form. Without such requisites said vessels may be detained, to be adjudged by the competent tribunal, and may be declared legal prize, unless the said defect shall be proved to be owing to accident, and satisfied or supplied by testimony entirely equivalent. ARTICLE XXIII. relative to Visiting regulations sels without convoy. It is further agreed, that the stipulations above expressed the visiting and examination of vessels, shall apply only to those which sail without convoy, and when said vessels to apply only to vesshall be under convoy the verbal declaration of the commander of the convoy, on his word of honour, that the vessels under his protection belong to the nation whose flag he carries, and, when they are bound to an enemy's port, that they have no contraband goods on board, shall be sufficient. ARTICLE XXIV. It is further agreed that in all cases the established courts for prize causes, in the country to which the prizes may be conducted, shall alone take cognizance of them; and whenever such Prize cour tribunals, of either party, shall pronounce judgment against any vessel, or goods, or property claimed by the citizens of the other party, the sentence or decree shall mention the reason or motives on which the same shall have been founded, and an authenticated copy of the sentence or decree, and of all the proceedings in the case, shall, if demanded, be delivered to the commander or agent of said vessel without any delay, he paying the legal fees for the same. The neutral party not to accept a com ARTICLE XXV. Whenever one of the contracting parties shall be engaged in war with another State, no citizen of the other contracting party shall accept a commission or letter of marque, for the purpose of assisting or co-operating hostilely with the said enemy against the said party so at war, under the pain of being considered as a pirate. mission to cruise against the other. ARTICLE XXVI. If, by any fatality, which cannot be expected, and which God forbid, the two contracting parties should be engaged in a war with In case of war. each other, they have agreed, and do agree now for then, that there shall be allowed the term of six months to the merchants residing on the coasts and in the ports of each other, and the term of one year to those who dwell in the interior, to arrange their business and transport their effects wherever the[y] please, giving to them the safe-conduct necessary for it, which may serve as a sufficient protection until they arrive at the designated port. The citizens of all other occupations, who may be established in the territories or dominions of the United States and of the Republic of Venezuela, shall be respected and maintained in the full enjoyment of their personal liberty and property, unless their particular conduct shall cause them to forfeit this protection, which, in consideration of humanity, the contracting parties engage to give them. No sequestration ARTICLE XXVII. Neither the debts due from individuals of the one nation to the individuals of the other, nor shares, nor moneys which they of money in bank, &c. may have in public funds, nor in public or private banks, shall ever, in any event of war or of national difference, be sequestered or confiscated. Official intercourse. ARTICLE XXVIII. Both the contracting parties being desirous of avoiding all inequality in relation to their public communications and official intercourse, have agreed, and do agree, to grant to the Envoys, Ministers, and other public agents, the same favours, immunities, and exemptions, which those of the most favoured nation do or shall enjoy ; it being understood that whatever favours, immunities, or privileges the United States of America or the Republic of Venezuela may find it proper to give to the Ministers and other public agents of any other Power, shall, by the same act, be extended to those of each of the contracting parties. ARTICLE XXIX. To make more effectual the protection which the United States and the Republic of Venezuela shall afford in future to the navigation and commerce of the citizens of each other, they Buls &c. agree to receive and admit Consuls and Vice-Consuls in all the ports open to foreign commerce, who shall enjoy in them all the rights, prerogatives, and immunities of the Consuls and Vice-Consuls of the most favoured nation; each contracting party, however, remaining at liberty to ex[c]ept those ports and places in which the admission and residence of such Consuls [and Vice-Consuls] may not seem convenient. ARTICLE XXX. In order that the Consuls and Vice-Consuls of the two contracting parties may enjoy the rights, prerogatives, and immunities which belong to them by their public character, they shall, before entering on the exercise of their functions, exhibit their commission or patent in due form to the Government to which they are accredited; and, having obtained their .exequatur, they shall be held and considered as such by all the authorities; magistrates, and inhabitants in the consular district in which they reside. ARTICLE XXXI. It is likewise agreed that the Consuls, their secretaries, officers, and persons attached to the service of Consuls, they not being citizens of the country in which the Consul resides, shall be exempt from all kinds of taxes, imposts, and contributions, except those which they shall be obliged to pay on account of commerce or their property, to which the citizens and inhabitants, native and foreign, of the country in which they reside are subject, being in everything besides subject to the laws of the respective States. The archives and papers of the consulates shall be respected inviolably, and under no pretext whatever shall any magistrate seize or in any way interfere with them. ARTICLE XXXII. Deserters The said Consuls shall have power to require the assistance of the authorities of the country for the arrest, detention, and custody of deserters from the public and private vessels of their country, and for that purpose they shall address themselves to the courts, judges, and officers competent, and shall demand the said deserters in writing; proving by an exhibition of the registers of the vessel's or ship's roll, or other public documents, that those men were part of the said crews, and on this demand so proved, (saving, however, where the contrary is proved,) the delivery shall not be refused. Such deserters, when arrested, shall be put at the disposal of said Consuls, and may be put in the public prisons, at the request and expence of those who reclaim them, to be sent to the ships to which they belonged, or to others of the same nation. But if they be not sent back within two months, to be counted from the day of their arrest, they shall be set at liberty, and shall be no more arrested for the same cause. ARTICLE XXXIII. Consular convention. For the purpose of more effectually protecting their commerce and navigation, the two contracting parties do hereby agree, as soon hereafter as circumstances will permit them, to form a consular convention, which shall declare especially the powers and immunities of the Consuls and Vice-Consuls of the respective parties. ARTICLE XXXIV. The United States of America and the Republic of Venezuela, desiring to make as durable as circumstances will permit the relations which are to be established between the two parties by virtue of this treaty of peace, amity, commerce, and navigation, have declared solemnly and do agree to the following points: Treaty to remain 1st. The present treaty shall remain in full force and virtue for the term of twelve years, to be counted from the day of the in force twelve years, exchange of the ratifications, and further, until the end of one year after either of the contracting parties shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the same; each of the contracting parties reserving to itself the right of giving such notice to the other at the end of said term of twelve years; and it is hereby agreed between them that, on the expiration of one year after such notice shall have been received by either from the other party, this treaty in all its parts relative to commerce and navigation shall altogether cease and determine, and in all those parts which relate to peace and friendship it shall be perpetually and permanently binding on both powers. 2d. If any one of [or] more of the citizens of either party shall infringe any of the articles of this treaty, such citizen shall be held sonally responsible personally responsible for the same, and harmony and good for infring inent. correspondence between the two nations shall not be interrupted thereby, each party engaging in no way to protect the offender, or sanction such violation. Individuals per. remion strance is made, and 3d. If, (what, indeed, cannot be expected,) unfortunately, any of the War not to be de articles in the present treaty shall be violated or infringed clared until renon in any other way whatever, it is expressly stipulated that satisfaction refused. neither of the contracting parties will order or authorize any act of reprisal, nor declare war against the other, on complaints of injuries or damages, until the said party considering itself offended shall first have presented to the other a statement of such injuries or damages, verified by competent proofs, and demanded justice, and the same shall have been either refused or unreasonbly delayed. 4th. Nothing in this treaty contained shall, however, be constructed [construed] or operate contrary to former and existing public not to be affected. treaties with other Sovereigns and States. Existing treaties To be ratified with in eight months. The present treaty of peace, amity, commerce, and navigation, shall be approved and ratified by the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, and by the President of the Republic of Venezuela, with the consent and approbation of the Congress of the same; and the ratifications shall be exchanged in the city of Caracas, within eight months, to be counted from the date of the signature hereof, or sooner if possible. În faith whereof we, the Plenipotentiaries of the United States of America and of the Republic of Venezuela, have signed and sealed these presents. Done in the city of Caracas, on the twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six, and in the sixtieth year of the Independence of the United States of America, and the twenty-sixth of that of the Republic of Venezuela. JOHN G. A. WILLIAMSON. [L. S.] [L. S. VENEZUELA, 1859. CONVENTION BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND VENEZUELA, FOR SETTLEMENT OF AVES ISLAND CLAIMS. SIGNED JANUARY 14, 1859; RATIFIED FEBRUARY 26, 1861, BY AND WITH THE ADVICE AND CONSENT OF THE SENATE. Edward A. Turpin, Minister Resident of the United States of America, and Luis Sanojo, Secretary of State in the Department of Foreign Relations of the Government of Venezuela, being duly authorized to form an equitable agreement for the satisfaction of the damages and losses sustained by Philo S. Shelton, Sampson and Tappan, and Lang and Delano, in consequence of the evictions of their agents and employees from the Aves Island by the forces of Venezuela, have agreed upon the following articles: ARTICLE I. The Government of Venezuela obliges itself to pay to the Government of the United States, or to its Minister Resident in Venezuela, the gross sum of one hundred and thirty thousand dollars, United States currency, ($130,000,) of which said sum, one hundred and five thousand dollars ($105,000) is in liquidation of the claims of Shelton, Sampson and Tappan, and is to be distributed among themselves, and the residue, that is to say, twenty-five thousand dollars, ($25,000,) is in liquidation of claims of Lang and Delano. ARTICLE II. The said sum of one hundred and thirty thousand dollars, shall be paid in the following terms: For Shelton, Tappan and Sampson: |