Polynesian., 1852-11-13
Qbe polpnesian.

!. WIZ 4 1JulDHf5lQu.
Mr.. Webster's Letter on the Lobos Question
e 10 give an ample and accurate idea of th
d conflicting claims of the United States an
o Peru in reference to the Lobos Islands. W
n publish below the letter of Mr.. Webster +
the Peruvian Charge d. Affaires. The docu
< ment ls of an importance that commands at
tention:
. Department of State,
> Washington, August 81, 1852
ri The Undersigned, Secretary Of State O
!, the United States, has the honor 10 acknow
, ledge the receipt of the several communica
tlons of MIR. Osma, Charge d. Affaires of Pc
!. ru, of the 25th June, Sd July, and the GIL
! instant. The first mentioned of these com
municatIons, however, did not come to hi:
knowledge until the 9th of July, after he hat
1, left Washington on a short absence. He
very much regrets that circumstances have
prevented an earlier answer to these severa
, communications; but, as they all relate to
the same subject, all will now receive a COM
mon reply.
In the first place the undersigned will re-
mark to Mr.. Osma that the government of the
United States has not now, nor ever has had
any intention to facilitate the particular pur-
poses of any persons such as Mr. Osma calls
spectators, further than those purposes are
conformable to public law, as well as to the
laws of the United States. This government
knows of no companies no associations, and
no individuals in whose behalf it undertakes
any special protection. The question is
general one, in which all the citizens of the
United States engaged in commerce have an
interest, and that interest is equally respect
ed by the United States, regardless of indi-
viduals
In the next place, the undersigned express
ses the hope that it was not Mr. Osma's pur-
pose, by any expression in his note of the 9th
instant to convey an intimation that the pro-
ceed;ngs of this Government in regard TO the
subject have been influenced, in the slightest
degree, by any conviction of the relative
strength or weakness of the parties Such
an intimation, if intended to be made, would
require no refutation, since all the world
knows the manner in which the Republics of
South America, formed out of the ancient
possessions of Spain, have been treated by
this government from their earliest origin to
the present day.
The undersigned will make further re-
mark, to prevent mistakes and misunder-
standing upon Mr.. Osma's observation upon
the conversation between him and the under
signed, in the Department of State, Oh the I'd
OF July; and that is, that the supposed dis
covery of Captain Morrell, mentioned in that
conversation, was not relied upon by the un-
dersigned as founding an exclusive right to
the Lobos Islands on the part of the United
States. 1t was only mentioned as a fact fit to
be considered in common with other facts and
occurrences. The truth appears to be that
Captain MOrrell was on a voyage Of discove-
ry, and did in fact discover, or was supposed
to have discovered, guano on these islands.
1t is Certain that no book generally known
and circulated in this country mentioned the
fact of the existence of guano on these is
lands, until Captain MorrelI's narrative was
published, in 1882.
After these preliminary remarks, the un-
dersigned now proceeds to the consideration
Of the main subject. In his several commu-
nications Mr.. Osma asserts the right of Peru
to all the Lobos Islands, on the ground that
she has always exercised authority over them
that they belonged to Peru, as they formerly
belonged to Spain; and that from time irnme-
mortal the Peruvian Indians have been in the |
habit Of visiting them for the purpose of
catching seals, killing birds, and gathering
eggs, and that this exclusive right to the is
lands by Peru has never been doubted or dis
puted.
The question is, are these unqualified de-
clarations of Mr.. Osma strictly accurate p
The Lobos or Seal Islands, as their name i'm
ports, lie in the open Pacific ocean, the near
est of them twenty or thirty miles from the
coast Of Peru. They are, as Mr. Osma ad-
mi harr k nb,b IL
ted and uninhabitable. Fisheries and the
pursuit of amphibious animals, especially the
seal, have long been carried on around their
shores, and even on those shores themselves,
since it is well known that seals are usually
taken and killed upon land. In those pur-
suits, and in this use Of the islands, citizens
of the United States were engaged for half
century before any actual interruption took
place by the Peruvian government, or any
body else; their visits to them having COM
menced a, least as early as 1893. All this is
well known to the commercial world. Now,
it is quite certain that if Peru held and pos
sessed full sovereignty over these islands, this
fishing near the shore, and this pursuit and
killing amphibous animals upon the land,
was as much an invasion of that sovereignty
as the taking of guano from there now. Nor
was the case so unimportant rs that Peru
might have regarded this use Of the islands
by citizens of the United States as an indul-
gence merely, supposing her to possess the
exclusive right, since the pursuit and destruc-
ton of seals, which have at last terminated
in their almost entire disappearance, must
have been matter of much importance 10
her government Nevertheless, no complaint
was made of the course Of things, nor any in
terruption attempted or threatened, until Sep
tember, 1888, IN which month, as it would
now appear, decree was issued by the Pc
ruvian government, prohibiting foreigners
from fishing for seals and amphibious animals