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quently apprehending Dutchmen therein, no remonstrance was ever made again by the Director-General of the colony to the end of its history, or by the West India Company or the Dutch Government. No reference was ever made to the boundary which Storm had sought to establish, and the claim which never went beyond the Waini was never again heard of.

So completely was the claim abandoned that in 1794 the first Governor-General of Essequibo, after the final termination of the West India Company's charter, Sirtema van Grovestins, in reporting a voyage of exploration in the Pomeroon and neighboring districts, stated (V. C. II, 248):

"Went on as far as the Creek of Moruca, WHICH UP TO NOW HAS

BEEN MAINTAINED TO BE THE BOUNDARY OF OUR TERRITORY WITH THAT OF SPAIN.

In 1808, according to the British Case (p. 63):

"Two Protectors of the Indians were appointed for the Colony, which was divided into two districts for the purpose."

One of these districts was the Essequibo, with the rivers and creeks flowing into it. The other district was stated to be (B. C. V. 191):

"The west coast of the aforesaid Colony from the Creek Supename right up to the Spanish boundary, the River Pomeroon being included therein."

During all this period the Spanish claim was well known. That claim extended throughout the whole territory and as far as the Essequibo.

The boundary claimed by the Spanish authorities is shown more by their acts than by their words. They never had occasion to discuss the question for they were not only de jure, but de facto masters of Barima, as well as of the interior, and the Dutch never once disputed their innumerable acts of dominion on this territory unless the reference to the fishing vessel captured "before the river Wayni" can be so considered. Nor did they ever find Esse

quibo Dutchmen settled in this territory, except in the case of Rosen, when Storm asked their consent to act, and in the case of La Riviere, when they expelled the intruders themselves. In the interior there never was the slightest semblance of a Dutch settlement.

During all this period the Spaniards exercised control in both districts. In the interior they destroyed the Dutch post and captured its occupants, and they patrolled the river to the falls of the Cuyuni, finally establishing a fort on its southern bank at the mouth of the Curumo. In the coast territory their coastguard vessels were constantly patrolling the rivers, and they frequently exercised jurisdiction over Dutchmen found in the territory.

Under these circumstances there was little call for the Spanish Government to express in terms their territorial claims. They had asserted them in the beginning of the century in reference to the horse trade, and they had been admitted. They had asserted them when Storm protested against the destruction of the post in Cuyuni, in Governor De Castro's letter stating that the post was "in the dominions of the King my Sovereign," and adding that "this same River Cuyuni and all its territory is included in those dominions."

When the colonist Pinet, whom Storm sent in 1748 to Orinoco on a mission of observation, addressed the Spanish Governor on the subject of his treatment of the Indians, the latter had replied "that the whole of America belonged to the King of Spain, and that he should do what suited himself, without troubling about us." These words are not so grandiose as they sound. Except for the territories which had been ceded, they claimed the original title to the whole of Guiana, -a title not only anterior in date to every other, but one which had been effectively enforced.

So also, when an emissary was sent to the Orinoco, in 1769, to recover fugitive slaves. The Governor bade him return with this message (V. C. II, 197):

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That the land belonged to His Catholic Majesty as far as the bank of Oene, and that he would come and seize those plantations which lay on Spanish territory."

So when Don Matheo Beltran carried off a number of Indians from Moruka, in 1775, he said to the Postholder (V. C. II, 229):

"That his lord and master would shortly set a guard in the arm of the Weene called the Barmani, and that the whole of Maroekka belonged to the Spaniards."

The real and positive assertion, however, of the Spanish claims lies in the acts performed by the Spaniards in Barima, which will be described in subsequent chapters.

CHAPTER XI.

THE LAW OF ADVERSE HOLDING.

Title to real property may be obtained by original acquisition, that is to say, by the occupation of unoccupied land to which no one had theretofore any claim of title.

As has been shown in an earlier chapter, the Spanish acquired by a perfected discovery an original and perfect title to the whole of Guiana.

After original acquisition, the next form of acquisition is where the property acquired had been the property of another before the acquisition, but where the person acquiring the property does not in any way base his ownership on the title of the former owner, or of any former owner, but acquires a title adversely to that of the former owner. This is known as acquisition of title by "prescription" or "adverse holding."

This mode of acquiring title is thus defined by F. de Martens (Int. Law, pp. 460-461):

"b.-Prescription (usucapio). Contrary to the principle of private law, international law admits the rule of prescription only in a very limited degree. A résumé of its importance is given in the following:

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"1. International law does not recognize a limit to prescription, for a state is master of a territory so long as it is able and wishes to maintain its authority therein.

"2. In the domain of international relations nothing can interrupt the continuance of an ancient right. A government may in fact lose a possession, but it is always legal to attempt recovery of the same in one way or another.

"3. In international law no real importance is attached to anything but immemorial antiquity (antiquitas, vetustas, cujus contraria memoria non existit). This it is which forms the foundation of all jural relations, both for the existence of barbaric and civilized states. Length of time and the sanction of history impose silence on all claims and charges that might have been justified in the beginning by the violence and injustice committed at the time of gaining territory. In this sense it may especially be said of

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