Chapter XII: The Defence of Rivas (7)

On the night of the 12th the camp was again on the banks of the Ochomogo. Col. Natzmer was sent forward to Granada with orders to have all the disposable horses and mules, together with some provisions, brought to Nandaime; and about noon of the 13th the force had reached the latter village. Here the first report of the losses at Rivas was made by the adjutant-general. The official report showed 58 killed, 62 wounded, and 13 missing. Most of the latter afterward came in; so that the whole loss may be put at 120. A very large proportion of both the killed and wounded were officers. Among the former were Captains Huston, Clinton, Horrell and Linton, Lieutenants Morgan, Stoll, Gray, Doyle, Gillis and Winters; of the latter were Captains Cook, Caycee and Anderson, Lieutenants Grist, Jones, Jamieson, Leonard, Potter, Ayers, Latimer, Dolan and Anderson. The loss of the enemy is difficult to determine: for the Central Americans never, even to their own officers, state their losses accurately. But there were probably near six hundred of the Costa Ricans put hors de combat; two hundred killed and four hundred wounded. Their force at the beginning of the action was upward of three thousand; and their losses may be estimated by the wounded they afterward took away from Nicaragua.

From Nandaime to Granada the march was long and wearisome, in spite of the additional facilities of transportation. Hence, it was near midnight when the shattered forces of the Republic entered the capital. The friends of the government in Granada were, however, awake, in order to receive the force with every demonstration of respect and confidence. The bells rang forth a joyful peal, rockets were sent up into the air, and all appeared thankful for the services the army had rendered the State. Although the Americans had not succeeded in driving the Costa Ricans from Rivas, they had struck a blow which paralyzed the enemy. Mora was surprised by the suddenness and the force of the attack made on him; and the sight of the crowded hospitals at Rivas depressed the spirits of his soldiers, new to the trials and sufferings of war. The people, too, of the Meridional Department, as well as those of the Oriental and Occidental, seeing the Americans were not intimidated by the numbers brought against them, regained their confidence, somewhat lost by the disgrace of Santa Rosa.

While Mora had marched into the Meridional Department, a body of 250 Costa Ricans had been sent to the Serapaqui in order to cut off Walker’s communications by the San Juan river. Capt. Baldwin, a vigilant and intelligent officer, was at Hipp’s Point when he ascertained the enemy were cutting a road toward the river. He did not wait for the enemy to reach him; but, ascending the Serapaqui, he vigorously assailed the Costa Ricans while they were cutting the road, and drove them back with large loss and in extreme confusion. He himself lost one killed, Lieut. Rakestraw, and two wounded; while the enemy left more than twenty dead on the field. This affair of the Serapaqui took place on the 10th of April; and the routed Costa Ricans did not stop in their flight until they had fallen back to San José.

Immediately on reaching Granada the general-in-chief wrote to the President at Leon a detailed statement of the action at Rivas; and a day or two afterward he sent Mr. Fabens with letters to Don Patricio, suggesting the appointment of Father Vigil as Minister to the United States. The President replied to the letter concerning the engagement with the Costa Ricans, thanking the army, in the name of the Republic, for the courage and the conduct it had shown in the attack on the invaders of Nicaragua; and Mr. Fabens brought back with him the credentials and instructions of Vigil as Minister. The latter forthwith got ready to leave for San Juan del Norte in company with Mr. John P. Heiss. The priest agreed to leave his easy home in the tropics for the purpose of explaining properly to the cabinet at Washington the nature of the events occurring in Central America.

During the absence of the main body of the army on the expedition to Rivas, Schlessinger had been left at Granada on parole. He had an opportunity to regain, to some extent, his lost character, by volunteering to march with the Americans against the enemy. But he did not take advantage of the occasion; on the contrary, he remained to acquire, if possible, new infamy by adding desertion to his former crimes. The court martial which was ordered to try him, found him guilty of all the charges brought against him; and he was sentenced to be shot, and to be published throughout the civilized world. He afterward joined a body of the Legitimists acting against the Americans, and in such society he sank, by the way he permitted himself to be treated, beneath the contempt of the lowest soldier in even a Central American army. He is now fallen so far that it would be an unworthy act to execute on him the sentence of an honorable court.

After the return of the Americans to Granada an enemy fiercer and more malignant than the Costa Ricans began to ravage their thinned ranks. The fever which had before carried off many, re-appeared in an even aggravated form. Major Brewster was one of its first victims; and few could have been more missed than he. He had the calmness of spirit no danger disturbed; and it was only in the hour of trial and misfortune his full value could be known. It was the loss of officers—dying just as they began to be formed, and as their character and value began to be known—which prevented the American force from acquiring the discipline and steady virtue it might otherwise have attained. During the earlier as well as the later stages of the war in Nicaragua, it was the officer, ambitious of gaining a knowledge of his profession, and zealous in the pursuit of duty, who was most apt to seek the post of danger, and was therefore most likely to fall by the bullets of the enemy; and at times, too, it seemed as if disease also seized on such with more avidity than it did on others who might have been better spared.

New-comers, however, began to arrive to take the place of those cut off by battle and disease. On the morning of the 21st of April the steamer arrived at Granada with about two hundred men in charge of General Hornsby, who had been absent on business in the United States. As the Americans had been re-organized after the 13th in two battalions, one rifle, the other light infantry, the new recruits were formed into a second infantry battalion, with Leonidas McIntosh as major, and James Walker and James Mullen as captains. Upward of twenty men had come at their own expense to Granada, and they were enlisted for four months, and put into the rangers under Captain Davenport. This addition to the numbers of the army of course re-animated the old troops—for some of them, considering the services they had seen, might with propriety be called old troops; and after the arrival of the new men all were as eager as ever to march against the enemy at Rivas.

And while the Nicaraguan force was increasing, that of Costa Rica was rapidly sinking from the double cancers of cholera and desertion.

When the Americans retired from Rivas, the Costa Ricans were encumbered with so many dead that instead of regularly burying the bodies they threw them into the wells of the town. Their surgical staff, too, was weak; and the hospitals being crowded and ill-regulated, the festering sores of the wounded soldiers tended to produce disease even if the cholera had not appeared. The epidemic which began to prey on their camp soon after the 11th of April, was probably the same _colerin_ that attacked the Democrats at San Juan del Sur the year before, and afterward troubled the Americans at Virgin Bay. The spasms of this form of disease are not so violent as those of the Asiatic cholera, nor does the patient sink so rapidly. Its fatal effects were increased in the Costa Rican camp by the general depression of spirits which pervaded the officers as well as the men after they saw the results of the first conflict with the enemy they had come to drive, as they imagined, by easy marches, and by the mere force of their numbers, out of Central America.

Walker soon heard, through the people of San Jorge, the condition of the Costa Rican camp. Far from receiving recruits from the Nicaraguans, all fled the infected town. Mora began to build barricades as soon as the Americans retired; and this of itself showed fear of another attack. But when cholera and desertion supervened, the invader lost the hope of holding his ground even behind the adobes of Rivas. Nor was it possible for the Costa Rican officers to conceal from the soldiers the fact that the Americans were receiving reinforcements. Increased depression followed the growing apprehension of attack; and the pestilence found its victims each day yielding more readily to his deadly grasp. Then, too, there were vague rumors of movements in Costa Rica against the rule of the Moras. The people, beginning to feel the burden of the war, were asking why it was made; and the party which had for years been banished from the business of the State, was heard to raise its voice against the unjust war an ambitious executive was waging for the increase of his own personal power. D. Rafael Mora saw he must leave Rivas and return to San José; so, placing his brother-in-law, General José Maria Cañas, in charge of the army, with orders to lead it back to Costa Rica, the troubled President mounted his horse, and almost alone took the road to Guanacaste.

It was no part of the Nicaraguan general’s plan to waste his strength on an army which was being effectually destroyed by other causes; so he did not move from Granada until he heard the Costa Ricans were preparing to abandon Rivas. Then putting the rifle and light infantry battalions on the lake steamer, he proceeded with them to Virgin Bay. The battalions were landed as quickly as the charred and ruined state of the wharf admitted; and the order was given to advance along the familiar Transit road toward San Juan del Sur. But the force had gone not quite a league when a breathless messenger rode up to inform the general that Cañas was already marching with rapid and disorderly steps toward the La Flor. At the same time the messenger bore a letter addressed to “Wm. Walker, General-in-chief of the Nicaraguan Army,” signed “José Maria Cañas, General-in-chief of the Costa Rican Army,” and couched in the following terms: “Obliged to abandon the Plaza of Rivas, on account of the appearance of the cholera in a most alarming form, I am forced to leave here a certain number of sick it is impossible to carry away without danger to their lives; but I expect your generosity will treat them with all the attention and care their situation requires. I invoke the laws of humanity in favor of these unfortunate victims of an awful calamity, and I have the honor of proposing to you to exchange them when they get well, for more than twenty prisoners who are now in our power, and whose names I will send you in a detailed list for making the exchange. Believing that this, my proposal, will be admitted, according to the laws of war, I have the honor of subscribing myself, with feelings of the highest consideration, your obedient servant.” It is needless to add, that the surgeons immediately received orders to take charge of the sick of the enemy wherever found.

Such, then, was the conclusion of the first act in the war of extermination. Had the Nicaraguan chief been a proud man, or one capable of rejoicing in the humiliation of a foe, he might have been excused for some elation of spirit at receiving the letter of Cañas. The enemy which, not two months before, had declared war against the “filibusters,” and ordered all taken with arms in their hands to be shot, now supplicated the commander-in-chief of the Nicaraguan army to spare the lives of the suffering soldiers left behind at Rivas. The victims of the murderous court-martial at Santa Rosa, the bayonet stabs inflicted on the wounded prisoners found near the altar of the church at Rivas, the insults to the bodies of the brave dead who gave up their lives on the 11th of April, for a country theirs only by adoption, were to be avenged by mercy, and care, and attention, bestowed on the sick and wounded of those who had done the wrongs. It was a revenge such as the Americans might well be proud of—not unworthy either of the cause they advocated, or of the race from which they sprang.

It is scarcely necessary to follow the Costa Ricans in their sad and dreary march from San Juan to San José. The path to the La Flor was blocked with the bodies of stragglers who had fallen behind when the fatal spasms seized them, and prevented them from returning with their comrades. Nor did the scourge cease to pursue them when they entered the territory of Guanacaste. It tracked them to San José, and so well was its work of destruction done, that not more than five hundred of the brave array which had gone forth to exterminate the “filibusters,” returned to the capital of the Republic. Then the pestilence turning from the army it had almost wholly devoured, sought its prey among the peaceful families of the land. Young and old, women and children, succumbed to the disease, and some estimate that as many as fourteen thousand died from its effects. Probably, however, the more moderate estimate of ten thousand might cover all the loss to the population of the State.

While the Costa Ricans were occupying Rivas, it was reported that the Legitimists were attempting to raise men in the District of Chontales, and in the departments of Matagalpa and Segovia. Goicouria was sent with Captain Raymond’s company to scour the hills of Chontales; and meeting a small collection of the old Granadinos at Acoyapa, he scattered them in the course of a few moments. Then traversing the greater part of the district, he returned to Granada, and reported all quiet on the other side of the lake. Valle, who was military governor of Segovia, readily dispersed the Legitimists who made some show of a movement near Somoto Grande; while Mariano Salazar, sent by the government as commissioner to Matagalpa, pacified the Indians of that region, and returned with his command to Leon. Thus, in a few weeks, order and quiet were restored to the whole Republic, and the commands of the provisional government were respected in all parts of the State.

In the Meridional Department it was necessary to make examples of some Legitimists who had marched with the Costa Ricans from Guanacaste to invade the Republic. A principal one of these was Francisco Ugarte, who had been married to a sister of Dr. Cole’s wife. The general-in-chief heard that Ugarte remained in the department after the departure of the enemy; and a detachment sent in search of the traitor, found him and brought him to headquarters. He was tried by a military commission, and ordered to be hung. This mode of punishment for such offenders being unusual in the country—shooting being resorted to rather than hanging—the execution of Ugarte made a strong impression on the people, and infused a salutary dread of American justice among the plotting Legitimists. As there had been some questions concerning the guardianship of Ugarte’s children, and the administration of their mother’s estate between him and his connections, the natives generally attributed the arrest of the criminal to information derived from his wife’s brother-in-law, Dr. Cole; and the prevalence of the suspicion indicates that the people were not unaccustomed to see adherence to a party, or proposed devotion to the public interests, made the stalking-horse for the gratification of family feuds and personal passions.

For two or three weeks after the departure of Cañas from Rivas, the main body of the Americans were kept at Virgin Bay, detachments being constantly sent to different points of the department, with a view of restoring confidence in the strength of the Rivas administration. The fever was fierce at Granada, carrying off many of those who had lately reached the country. After some days, too, the cholera or colerin appeared at Virgin Bay, and numbers died from it there. Nor were the resident Americans or the soldiers the only victims of fever and cholera at this time. The owners of the Transit not having made proper arrangements for their line, the passengers for California who had come to San Juan del Norte, in April, were obliged to remain in Nicaragua a whole month. Many of these passengers being destitute of means, and irregular in their course of life, readily yielded to the fever then prevailing at Granada; and the reports they gave of the country, thrown into it as they were without any of the common comforts of civilization, prevented many from going thither. It was not until the 19th of May, that the steamer arrived at San Juan del Sur, and gave these suffering passengers a chance to go to San Francisco.

In spite, however, of the sickness which prevailed among the Americans, their spirits were good and their hopes high. To the casual observer the political elements appeared at rest, and all seemed more tranquil than at any time since the treaty of the 23d of October. The common people, with their strong religious instinct, thought that Providence had sent the cholera in order to drive the Costa Ricans from the soil. The Americans with that faith in themselves which has carried them in a wonderfully short period from one ocean to another, regarded their establishment in Nicaragua as fixed beyond the control of casualties. But to him who knows that great changes in states and societies are not wrought without long and severe labor, the difficulties of the Americans in Nicaragua might appear to be only beginning. To destroy an old political organization is a comparatively easy task, and little besides force is requisite for its accomplishment; but to build up and re-constitute society—to gather the materials from the four quarters, and construct them into an harmonious whole, fitted for the uses of a new civilization—requires more than force, more even than genius for the work, and agents with which to complete it. Time and patience, as well as skill and labor, are needed for success; and they who undertake it, must be willing to devote a lifetime to the work.

At that time there was one man at least in Nicaragua who saw that the path of the Americans was even then beset with thorns. Edmund Randolph, who since the beginning of April, had been in the Occidental Department, came down to Virgin Bay to take passage for New-York. During his stay at Leon and Realejo he had been very ill, almost dead at one time, from an affection of the liver; but in the intervals of his painful sickness, his quick eye had seen an under-current in the affairs of the provisional government. On the 20th of May, just before leaving for San Juan del Norte, he told Walker there was something wrong at Leon; but that confined as he was to his bed he had not the means of ascertaining precisely what was the nature of the evil.

Nor was the information given by Randolph unsupported by other facts. A day or two before the Costa Ricans evacuated Rivas, a courier from Leon had been brought to Granada, and on him were found letters directed to His Excellency, D. Juan Rafael Mora. Walker, on opening these letters, was surprised to find them signed by Patricio Rivas; and one was an official communication from the government stating that it desired to send a commissioner to treat for peace. Of course the general-in-chief detained the courier and the letters, he well knowing that Mora was about to abandon the town of Rivas. The Provisional President in his letters to Walker from Leon, said nothing about these communications with the enemy for some days; and the fact that he had sent such letters to Mora without advising with the general-in-chief was suspicious.

It became, therefore, highly important for the Americans to ascertain the state of affairs at Leon. Hence as soon as the mails for California and the Atlantic States had been despatched, Walker determined to repair to the Occidental Department. The events which transpired at Leon in consequence of that visit present another and a new phase of the war in Nicaragua.

Chapter Seventh.

THE DEFECTION OF RIVAS.

One of the avowed objects of Jerez in desiring the Provisional President to remove to Leon was to establish friendly relations with the states to the north and particularly with San Salvador. Accordingly, even before the departure of Rivas from Granada, commissioners were sent to Cojutepeque for the purpose of explaining to the cabinet of San Salvador the actual condition of affairs in Nicaragua. But the commissioners met with a cold reception; and on the 7th of May the government of San Salvador sent a communication to the Provisional President declaring that the presence of the Americans in Nicaragua threatened the independence of Central America. The tone of the communication was so insulting that D. Patricio Rivas refused to make any reply. After, however, the retreat of the Costa Ricans from Rivas was known at Cojutepeque the news from San Salvador became more pacific; but soon came news that Guatemala was preparing troops to march against Nicaragua. So frequent and so circumstantial did these reports become, that on the 3d of June Rivas published a proclamation to the people declaring that the troops of Carrera were marching against the State, and calling on all to take up arms for the Republic.

On the 31st of May, Walker, accompanied by Lieutenant-Colonel Anderson in command of two hundred Rifles, and by Captain Waters with two companies of Rangers, left Granada for Leon; and Gen. Goicouria, who fancied he understood native character because he spoke Spanish, joined the general-in-chief in the excursion to the north. Not far from Masaya the party was met by D. Mariano Salazar, who came to inform Walker of the authenticity of the reports from Guatemala and of the necessity for a portion of the American force to protect the northern frontier. Salazar represented that the people of the Occidental Department were bitter in their hostility to the troops of Carrera and might be depended on for resisting their entrance into the State; but as the Guatemalan force was said to be large and well organized, it was necessary to have some of the Rifles at Leon ready to meet it.

Walker arrived at Leon on the 4th of June, and was received in the most enthusiastic manner. At the entrance to the town, he was met by all the dignitaries of the government and of the department. The streets through which he passed were filled with crowds of the people, shouting a welcome to their deliverers, as they styled the Americans; and the doors and windows of the houses were thronged with women dressed in all the colors of the rainbow. A feast had been prepared for the occasion; but before taking his seat at table the general-in-chief was called to the court-yard of the house where he was quartered, and there had gathered the women of every age and every condition to thank him for the protection the Americans had given to their homes. In the evening the musicians came to sing songs in praise of American valor, and the local rhymsters of the place—of whom there were not a few—poured forth the sonorous sounds of Castilian verse in glory of the strangers who had delivered Nicaragua from the oppressions of her enemies. All seemed to vie with each other in their demonstrations of respect and good-will toward the Rifles and Rangers.

But in the midst of the general joy, it was easy to see that some of those connected with the government were not well pleased at the enthusiasm shown by the people. The face of Jerez had a cloud over it, and he appeared anxious and nervous; nor did Rivas seem as much at ease in the presence of Walker as he had formerly been. The threatening attitude of San Salvador and the rumored march of the troops of Carrera alarmed the Provisional President, and it was evident that Jerez did not strive to diminish the apprehensions of Rivas. Soon after Walker reached Leon the President told him the cabinet of Cojutepeque had proposed the reduction of the American force in the service of Nicaragua to two hundred men, and had intimated that if the proposal were accepted relations would be established with the provisional government. The manner in which Rivas spoke of the proposal indicated that he was not averse to the plan, but the reply of Walker that such a proposition could be entertained only when the State was ready to pay the men it discharged, showed the President he need not expect the general-in-chief to co-operate in the policy suggested by San Salvador.

During the month of April an election had been called for president as well as for senators and representatives. An election had taken place at different times during the month of May, in several of the districts of the State, but the irregularity in the voting had been such and the condition of the Republic was so disturbed that all parties considered the election as invalid. Little or no attention was paid to it, and as quiet now prevailed throughout the State, the propriety of a decree for a new election was being discussed at the time Walker left Granada for Leon. The votes polled in May were mostly in the Occidental Department, and were divided between Jerez, Rivas, and Salazar. The Granadinos, alarmed at this and fearful that the seat of government might be permanently fixed at Leon, were speaking of Walker as the fit person for the presidency, while the Republic was threatened with invasion by the adjacent States. When the general-in-chief reached Leon the question of calling an election was also discussed there, and he was surprised to find the President and Jerez, who had a few weeks before insisted on an election, now hostile to the measure. The only minister who seemed at all friendly to the proposition for a new election was D. Sebastian Salinas, then holding the portfolio of Relations. Walker urged the President to call the election, for he saw that Don Patricio was frightened by appearances in the north, and could not be relied on to face the coalition preparing against Nicaragua, and he thought it prudent to have the election called while the State was comparatively quiet and before it was more seriously menaced.

While this decree was being discussed news reached Leon of the reception of Father Vigil by the United States government as Minister from Nicaragua. At the same time the arrival of Col. Jaquess at Granada with about one hundred and eighty men, was announced. Hereafter it may be necessary to examine the manner of Vigil’s reception and the causes which led to it; at present the fact is merely stated in order to show the effect it had on the deliberations at Leon. Of course it strengthened the American influence in Nicaragua, and while it tended to make the prospect of hostilities from San Salvador more remote, it gave an additional reason for fixing the government on affirm basis by an appeal to the popular will; attended, too, by an addition to the numbers of the Americans, it made the friends of the election stronger than before.

Several circumstances, in the meanwhile, occurred to show the disaffection of many of the principal men toward the Americans. D. Mariano Salazar, as Walker ascertained after reaching Leon, had made a sale of some brazil-wood he owned to the government, on terms advantageous to himself, and tending to diminish the receipts of the customs at Realejo. In the actual condition of affairs it was necessary for the State to get every cent of revenue possible; and hence it was reprehensible for a friend of the government, and especially for a military officer, to speculate on the necessities of the Republic. Under the army regulations derived from the old Spanish service, it was not permitted for an officer to contract with the State, unless with the permission of the general-in-chief. Hence Walker, to rebuke the act of Salazar, put him under arrest, and kept him in his house for some hours. Several of the leading persons of the city came to intercede for Salazar during his short arrest, and endeavored to excuse his act as not unusual in the country; and it was easy to see that they were not at all favorable to an authority which aimed to protect the State from contractors and speculators.

The Sunday after reaching Leon, Goicouria proposed to call together the chief persons of the city and converse freely with them about the state of affairs. He constantly labored under the delusion that he knew the natives, whereas he always under-estimated the capacity of the leaders and the virtues of the people. But he got a number of the prominent politicians together, and gave them a rambling discourse on his ideas—most crude they were—of re-organizing the country. He touched on the ecclesiastical authority, and suggested an application to the Pope for the appointment of a Bishop who might be free from the metropolitan of Guatemala. The suggestion was innocent enough in itself, but D. José Guerrero, a wily intriguer who once, while Director, had got up a revolution against his own government as an excuse for prolonging his authority, distorted Goicouria’s suggestion into such a shape that it was soon reported through the city the Americans aimed to draw Nicaragua from the jurisdiction of the Roman See. Goicouria expected to influence the ambition of the higher clergy, by placing before them visions of the mitre and the crosier, but a more dexterous politician than himself managed to turn his suggestion to his own disadvantage. The fact is, the natives disliked Goicouria because they took him for a Spaniard, and the Nicaraguans hate the Spaniards more than they do any other foreigners. Of course the general-in-chief knew nothing of Goicouria’s suggestion until after it was made; his policy had always been to leave the church entirely to the management of its own affairs. But it was easy for the disaffected to make Goicouria’s speech appear the inspiration of his commanding officer; and the reports circulated about this silly meeting showed Walker that there were many in Leon desirous of exciting popular passions and prejudices against the Americans. Those, too, whose loyalty to the Americans was beyond doubt, were every day telling the general-in-chief that certain agencies were at work to destroy the confidence of the people in the naturalized Nicaraguans. Valle, who was rather superciliously treated by the educated leaders, because he could not read or write, insisted that no faith was to be put in the friendly professions of many who owed power to the will of the general-in-chief. D. Nasario Escoto, also, who had succeeded Castellon in the provisional government, previous to the treaty of peace, said no reliance should be placed on the firmness of the persons then directing the government. In fact, all things tended to show that, in case Nicaragua were invaded by San Salvador and Guatemala, the Americans might find the machinery of the government they had created and sustained turned against themselves. Hence, unless disposed to carry off Rivas as a prisoner—and thereby the whole moral force of his government would have been lost—it was necessary for the welfare of the Americans that a new election should be called.

Finally, after much deliberation, the decree calling an immediate election was drawn up in full cabinet session, and was signed on Tuesday the 10th of June. Walker proposed to leave for Granada early on the morning of the 11th. The evening before his departure he was visited several times by Jerez, who had an anxious and nervous manner not unusual with him. Three or four times he called in the course of as many hours; and there was much conversation between him and the general-in-chief relative to another minister to the United States, as it was thought Father Vigil would prefer returning to Nicaragua. Jerez himself had been spoken of for the place, and Walker mentioned to him that if he desired it the appointment might be urged on Don Patricio. Afterward the minister remarked, “My visit to the United States is then decided on;” but in such a tone as intimated it might be an excuse to get rid of him. The immediate reply was, his appointment should be pressed only in case he desired it. This incident serves to show the temper of Jerez, and points out the influences which wrought on the pliable mind of Rivas.

Early on the morning of the 11th Walker left Leon escorted by the Rangers and leaving Anderson’s Rifles with Col. Natzmer in the city. The President and many others of the chief citizens of the department accompanied him several miles on his journey; and at parting Don Patricio affectionately embraced the general-in-chief, remarking with moist eyes that he might be depended on in every emergency. Salazar, in spite of the arrest, was also of the party; but Jerez was absent. All cordially saluted the general; and the latter proceeded to Managua where he remained over night, and the next day arrived at Masaya early in the afternoon.

Walker had not been many hours at Masaya before he received letters from Col. Natzmer relating strange events at Leon. On the morning of the 12th the military governor of the department, Escobar, had asked a detail of Americans to guard the _Principal_—a strong building on the Plaza where the arms and ammunition were stored—and no sooner was the sentry from the Rifles posted than a singular movement was perceptible in the town. The President and the Ministers hastily left the government house near the Principal, and Mariano Salazar on horseback rode through the streets, proclaiming that the Americans were about to make Rivas prisoner and to assassinate the Ministers and chief men of the city. The excitement soon became intense; the barriers of San Felipe, one of the most turbulent quarters of the town, began to send forth its unquiet residents, some of them armed and all endeavoring to increase the popular ferment. Then it was reported Rivas had left the city; and the women, regarding the movement as a revolution and the signal of war, commenced packing their trunks and closing their doors and windows. Natzmer, seeing the threatening aspect of the men at the barriers, called the Americans to the Plaza and placing them under arms, prepared for defence.

At once a courier was despatched to Chinandega with orders for Lieut. Dolan—who was there with a company of Rifles—to march immediately for Leon. Dolan was but a short distance on his march, when he met Rivas and Jerez riding toward Chinandega. The singularity of the fact made him suspect something was wrong, and he thought of arresting them on their way; but the surgeon with him, Dr. Dawson, who had lived for many years in Nicaragua, suggested that it would not be proper for a simple lieutenant to arrest the President and one of his Ministers. Dolan, therefore, marched on without molesting them, and soon joined Anderson in the Plaza.

As soon as these tidings reached Walker, he ordered Col. Jaquess, then in Masaya with his command, to prepare for a march; and Jaquess with the Rangers was in a short time on the road to Managua. Couriers met Walker every few hours on his way toward Leon; and when near Nagarote he was met by Ferdinand Schlessinger—a man to whom Rivas had given a commission to fortify the harbor of Realejo. Schlessinger told the general-in-chief, that Rivas and Jerez were at Chinandega, barricading the town, and pressing natives into military service; also, that they had given him orders to stop the works at Point Ycaco, and in consequence of his suspicions he had made good his escape. At the same time, letters from Natzmer informed Walker that Jerez, as Minister of War, had issued orders to him to disoccupy the towers of the cathedral, where riflemen had been placed, in order that troops of the country might be stationed there. Natzmer forwarded the order to Walker, awaiting his instructions on the subject.

As soon as Natzmer’s letter reached Walker, he sent the order to obey the command of Jerez, and to withdraw the whole American force from Leon to Nagarote. The designs of Rivas and Jerez were now apparent to everybody; and they had, on their arrival at Chinandega, gone so far as to send a commissioner to invite the troops of Carrera into the State, and to urge their immediate approach to Leon. Jerez had given the order to Natzmer, supposing it would not be obeyed, thereby hoping to make the movement against the Americans turn on their disobedience to a lawful authority. But Walker was not disposed to have the coming struggle occur on any such issue. He determined to have the contest made on more formal grounds. Not knowing, either, how far the defection of the native leaders had spread, he was anxious to concentrate his force scattered on a long line from Leon to Castillo; therefore military no less than political reasons led him to await with Jaquess at Nagarote the arrival of Natzmer and Anderson, and then to march with the united force toward Granada.

A number of the native residents about Leon and some families accompanied the Rifles to Nagarote, and among them were D. José Maria Valle and D. Mateo Pineda. The latter was a man of rare truth and fidelity for a Central American—in fact, his virtues would make him remarkable in any country. With a name so pure that it has escaped the malice of his enemies during all the civil disturbances of Nicaragua, he stands almost a solitary example, in that distracted land, of spotless faith and unshaken loyalty. He has required no defence save his high honor and stainless character to protect him from the persecutions of political enemies; and if other proofs were lacking of the devotion the Americans in Nicaragua yielded to right and justice, they might find ample evidence in the single fact that Mateo Pineda adhered to their fortunes in each extremity of good and evil.

When the Rifles reached Nagarote they, with the Rangers and the new infantry battalion, took up the line of march for Masaya. At Managua they found the commandant of the post, José Herrera, firm in his faith to the Americans, and he remained true until death, in spite of a brother’s efforts to seduce him from the path of military duty, being executed by the allies, under the sentence of a court-martial some time afterward, for his adhesion to the Americans.

On arriving at Granada, the general-in-chief published the decree re-constructing the provisional government by virtue of the treaty of the twenty-third of October. That treaty guaranteed the naturalized Nicaraguans equality of privileges with the native born; but the President and his ministers had violated it by attempting to create distinctions to the prejudice of the naturalized citizens. Walker had sworn, not only to observe the treaty himself, but to cause it to be observed. He remained the sole sponsor for Rivas before Nicaragua and before the world; and he would have deserved to be branded as a perjured man had he permitted Rivas with impunity not merely to excite the passions of the people against the Americans, but to invite the foreign foe into the State with a view of expelling the naturalized soldiers. In addition to the duties devolved on Walker by his oath to cause the treaty to be observed, he had been invested with unlimited authority to protect the Oriental and Meridional Departments from the foreign enemies of the Republic; but how could such protection be afforded if the orders of the political power, giving the enemy free entry into the State, were to be respected? Therefore, the commissioner for the Oriental and Meridional Departments, D. Fermin Ferrer, was named Provisional President until the people might select their own ruler, under the decree issued by Rivas on the 10th of June. The same day the decree was published Walker issued an address to the people of Nicaragua, and after reciting the acts of the Rivas government, he concluded: “With such accumulated crimes—conspiring against the very people it was bound to protect—the late provisional government was no longer worthy of existence. In the name of the people I have, therefore, declared its dissolution, and have organized a provisional government, until the nation exercises its natural right of electing its own rulers.”

Under the decree of the 10th of June the election for President took place on the fourth Sunday of the month and the two succeeding days. The voting was general in the Oriental and Meridional Departments; but as D. Patricio Rivas rescinded his own decree after reaching Chinandega, and as the Guatemalans had already passed the northern frontier of the State there were no ballots cast in the Occidental Department. A large majority of the votes polled were for the general-in-chief; and the Provisional President, Ferrer, declaring the result of the election by decree, fixed on the 12th of July for the inauguration of the President elect. Accordingly, on the appointed day, with due observances, both civil and religious, Walker took the oath of office on the Plaza of Granada, and was installed as Chief Executive of the Republic of Nicaragua.

A few days after the decree of the 20th of June was published, the Costa Rican schooner, San José, commanded by Gilbert Morton, entered the port of San Juan del Sur. She had been purchased from her former owner, Alvarado, by Mariano Salazar, and he had made Morton nominal half-owner of the schooner, supposing she might thereby get the right to carry American colors. The American vice-consul at Realejo, one Giauffreau, gave the schooner what Morton called a sailing letter; and the vice-consul, according to all accounts, was either so ignorant or so neglectful of his duties as to permit the vessel to fly the American flag and to be cleared from the port of Realejo under this pretended sailing letter. The commandant at Chinandega, a Cuban, by the name of Golibard, had been ordered away by Rivas because he refused to forsake the Americans; and Golibard was aboard the San José when she arrived at San Juan del Sur. Morton, thinking he could impose on the port authorities with his sailing letter from Giauffreau, had not hesitated to enter the harbor; and he, as well as Salazar, supposed they might, under the American flag, drive a profitable trade with the schooner during hostilities between Nicaragua and the other States.

But the San José had not been many hours in the port of San Juan before she was seized, the charge against her being that she was without a flag and without lawful papers. The schooner was American-built and had passed from the flag of the United States to that of Costa Rica. Even if she had then been re-sold to an American citizen she could not have recovered her original character without an act of Congress. Morton, after the seizure, appealed for relief to the U. S. States Minister at Granada: but on a careful examination of the subject Mr. Wheeler was satisfied that the schooner, far from being entitled to protection by American authority, was really amenable for an abuse of the American flag. The San José was, therefore, condemned by a court of admiralty jurisdiction at the port of San Juan; and being forfeited to the government of Nicaragua, she was converted into a schooner-of-war, bearing the flag of the Isthmian Republic.

The Granada was armed with two six-pound carronades and was placed in charge of Lieutenant Callender Irvine Fayssoux. This officer was a native of Missouri, and had served for a time in the Texan navy under the orders of Commodore Moore. He had also accompanied Gen. Lopez in his expedition to the Island of Cuba in May, 1850; and at Cardenas he had contributed essentially to the successful landing of the force from the steamer Creole, by swimming ashore with a rope in his mouth when there was much embarrassment as to the means of getting the boat up to the wharf. His high qualities will hereafter appear when we come to relate the history of the schooner; and it is only necessary here to say, that his system and order were such, the Granada was ready for service in a very short time. The men detailed from different companies of the army for service on the schooner were soon brought under good discipline by their efficient commander; and all of them felt they were subject to the orders of one capable of command, and determined to have each man do his duty on all occasions.

On the 29th of June, Col. John Allen of Kentucky arrived at Granada with one hundred and four men for the service of the State; and on the 6th of July about the same number were landed coming from New-York, from New-Orleans and from California. A day or two after the latter arrival, Major Waters, with about a hundred Rangers, marched to Leon and reconnoitred the town. He found it barricaded in every quarter, and the Guatemalans under General Paredes were occupying the main Plaza. On the approach of Waters all the pickets of the enemy were drawn in, and their whole force was put under arms for action. But no portion of the enemy ventured to leave the barricades. After passing through the suburbs of the city and examining the preparations of the enemy for defence, Waters returned to Granada with a report showing the inability of the Allies—as they called themselves—to move until they had received large additions of force.

After the inauguration of Walker on the 12th of July, his cabinet was formed by the appointment of D. Fermin Ferrer as Minister of Relations, D. Mateo Pineda as Minister of War, and D. Manuel Carrascosa as Minister of Hacienda and Public Credit. The organization of the new government was duly communicated to the American Minister; and on the 19th of July Mr. Wheeler was received by the President at the government house in Granada. The Minister opened his address to the Executive of Nicaragua, saying: “I am directed by the President of the United States to notify you that I am instructed to establish relations with this State.” Mr. Wheeler thus showed himself far bolder and more decided than Mr. Pierce had been at Washington. It is true the government at Washington had instructed its minister “to establish relations” with the government of Nicaragua; but at the time the order was given it was thought Rivas would be in power at Granada. Mr. Marcy had also instructed Mr. Wheeler to ask explanations concerning the revocation of the charter of the Accessory Transit Company, and to request the discharge from the Nicaraguan army of two or three boys—among them a son and nephew, I think, of Senator Bayard of Delaware—who had run off from school and gone to Central America in search of novelty and adventure. Of course the explanations of the decree of revocation and the discharges of the boys could be obtained only from Walker; and hence the minister had either to disregard the orders of Mr. Marcy or to recognize the government of the lately-elected President.

The message Mr. Pierce sent to Congress, touching the reception of Father Vigil, was strongly marked with the weakness and hesitation of American diplomacy. The whole tone of the message was apologetic; and the American President was throughout overcome by the false idea many people in the United States had formed as to the Nicaraguan movement being one of annexation to the Republic of the North. The representatives of France, Spain, Brazil, and the Spanish American States, at Washington, seeing the weakness of the United States, combined for the purpose of driving Father Vigil from the country. So well did they succeed, that the Minister of Nicaragua withdrew from the Federal Capital not many days after his reception, and thus Mr. Marcy, aided by the intrigues of the foreign representatives, might be able to take advantage of any opportunity circumstances afforded to relieve the American cabinet from the awkward position in which he fancied it had been placed. Hence the vexation of the Secretary of State may be imagined when he heard Mr. Wheeler had, in literally carrying out his instructions, recognized the government which displaced that of Rivas.

Mr. Wheeler, being on the ground, and seeing the actual condition of affairs, was never in doubt as to the policy his country ought to pursue toward the parties contending in Nicaragua; but the Secretary of State at Washington, remote from the scene of trouble, constantly wrought on by the ministers of foreign countries, and dreading the effect the new Nicaraguan movement would have on old political organizations in the United States, was always averse to any action which might favor the Americans in Nicaragua. Not many days, however, after Mr. Wheeler recognized the Walker government, facts occurred showing in a strong light the good policy of the American minister.

Lieut. Fayssoux, as soon as he was ready for sea, received orders to sail northward from San Juan and cruise about the Gulf of Fonseca. It was well known that the enemy were communicating with San Salvador and Guatemala by bungos from Tempisque to La Union, and it was hoped the Granada might intercept letters showing the state of affairs at Leon and the relations of Rivas with the other States. The presence, too, of the schooner in those waters could not fail to alarm the enemy and embarrass the reinforcements going toward Leon. It was also reported that the enemy were preparing vessels to send after the Granada in order to capture her, and that these vessels were being fitted out at La Union, in the State of San Salvador.

On the evening of the 21st of July, the schooner hove anchor and put to sea, and on the afternoon of the 23d she was cruising off the entrance of the Gulf of Fonseca. “At 3h. 30m.,” so the log runs, “saw a sail standing out of the gulf: made chase. At 5h. 30m. brought her to with a shot from the port gun. Capt. De Brissot (a passenger on the schooner) boarded her. She proved to be the Italian brig Rostan, from La Union, bound to San Juan del Sur. She reported two Chilian brigs and one Sardinian schooner lying at La Union, and the French frigate Embuscade at Tiger Island. At 7, took in flying-jib and foresail, and stood off and on, on the lookout for a schooner that the Rostan reported due from the northward and westward.” Then, on the 24th: “At 9h. 15m. A.M., saw a sail standing out from La Union. At 2 P.M. light breezes from S. and W. At 4, standing to the E., passed, on opposite tracks, the French frigate Embuscade. At 4h. 30m., saw a number of small craft to the E.: called all hands to quarters. At 5, boarded the launch Maria, Capt. Braganda. She proving to be French, and her papers all right, she was allowed to proceed on her course to Tempisque. Capt. Braganda reported the same as the brig Rostan, therefore, as there were none of the enemy’s vessels in the gulf, we concluded to go out to look for the schooner from the N. and W.”

Nothing, however, was seen of the vessel expected from the northward and westward, and on the 26th, the Granada again stood up the gulf. On the 27th, a bungo, with several passengers, was captured, and on the 28th, a large boat from Tempisque was taken, and one of the passengers proved to be Mariano Salazar. When Salazar was brought aboard the Granada he gave his name as Francisco Salazar, but De Brissot had seen him at Realejo, and, although not certain of the fact, told Fayssoux he thought the prisoner was Don Mariano. In the same bungo with Salazar were several letters for persons in San Salvador. The day after Salazar was taken, the Granada sailed for San Juan del Sur, whence the prisoner and the letters were immediately, on the schooner’s arrival, despatched for Granada.