and that decision applies as aptly to the mouth of the Orinoco, as it did to the mud islands and estuaries of the Mississippi delta. It is manifest then that England's claim to the Orinoco mouth had really nothing to sustain it, and that her claim to the interior basin of Cuyuni-Mazaruni was very little better supported. The only support to either was the fact of material occupation, and as that was violent and recent in origin, it lacked both the essential elements of title by prescription, namely, lapse of time and peaceable possession. CHAPTER XXIV THE ANGLO-VENEZUELAN BOUNDARY DISPUTE W E have already seen, in the preceding chapter, how and under what circumstances the Guayana boundary dispute originated between Holland and Spain, near the middle of the seventeenth century; how, a century and a half later, it became the heritage of England and Venezuela; and how, after an intermittent existence of seventy-three years more, it culminated in a serious diplomatic rupture between those two countries, and brought them to the brink of war. I now propose to give some account of the conditions and circumstances under which the government of the United States became a party to that controversy; how that intervention led to the Tri-partate Agreement of January, 1897; how the Treaty of Arbitration, which followed in February of that year, constituted a new departure in at least one very important branch of international jurisprudence; and how the question was finally disposed of by award of the Arbitration Tribunal of October 3, 1899. I enter upon this task with some degree of reluctance, not because the facts are either doubtful or obscure, for they are neither; but because, having been, from the first, one of the principal actors in the drama, I shall be obliged to make more frequent allusion to myself than good taste would otherwise allow, and because, despite every care to avoid it, I may possibly give offence by disclosing facts not hitherto made public, or by speaking too freely of facts already known. However, the time has now come when the true history of the case should be made public; and whilst I shall be perfectly candid, I shall endeavor to be equally just and impartial. After resigning my diplomatic position under the government of the United States, in 1893, I accepted a commission from the Venezuelan Government as its special agent and legal adviser; and, in that capacity, entered upon a final effort to bring about some amicable adjustment of the Guayana boundary dispute. The plan was to have the whole question referred to friendly arbitration, which, at that time, seemed an almost hopeless undertaking. For, although the disputants had not as yet come to actual blows, a condition of affairs existed which was liable to culminate in active hostilities at any moment. Venezuela had fully decided to resist, by force, any further encroachments upon what she deemed her rightful domain, and the British ministry seemed equally determined not to modify their ultimatum of 1891-92. But in order to a clear understanding of the case, and of the difficulties in the way to its amicable settlement, a brief review of the more salient points will be necessary. As already stated in the preceding chapter, prior to the year 1839, the British claim had not extended beyond the old Moroco de facto line of 1768, or even west of the Pumaron river.1 In 1839-40 the Schomburgk agitation was first started; and in 1841 the first so-called "Schomburgk line" was run. This line marked out the then “extreme limit' of the British claim in Guayana. Briefly described, the line was as follows: 1 See British Parl. Papers, vol. xxxv. p. 424. Beginning at the mouth of the Amacuro river, on the eastern estuary of the Orinoco, it proceeded along the left or northern margin of the Amacuro to a point near the 60th meridian; thence, after deflecting southwestward, so as to take in a considerable part of the great interior basin of the Cuyuni-Mazaruni, it again turned eastward to the 60th meridian, where it crossed the 7th parallel of latitude; thence, proceeding in general direction southeastward, it took in Mount Iritibu and Mount Roraima; and thence proceeded in general direction eastward toward the Essequibo, without, however, having any precise terminus. This was the original “Schomburgk line," not the line of that name which was marked out twenty years after Schomburgk's death; for, between 1841 and 1890, the original line had been altered many times, and each time it had been so extended as to materially enlarge the British claim.1 Subsequently, when more moderate counsels pervailed, Lord Aberdeen, then chief Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, apologetically explained to the Venezuelan minister in London that this ex parte line was merely "tentative"; that it had been marked out as indicating England's extreme claim, and only "for convenience in future negotiations"; and not, as Venezuela had supposed, for the purpose of extending British occupation. A few weeks later, when the Venezuelan representative insisted that this line should be explicitly disclaimed, and the line itself obliterated, 1 See map herewith. Official History Boundary Dispute, pp. 6-18. Schomb.'s Rep. 1841. Docs. U. S. Comn. on Boundary between Venez. and Br. Guiana, vol. ix. (Notes on the Schomburgk Line) pp. 29-72. Ibid. ("The Monroe Doctrine on Trial"), pp. 21-30. U. S. Foreign Relations of 1890-1-2. Seijas' Limites de Guayana, etc. 2 Dip. Cor., Aberdeen to Fortique, Dec. 11, 1841. Off. Hist. Dis. of the Guayana boundary dispute. 66 'as a condition precedent to negotiations," the order was given from London to the British colonial authorities in Demarara to take down all posts, monograms, and other signs that had been set up by Schomburgk, - thus restoring the status quo of 1838-39.1 During the negotiations which followed, in 1844, Lord Aberdeen proposed a conventional divisional line, beginning at the mouth of the Moroco river, to run thence in general direction southward to the junction of the rivers Barama2 and Aunama; thence southeastward to the river Cuyuni, near the mouth of the Acarabisi creek; thence along the right margin of the Cuyuni to near the mouth of the river Yuruan; thence eastward to Mount Roraima; and thence in general direction northeastward to the river Essequibo.3 This proposition involved an extension of the old de facto line of 1768, in that it would give to England a considerable portion of the Cuyuni basin; but, despite this fact, it would have been accepted by Venezuela had it been made without conditions which she considered humiliating. For, in submitting it, Lord Aberdeen said his government was "disposed to cede to Venezuela" the territory beyond the proposed line, on the condition that the Republic would enter "into an obligation not to alienate any portion of that territory to a third power," and also not to "maltreat or oppress the Indian occupants. As he refused to make these conditions mutual, Venezuelan pride was piqued, and his proposition rejected. "4 Negotiations continued at intervals, however, till 1850, when, by exchange of diplomatic notes, the truce 1 Same to same, Jan. 3, 1842. 2 Not the Barima, as sometimes misprinted. 8 See map. Off. Hist. Dis. of Boundary. Seijas' Limites, etc. |