Nicaragua: war of the filibusters ... With introductory chapter by Hon. L. Baker. The Nicaraguan Canal, by Hon. W. A. MacCorkle ... the Monroe Doctrine, by J. F. McLaughlin

Front matter

NICARAGUA: War of the Filibusters, By Judge DANIEL B. LUCAS, yc Late President of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia. WITH INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER By Hon. LEWIS BAKER, United States Minister to Central America. The Nicaraguan Canal, By Hon. W. A. MacCORKLE, Governor of West Virginia. The Monroe Doctrine, By J. FAIRFAX McLAUGHLIN, LL. D. RICHMOND, VA.; B. F. Johnson Publishing Company. 1896. Copyrighted, 1896, B. F. Johnson Publishing Co. MAP OF NICAHAGUA, SHOWING THE ROUTE OF THE CANAL INTRODUCTORY. At five o'clock on the morning of May 1st of this year, I was awakened, in San Jose, Costa Rica, by the firing of cannon and the noise of a brass band parading the streets. On picking up the morning papers I learned that the demonstration was an act of rejoicing over the surrender in Nicaragua of " el filibustero Yankee William Walker," on the 1st of May, 1857 — thirty-eight years ago.

With my coffee I glanced over that morning's issue of six of the eight daily papers of the city, and each one con tained an editorial glorification of the heroic action of the Central Americans in expelling Walker and his followers from their soil. These articles were pitched on a high and patriotic key; and some of the papers denounced in manly terms all species of interference in the Home Rule of these countries by outsiders. On the evening of the same day, a distinguished local orator delivered an address in Congress Hall before an interested audience of the representative, ruling citizens of Costa Rica, having the Walker in vasion as his theme. My attention having thus been drawn to the gen eral subject, I found, on looking around, many evi- Introductory. dences in Costa Rica of the lively interest still felt in the effort of William Walker to subjugate Nicara gua, with a view of planting therein another race of people.

I also remembered that in Nicaragua, the 14th of September, the anniversary of the defeat of Walker's forces at San Jacinto in 1856, in which skirmish Byron Cole lost his life, is annually celebrated ; and that in March of last year, the present Liberal Gov ernment of Nicaragua disinterred the bones of Gen eral Maximo Jerez, which had been smouldering in the church-yard at Rivas, and with much pomp of parade, carried them across the Republic, exhibiting them in state at Granada and Managua, and deposit ing then in a vault at Leon.* These ceremonies, which extended over more than one week, were given all the significance which public speeches, flags and banners, parades and music, cannon and skyrockets could bestow. The day upon which General Ortiz would arrive at Leon with his troops fresh from their victorious campaign in ex pelling the Conservative President Vesquez from Honduras and installing Dr. Policarpo Bonilla, a Liberal, in his stead, was selected as that upon which * Leon had teen adopted by the Directory of the Liberal Revolutionists of 1854, as their capital of Nicaragua; while tho Legitimate government, whose President was Fruto Chamorro, continued to administer its au thority at Granada.

Chapter I. Picturesque Nicaragua

The student of American history finds in the con quest of Nicaragua, by William Walker, the fili buster, a startling episode in the progress of a country upon which the eyes of civilized America are now turned as upon the most interesting spot on the continent — perhaps in the world. The peculiar circumstance which attracts this interest was doubtless that which then directed Walker's selection in the choice of a republic in which to inaugurate his scheme for the "regeneration of Latin America." This all important circumstance is the fact that here is, so to speak, the waist of the continent, capable of being spanned by the commerce of the world. At the time of Walker's venture, Cornelius Van derbilt, sometimes called Commodore Vanderbilt, had conceived and executed a transit across the ter ritory of Nicaragua for travel and transportation.

What was known as the " Overland Route," from Nicaragua. Washington, say, to California, was a primitive con ception, almost like Hannibal's crossing the Alps. Jefferson Davis might, without impropriety, be called the father of the Pacific railroads. In the Senate of the United States, he was the pioneer ; and as Secretary of War, he ordered a survey to deter mine the best route for constructing such a railway, which he regarded as a military necessity. When Walker conceived his dream of redeeming Nicaragua, there was prevalent in the United States a doctrine, the outgrowth of over-prosperity, called "Manifest Destiny." To thoughtful persons, given to tracing the genesis and progress of ideas, nothing could excite more decided interest than this sudden frenzy in the people of the United States to annex the remainder of the continent — especially when we consider that they were just on the verge of a life and-death struggle to hold on to what they had The doctrine of Manifest Destiny is supposed to have an accredited father in one of the greatest of our party leaders — Stephen A. Douglas.

I prefer to have it stated in the language of a statesman now living, and whose voice is still poten tial in the conduct of public affairs. Succinctly, here is the doctrine; "Examine your maps, commence at the mouth of the Rio Grande, trace along down through the waters of the bay of Vera Cruz, around that high headland of Yucatan, down through the Caribbean Sea, across the Tropic of Cancer into the Gulf of Darien ; cross the Isth mus there into the Gulf of Panama, follow up the Pacific coast through twenty-two degrees of latitude to the boundary line of the Nicaragua. 29 treaty of 1854, and all within those limits is fastened to the interests and wrapped up in the destiny of American institutions by the great God whose hand shapes the continents of the earth, and scoops out its oceans, gulfs, and harbors.

The great law of self-defence and national security, a law of nations paramount to all other laws, calls imperatively for the practical recognition of this fact in the diplomacy and legislation of the Government. The waters of the Gulf of Mexico on its northern and eastern coast now wash the borders of five States of the Union, and its tide rises to the wharf of the commercial metro polis of the South. Over on the opposite side lie the distracted States of Mexico, and lower down those of Central America. They would constitute an easy acquisition to any European power with sufficient boldness to defy the Monroe policy of this Government, and from that line of coast the hostile armaments of all Europe could be equipped in sight of American soil. If the American Union shall be preserved, its wisest statesmen will be the first to look steadily and boldly to these facts, and to shape the policy of the nation toward its lawful and inevitable expansion." * Here, then, we have the cult of " Manifest Des tiny," as portrayed by a western statesman of that era.

The absorption of the Continent. That Walker, when he started out, was a disciple of this school, seems manifest. Fortunately, he was a literary man, sometime editor of a Democratic newspaper. A writer of rare lucidity and vigor. After escaping from Nicaragua, he published " The War in Nicaragua," and we have thus a singularly full and detailed account ofhis adventures, and the aims and ambitions which in spired them. Except for the accidental good for tune which placed this rare volume, now out of print, in my hands, I should never have undertaken * Senator Voorhees. Nicaragua. the task before me, unless I had gone to Nicaragua and possessed myself of the information contained in the files of his organ — " El Nicaragua en se " — established by him in Nicaragua, and conducted under his auspices.

Walker has furnished us with the data which alone can justify a biography — namely, what did the hero himself say and do in the prosecution of his life-work? These actions and sayings constitute the mirror in which, as in a camera, is photographed the individual. Whatever is received at second hand, is open to suspicion. I have suggested one consideration that determined the point which Walker selected as best for his in vasion, namely the inter-oceanic highway which the Accessory Transit Company had established across the Isthmus from Greytown or San Juan del Norte, on the Atlantic or Caribbean Sea, to San Juan del Sur, on the Pacific, a distance something less than one hundred and seventy-five miles. Its route lay through the San Juan river and lake Nicaragua, along the southern border of the Republic, adjoin ing her neighbor, the Republic of Costa Rica.

At an early day, after their independence, these Central American States, Honduras, Guatamala, San Salva dor, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, had welded them selves together in a Federal Republic modeled after their more powerful neighbor of the north. The result of federation, however, was only discord and confusion, and secession and disintegration soon THE PRINCIPAL STREET IN GREYT0WK. Nicaragua. 31 followed, until in 1855 when Walker made his de scent, not a vestige of the Confederation remained. As late as 1839, there seemed to be left in Central America some shadow of Federal authority. John L. Stevens, the celebrated traveller, it appears, was engaged in chasing this phantom upon some mysterious mission for the Government of the United States, the nature of which he fails to dis close. The problems presented to humanity and civiliza tion by Tropical America are replete with interest, and full of difficulty.

The physical conditions of nature, have not these a mysterious and controlling influence over the character of the inhabitants? over the institutions of the country — over its pro gress and destiny? Where volcanic peaks, now dormant, now active, answer to each other, through the heart of a tropical region, which is shaken also, by corresponding or consequential seismatic vibrations ; is not the heart of man there subject to like eruptive and violent demonstrations? Do, or do not, Rome and Syra cuse from out their ruins visible from Vesuvius, and overlooked by Etna, speak a language akin to that of Leon and Granada, dominated as they are by the smoking heights of Mombacho and Masaya? Humboldt, in describing these very regions, standing amid the overwhelming majesty of Nature and the Eternal Summer of organic life, points out the great advantages which the inhabitants of the Nicaragua. 32 United States have over the Spanish Americans.

He then proceeds to remark : " Internal dissensions are chiefly to be dreaded in regions where civiliza tion is but slightly rooted, and where, from the influence of climate, forests may soon regain their empire over cleared lands if their culture be aban doned." Let us devote our attention for a moment to Pic turesque Nicaragua. Of the Central American Re publics, she is the largest. According to Mr. Squier, her area, including the disputed Mosquito Coast, is about 60,000 square miles. The hand-book of Ame rican Republics (1891) places it, in round numbers, at 50,000, excluding such disputed territory. This is 14,000 miles less in extent than the two Virginias. There are two distinct geographical divisions ; the Western, lying upon and encircled by the Pacific coast, and the Eastern, girdled by the Atlantic and its arm, the Caribbean Sea.

The Western division is essentially tropical, while the Northern and Eastern division displays many characteristics of the temperate zone. It is the Western or Pacific coast that we shall have to traverse, in considering the invasion of Gen eral Walker. From the Bay of Fonseca and the magnificent harbor of Realejo, on the Pacific, southward to San Juan del Sur, and thence across a narrow strip of land to Rivas and Virgin Bay, on the Gulf of Nicaragua, the operations of Walker were confined. Indeed, it may be said that on the Western or Pa- Nicaragua. 33 cific side only was the essential statehood of Nicara gua embraced. At that date (1855), she had five distinct departments, the Meridional, Oriental, Occidental, the Sep tentrional of Matagalpa, and Septentrional of Sego via;* these departments were subdivided into dis tricts for municipal purposes.

The districts were named from the principal towns therein respectively situated. Thus, we had Leon, Granada, and Rivas on the Pacific side, and Matagalpa and Segoria in the Northern department. It was principally between these cities, Leon, Granada, and Rivas that Walker operated. Leon was farthest north, towards Honduras, and Rivas farthest south towards Costa Rica ; while Granada was situated on the Lake between the two, being sixty-five miles south of Leon, and about thirty-five or forty north of Rivas. The population of Granada was put at 15,000, that of Leon at 35,000, and of Rivas at 4,000 inhabitants. The port of Realejo, on the Pacific, was about fifteen miles southwest of Leon, while that of San Juan del Sur was about half that distance from Rivas ; the distance between the two harbors coastwise being about one hundred and twenty-five miles.

Immediately north of this Pe ninsula, which stretched from the Bay of Fonseca to San Juan del Sur, lay the two magnificent inter-com- * There was likewise the department of Guanacosta, lying south of the San Juan river, much of which was disputed territory between the adjacent republics— Costa Rica and Nicaragua. s Nicaragua. municating lakes, Nicaragua and Managua, at an average of about one hundred and forty feet above the level of the Pacific Ocean. The waters of these lakes are drained by the river San Juan, commencing at San Carlos on Lake Nicaragua, and emptying into the Caribbean Sea at the Eastern port, called San Juan del Norte. This was the route of the Vander bilt Transit Company, viz : from San Juan del Norte by the San Juan River to Fort San Carlos, on Lake Nicaragua, thence across the lake to Virgin's Bay, and thence across a narrow strip of land to San Juan del Sur — the total distance being something less than one hundred and seventy-five miles.

It was this Isthmus, engirdled by the Pacific on the west with one hundred and twenty-five miles of seacoast, and bounded on the east by the two great Lakes, that Walker selected as the scene of his operations in Central America. Sentinelled on the one side by a chain of volcanic peaks, many of them wreathed in smoke, and shaken on the other by the pulsations of the mighty Pacific, the intervening country is as full of natural beauty and as prolific in the productions of the soil, as any similar spot on the continent. It is essentially an equinoctial region, and charac terized by the marked features of tropical America. For summer, it has the wet season, from May to Oc tober? and for winter, the dry, extending from Octo ber to May. The atmosphere, observes Walker, is a fluid altogether different from the atmosphere of Nicaragua. 35 northern climates — as if a thin and vapory exhala tion of opium, soothing and exhilarating by turns, was being mixed at intervals with the common ele ments of the air.

When, on his march from the Occidental Depart ment to surprise and capture Rivas, at sunrise the American came in sight of Lake Nicaragua. Valle, a faithful Indian auxiliary and guide, exclaims sim ply : "Ometepec ! " — without other phrase or emotion. But Walker was awestruck and lost in admiration, as he beheld the tall and graceful cone of the grand volcano rising out of the bosom of the lake, like a giant taking his siesta, his sides covered with the dark verdure of the tropics — in repose, but liable to awaken at any moment. Perhaps no equal extent of the earth's surface, remarks Mr. Squier, exhibits so many and such marked traces of volcanic action as that part of Nicaragua intervening between its lakes and the Pacific Ocean. All of the travellers in this region describe the curious remains of former volcanic action.

In some places near these craters the ground is encrusted with sulphur, and dried and baked by subterranean fires ; in others, there are orifices from which steam rushes out violently, and with noise ; in the nearer approach, pools or lakes of dark brown water are discovered, with monstrous bubbles, three or four feet high. In fine, it required no remarkable stretch of imagination on the part of the natives when they Nicaragua. 36 named the crater of Mt. Masaya " the Hell of Masaya," while they styled the smaller, and extinct, though still smoking orifices, " Infernillos " or Di minutive Hells. The tropical vegetation so often described by trav ellers, presents the same general features in all the regions of equatorial America in such manner that when we follow Stephens (1839) and Ford (1891) in Nicaragua, we seem to be going up the same streams ascended by Agassiz (1868), in Brazil.

A narrow opening with high perpendicular banks, covered with bushes, wild flowers and moss, roofed over with branches of large trees, sometimes inter lacing from the opposite banks, and always covered with lianes — vines — more or less luxuriant in growth. The peninsula we are considering produces all the staples of the tropics — coffee, sugar, cacao (chocolate nut), bananas, and the rest. Columbus skirted along the eastern coast, and with a geographical instinct was persuaded that there was a connecting water way to the Pacific. Lord Nelson, then captain, occupied San Juan, and captured the castle by that name from the Spaniards in 1780. Here are monuments and idols of the pre-Colum bian era, and evidently of Aztec origin ; and here, likewise, are the ruins of Mooresque Castillian structures, as melancholy as those of Babylon or Rome.

Here are ancient cities whose streets are paved Nicaragua. 37 with the marble of their own decay, spacious plazas, lofty facades, with turrets and spires gorgeously ornamented with stuccoed figures, magnificent cathe drals, arched and covered bridges, stately palaces — all now ruins ! Ah ! but the laboring peasant, the simple hus bandman, paid for these in their day and genera tion just as the humble laborer and sturdy plough man are paying for many an empty pageant of to-day. Such, then, in brief and blurred outline was the Picturesque Physical Nicaragua of 1855 ; a country in which the forces of nature agitate themselves in an extraordinary manner, superinduced, no doubt, by their proximity to the sun. In 1855, according to Squier, the population of Nicaragua was 300,000, distributed as follows : Whites, 30,000 ; Negroes, 18,000 ; Indians, 96,000 ; Meztizos, 156,000.

The Meztizos (which means in reality the Amalga mated races), it will be seen outnumbered all the individual types combined. The pure Indians were largely preponderant in the northern departments. Some of them constitute a hardy, unconquered race of people, resisting and defying the domination of the Spaniards, while adopting their religion. No thing can convey to our minds a more realistic con ception of Nicaragua of 1855 than to suppose that northern New York, for example, embracing half of the State, were inhabited by a race of unconquered Indians superior in numbers to the white population. Nicaragua. However, these unconquered savages, Indian bravos, as they were called, were beyond the region which we necessarily penetrate in the history of Walker. Walker's description of the native Indians in the latter region answers very accurately to that given by Agassiz of those he saw in Brazil.

They are ignorant, simple, docile and easily imposed upon.* Walker was so impressed by these admir able qualities, that as we shall see, he proposed to utilize them by reducing these Indians to slavery. ' ' The people of Nicaragua (says Stephens) are said to be the worst in Central America, and they are proportionately devout."! Another traveller tells us they are much darker in complexion than those of Costa Rica. Mr. Ford, however, dwells enthusiastically upon the honesty of the men and the homely virtues of the women as witnessed by him in San Juan. Not even the hack men in that city are sufficiently civilized to cheat the tourist ; a deficiency which certainly cannot be attributed to the cabmen of Washington or London. J Upon the whole, I think we may conclude that the native population with which Walker had to deal was about the same in character as that of other Latin-American republics — neither much bet ter, nor manifestly worse. •A journey to Brazil. + 2 Stephen's Travels in Central America, &c, 19. t Ford's Tropical Am., 380. Nicaragua. 39

Chapter II

1854. DESCENT OP WALKER UPON NICARAGUA LA FALANGE AMERICANA REPULSE AT RIVAS, JUNE 29, 1855 DEFEATS GARDIOLA SEPTEMBER 3, 1855. Walker commences his narrative by an account of his descent with a small party of " Filibusters '' upon Sonora in Mexico. He says that that invasion was instigated by a desire to protect the inhabitants of that state from hostile Indians ; a proposition so preposterous and improbable, that did not the au thor's fatal earnestness of disposition forbid, we should think it intended for a grim bit of humor.* His ventures against Mexico were closed by his surrender to an American military officer, after re treating before a greatly superior force of Mexicans, to whom he had given battle at La Paz. The last remains of this unfortunate expedition reached San Francisco about the middle of May, 1854.

After almost insuperable difficulties, Walker and Cole succeeded in getting a liberal colonization grant, under which three hundred Americans were to be introduced into Nicaragua, "and were to be guaranteed forever the privilege of bearing arms." This grant was from D. Francisco Castellon, Pro- • The War in Nicaragua, 22. [1855. 40 Nicaragua. visional Director of Nicaragua, and leader of the Democratic party. The republic was, as usual, in a state of revolution, the Democrats being represented as we have seen by Castellon, and the Legitimists by D. Jose Maria Estrada. After a stormy voyage from San Francisco, in his vessel, the Vesta, Walker and his little band of fifty eight adventurers, armed with rifles and revolvers, reached the port of Realejo on the 10th of June, 1855. In the meantime the fortunes of Castellon had been much impaired since his grant to Cole and Walker in December, 1854.

Honduras, Costa Rica and Guatamala, having a temporary respite from domestic revolution at home, were paying some attention in a military way to the civil war in Nicaragua. From the harbor Walker and his party were con veyed up the river five miles to the town of Realejo where they disembarked. In the ascent they passed over the very ground trodden by the great English buccaneer, Sir Henry Morgan. We may here pause to reflect that the same England that acquitted and knighted her own free-booter afterwards captured our American adventurer and turned him over to be shot. Walker was received with open arms by Castellon, and the Americans were invited to enter his service as a separate corps, to be called " La Falange Ameri cana" — The American Phalanx. 1855.] Nicaragua. 41 On the 20th of June, Walker received his com mission as colonel in the Democratic army, and the Minister of War informed him that commissions would issue to others of his party as he might suggest.

This was accordingly done, and the Falange was organized into two companies. He remained inac tive but three days, and at the expiration of that time he is found again on board the Vesta, with his Americans, and one hundred native troops, bound for Rivas in the Meridional Department, then in the possession of the Legitimists. The army of Estrada, the Legitimist, was commanded by General Corral, and that of Castellon, the Democrat, by General Muiioz. On the 27th of June, Walker landed at San Juan del Sur and made preparations to attack Rivas. On the 25th he captured the little village of Tapa, and on the 29th assaulted Rivas. The Legitimists, with about 500 men, were concentrated in the Plaza, and the Americans entered the town and took pos session of the houses crowning the summit of the hill of Santa Ursula.

The native troops, under Colonel Ramirez, did not support Walker, but failed to advance. In the meantime the enemy was reinforced by seventy-five or eighty fresh troops from San Juan del Sur, under Colonel Arguello, and these falling on Walker's flank interposed themselves between him and the native Democrats, whereupon the latter inconti nently marched away toward Costa Rica, leaving Walker to his fate. The gallant little band made a Nicaragua. [1855. 42 desperate sally, however, and made good their retreat. The fight lasted four hours, and of his handful of Americans Walker lost six killed, and twelve wounded, of whom five were left in the town, only to be captured and barbarously murdered. The enemy lost, some seventy killed and as many wounded. Walker had thus in less than a fortnight after his arrival sailed a distance of 125 miles, and lost more than one-fifth of his small band, including some of his bravest officers — Crocker and Kewen — killed, while Doubleday, Anderson, and De Brissot were wounded.

On the 30th of June the little band, numbering forty-five, reached San Juan del Sur in safety, though a good deal the worse for wear, but " still clinging to their rifles." The Vesta not being in sight, Walker pressed into service a Costa Rican schooner, San Jose, and made his way back to sea, keeping a sharp look-out for his own brig, which he subsequently overtook. While Walker was waiting to embark on the San Jose, two irresponsible persons, not connected with his command, set fire to the barrack of the Legiti mists, just vacated by Colonel Arguello when he marched to the assistance of Rivas. One of these men was an American from California, and the other a drunken sailor called Sam. Walker having got possession of these men ordered them to be shot without any form of trial. Sam, however, escaped A WATER-CART IN RIVA8. 1855.]

Nicaragua. 43 from his guards, but Dewey, defying Walker's au thority, was shot and killed. Thus, before he had been in Nicaragua two weeks, our adventurer had given the natives two signal illustrations of traits which characterized his career — rashness and cruelty. It must be admitted, how ever, that when subsequently at San Juan del Sur, he ordered his surgeon to treat the wounded prisoners of war with the same care and attention bestowed upon his own wounded, contrary to the prevailing Central American custom of killing them or> the spot, Walker taught the natives a much more salutary lesson. When he got back to the port of Realejo, whence he had sailed, he made an elaborate report to Cas tellon of his proceedings, and openly accused Gen eral Mufioz, who had opposed the expedition; of bad faith, and charged that in deserting Walker at Rivas Ramirez had behaved treacherously at the instiga tion of Mufioz.

Castellon was too hard pressed, however, to take up Walker's quarrels, and so he endeavored to patch up a truce between him and the commanding general. The opposing general, Corral, had advanced northward from Granada and was reported to have reached Managua at the head of 1,000 Legitimists. Now, Managua is but fifteen miles from Granada and only forty from Leon, so that two days' forced march would bring him upon the Democratic capital. Walker was a very good ally to have on hand Nicaragua. [1855. in such an emergency, as he was entirely unac quainted with fear and given to exaggerating, as with the wand of a wizard, his own resources. The people were likewise partial to the Americans, be cause they cherished the hope that their presence would ameliorate the horrors of the press-gang, that scourge of Tropical America.

The cholera had now broken out at Managua, and this proved a more efficient ally than Walker. If Corral had any real design of a speedy march upon the Democratic capital the ravages of the epidemic among his troops soon drove him back to Granada. Walker had determined upon another expedition against the Meridional Department. His object was manifest ; it was his fixed policy to get as near the Transit as possible, in order to recruit from the pas sengers-to and from California, and to have the means of easy and rapid communication with the United States. As a preliminary step, he gave up his colonization grant and received in return authority to recruit 300 men who were to be paid one hun dred dollars a month while in service, and a grant of five hundred acres of land at the close of the campaign.

About the middle of August, Walker got his Falange aboard the Vesta at the port of Realejo, to gether with his friend Valle alias Chelon, at the head of from 160 to 170 native recruits, considerably weakened by desertion, however, and cholera. Valle, who was a true Nicaraguan, did not like to let such 1855]. Nicaragua. 45 a fine opportunity for counter-revolution escape him, and but for Walker's dissuasion would have erected his own Democratic standard, and the Red Ribbon of Chelon in opposition to that of Castellon. On the 29th of August, the Vesta made the port of San Juan del Sur. She was too small to carry all of Walker's army, and was followed by a " ketch," (whatever that may be), containing a portion of the native volunteers. Upon landing at San Juan del Sur, Walker found himself at the head of a force, consisting of fifty Ame ricans and one hundred and twenty natives; a num ber of the latter, however, sick with cholera, or colerin.

From this period, say September 1st, commenced a series of brilliant achievements by our adventurer, which, had only judgment been vouchsafed him, must have assured a career of extraordinary brilliancy, if not of permanent success. In some manner, not entirely explicable, one Gar diola, a professional revolutionist, distinguished by his cruel and bloodthirsty career, had descended from Honduras (for want of a convenient revolution at home, perhaps), to take a hand in the civil war of Nicaragua. When Walker was in the Occidental Department, it was rumored that Gardiola was in the north, and great apprehension prevailed at Chi nandega, where Walker was encamped, of his de scent upon that region. No sooner, however, does Walker reach San Juan del Sur than Gardiola ap- [1855. 46 Nicaragua. pears at Rivas, and leaving there with six hundred chosen men; and learning of Walker's march to Vir gin's Bay, the Legitimist captain follows close upon him, and finally coming up with him on the 3rd of September, vigorously attacks him in the town of Virgin, on Lake Nicaragua.