history of the country for a few years preceding this event. In 1815, Nicaragua, then a Spanish colony, attempted an insurrection to throw off the dominion of the mother country. This, however, proved abortive, and it was not until six years after that Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, declared their independence of Spain. In 1822 they were incorporporated with Mexico under the Emperor Iturbide. Upon his overthrow, which happened soon after, a federal republic, similar to that of the United States, was formed, composed of the five central American States, with a national assembly at Guatemala Upon this occasion the republic only existed two years, the most important feature in its legislation being the abolition of slavery throughout the States; but it was reconstituted in 1829 by General Morazan, and destroyed by Carera; indeed, during a period of twenty years, all these States were a prey to a series of devastating revolutions, sometimes endeavouring to reunite, sometimes at war with one another, nearly always at war within themselves. In 1851, Honduras, San Salvador, and Nicaragua formed a union; in 1852 it was dissolved, and Señor Pineda was elected President of Nicaragua. In the following year he died, and an election taking place to fill the vacancy, Señors Castillon and Chamorro were the candidates. Chamorro by force of arms obtained possession of the polls throughout the State, and defeating Castillon, banished him from Nicaragua. Castillon, however, who, as the democratic and therefore popular candidate, had a large number of partisans in Nicaragua, was not a man to be thus easily crushed, and, while an exile in Honduras, organised an expedition composed of refugees like himself, and with them marched boldly upon Leon, his native town. Here he was received with acclamation. Joined by crowds of political adherents, who are in these countries accustomed to enforce their views by blows, by them he was proclaimed Provisional Director of the republic; routed Chamorro in a pitched battle, and obliged him to take refuge in Grenada, to which city he forthwith laid

siege. Although commencing under such favourable auspices, success did not crown the efforts of Castillon. For eight months Grenada was besieged, and even after Chamorro's death the war was carried on by his partisans with so much vigour, and there seemed so little chance of peace being restored to the country, that Castillon eagerly listened to the suggestion of some American gold-speculators, that he should apply for the assistance of some Californians, who had already rendered themselves notorious by an unsuccessful expedition into Sonora, from which they had just returned. Of this expedition, which had for its object the conquest of the department of Sonora in Northern Mexico, General Walker was the leader, and although his daring attempt at establishing an independent republic there had failed, he gained so high a reputation for military skill and prowess, that Castillon at once perceived the acquisition which such a man, with a few brave followers, would prove to his undisciplined and almost demoralised ariny. He therefore applied to Walker to know the terms upon which he and his followers were prepared to join the Nicaraguan army. The price demanded by Walker was a grant of land, fifty-two thousand acres in extent, to be selected from any unoccupied lands in the State. These terms were at once complied with by Castillon, and Walker lost no time in organising his expedition. A glance at the personal history of the remarkable man who conducted this daring enterprise may not be uninteresting. General Walker's father had been a banker in Scotland, and emigrated to the United States in 1820. Walker himself was born in 1824, but manifested a roving disposition. At an early age he graduated successively in law, physic, and divinity; travelled for a year in Europe; returned to the States, and became the editor of a newspaper in New Orleans; thence proceeded to San Francisco in California in a similar capacity, which he relinquished to take command of the Sonora expedition. On his return from this he entered into the arrangements above stated with Castillon. In stature, General Walker

is but little over five feet four. His features are described as coarse and impassable; his square chin and long jaw denote character, but his lips are full, and his mouth is not well formed; his eyes are universally spoken of as the striking feature of his face of a singularly light grey, they are so large and fixed that in a daguerreotype the eyelid is scarcely visible. His manner is remarkably self-possessed, and some of his most intimate friends, who have been with him throughout the most trying scenes of his Nicaraguan experiences, have assured me that under no circumstances have they ever observed him to change countenance, even to laugh, or to alter in the smallest degree his slow and precise mode of diction. He is at all times taciturn, and when he does speak it is directly to the point. He manifests a contemptuous indifference to danger without being reckless, and altogether seems better qualified to inspire confidence and respect among lawless men than to shine in civilised society.

He is ascetic in his habits, and his career hitherto has shown him to be utterly careless of acquiring wealth. Highly ambitious, it is only due to him to say that his aspirations, however little in accordance they may be with the moral code in vogue at the present day, are beyond riches. Like the Emperor Louis Napoleon, he has a fixed faith in the star of his destiny, and like him he doubtless will be branded by the civilised nations of Europe as an unprincipled adventurer or a heaven-born hero, according as he fails or succeeds in his daring enterprise.

In the month of June 1855, Walker and his fifty-six were enlisted by Castillon in the democratic army of Nicaragua. His first engagement took place at Rivas, where, with a hundred natives and fifty-six Americans, he engaged the aristocratic or servile troops, as they were called, under General Boscha. The natives running away, the fifty-six Americans were left to fight it out, and were defeated, with a loss of twenty-two killed. Their determined resistance, however, produced as salutary an effect upon the enemy as a victory, as General Boscha owned a loss of 180 in killed and wounded. This

was followed by the battle of Virgin Bay, in which the democratic forces under Walker were victorious, and the reputation of Americans for prowess established. At this time the death of Castillon by cholera left the conduct of affairs almost altogether in the hands of Walker, whom the democratic leader had just appointed to the command of his army. A considerable number of recruits arriving from California, he now determined to take Grenada, which was captured by 110 Americans, with the loss of only one man, after having stood a siege of nineteen months against the democratic army under the command of sundry Nicaraguan generals. This decided the war in favour of the democrats; and Castillon being now dead, Walker was proposed by some of the democratic leaders as president. This honour, however, he declined. On the 23d of October a treaty of peace was signed between General Walker and General Ponciano Corral, the commander-in-chief of the aristocratic army, in which it was stipulated that a certain Patricio Rivas should be named provisional president of Nicaragua for fourteen months; that he should appoint his ministers of state; that there should be a general oblivion of all that had previously taken place for political faults and opinions; that the army of General Corral should be reduced to 150 men, and the army of Walker to the same number; that the united armies should be placed under the command of General Walker, who should be recognised as general-in-chief of the army of the republic, and named such by a decree of the government. The signing of this treaty took place at Grenada with great eclat. The two armies were drawn up in the Plaza; Generals Walker and Corral embraced one another in their presence; and the heads of the new government were announced, of whom four were Nicaraguans, and two, including Walker, Americans. Thus, for the first time after an incessant internecine war of two years' duration, was peace restored to Nicaragua through the instru mentality of the American filibuster. Sixteen days after Walker embraced Corral in the Plaza of Grenada,

remaining masters of the field, the latter evacuated it eighteen days afterwards, and returned precipitately to Costa Rica; the reason assigned in the public proclamation by General Cañas being the alarming outbreak of cholera.

Meantime General Walker determined to make a second attempt, to convince the authorities at Washington that the government of Nicaragua had the approval of its citizens; and for this purpose he despatched thither Padré Vijil, a native of the country, who succeeded in inducing the Secretary of State to recognise him as Nicaraguan minister, although the political condition of Nicaragua was precisely the same as when, two months before, he had refused to recognise French.

It may be remembered that, before Walker's arrival at Nicaragua, a Transit Company had been formed by Mr. Vanderbilt with the then exist ing Nicaraguan Government, upon terms which I have above described. Not one farthing, however, of the twenty per cent due to the Nicaraguan Government out of the annual net profits, which were well known to be large, had ever been paid by the Company; and President Rivas at last, at the instigation of General Walker, upon the refusal of the Company to explain matters, or liquidate the large debt due to the State, abrogated the old grant, and regranted the route to fresh American speculators, who undertook, in consideration thereof, the transport of recruits for Walker's army from all parts of the Union. Long and complicated proceedings between Mr. Vanderbilt, the Nicaraguan Government, and the new Transit Company, in which Messrs. Morgan and Garrison soon became the leading men, now took place-proceedings which it would be tiresome here to detail, and which have already cost the United States Government endless trouble and annoyance. Their most unfortunate result, so far as General Walker is concerned, has been to make for him an enemy of a powerful, wealthy, and not very scrupulous man in Vanderbilt, who has now allied himself to the Costa Ricans, and whose daring and energetic agents have enabled those bastard Spanish troops to accomplish

a feat of strategy in the seizure of the river-boats belonging to the present Transit Company, of which they were otherwise incapable.

When so many events happen concurrently, it is always difficult to maintain a chronological sequence; and in order thoroughly to appreciate General Walker's position at this crisis, it is necessary to recur again to the battle which had just been fought at Rivas. A short time before this event took place, with a view of conciliating the democratic party, the seat of government was moved from Grenada to Leon, which had always been considered their headquarters, and thither the President Rivas went, leaving Walker in the neighbourhood of the town of Rivas. It was here that the weak president in an evil hour listened to the whisperings of Salhazar and General Hæres, influential leaders of the old party, who took this opportunity of inflaming the mind of Rivas with jealousy against Walker, until at last they induced him to enter into a traitorous correspondence with the Costa Rican Government, in which he assured the enemies of his country of his co-operation in any designs that they might entertain against the Nicaraguan army, commanded by General Walker; and as an earnest of his sincerity, he wrote to Walker, urging him to come with all speed to Leon, to defend him from threatened attacks from that quarter, hoping thus to withdraw his attention from the town of Rivas, so as to enable the Costa Ricans to attack it with greater chance of success. General Walker, in compliance with this request, had scarcely accomplished half the journey, when he heard of the attack upon the town of Rivas. He instantly returned, fought the Costa Ricans, as above described, discovered the treachery, and proceeded at once to Leon. Here he saw Rivas, but did not tax him with his unworthy conduct. His close connection with that imbecile old man, and a certain regard he entertained for him, prevented his bringing about an open rupture: he simply informed him, that in conse quence of what had come to his knowledge, he had determined, upon the expiration of Rivas' presidency,

to have himself nominated as a candidate. He then returned to his headquarters, and almost immediately afterwards, Rivas, panic-stricken, fled from Leon with those leaders of the old party who were friendly to him, and ensconced himself in the remote town of Chinandagua, thus isolating himself from the rest of his cabinet, and practically breaking up the government. Under these circumstances, Don Firmin Ferrer, one of the late cabinet, and a native of Nicaragua, was appointed president provisionally, until a general election should take place. This was held two weeks afterwards, and General Walker was elected president by the almost unanimous vote of the people. This was not to be wondered at, as the great majority of the inhabitants are Indians, violently opposed to the Spanish rule, and desirous of that of the Anglo-Saxons. Walker had scarcely been elected president, when Salhazar was accidentally intercepted crossing the bay of Fonseca, on his way to carry out his intrigues in Guatemala. He was the bearer of a correspondence deeply implicating Rivas, and was consequently promptly despatched to General Walker's headquarters, who, upon receiving his admission to signatures to letters of a treasonable character, ordered him immediately to be shot-a sentence which was carried into execution without any unnecessary delay. General Walker now sent Mr. Oaksmith to Washington as his representative, Padré Vijil not having been satisfied with his residence there, but the Government refused to recognise him. He has been followed by Don Firmin Ferrer, who is still waiting for recognition. Shortly after, in October last, followed the battles of Massaya and Grenada, the details of which are too fresh in the public mind to render any fuller description necessary. Though Walker was victorious, he perceived that it was essential to his safety to destroy the old capital Grenada, because it was too unhealthy to garrison with his own troops; and he no sooner evacuated it than it became a stronghold of the enemy, from which the transit route, so important to his position both in a military and financial point of view, could at any mo

ment be threatened. This magnificent old Spanish city, which in its palmy days had contained a population of about 30,000 inhabitants, was consequently burnt to the ground. An old church, however, situated about a mile and a half from the lake's side, was spared; and here General Henningsen took refuge, with 400 men, some guns, and a large supply of ammunition, when he was surrounded by about 2000 Central Americans. The Costa Ricans were now allied with San Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, and the united force succeeded in effecting this operation about the 22d of last November.

The gallant little band, hemmed in by an overwhelming force on all sides, unable to escape by the lake, in the absence of means of communication, took refuge in the church, with the determination of protecting their guns and ammunition to the last. The siege lasted for nineteen days. Twenty-nine men, who were holding the pier, so as to keep open the communication with the lake, were betrayed by a Cuban, and cut off to a man. General Walker arrived in a small steamer, but was unable to offer any assistance, as all the men he could spare were engaged protecting the transit route. Meantime a fortnight glided by, and the situation of the garrison was becoming desperate; not only had every horse been eaten, but the most terrible methods were resorted to to sustain life. Day and night an incessant and galling fire was kept up on both sides. Various attacks of the enemy were met with_most_determined resistance. To add to the horrors of the siege, cholera broke out, which was increased by the impossibility of burying the dead; and the putrid atmosphere, and poisoned water, and scanty food, frightfully diminished the numbers. On the 19th day, of the 400 men, 150 only were left, and General Henningsen at last reluctantly determined to abandon his guns, and, with the weak and exhausted remnant of his men, cut his way through the enemy's ranks, or perish in the attempt. Upon that night, however, General Walker had planned his rescue, and Henningsen had the satisfaction of seeing a force landed in the rear of the enemy. force, which consisted only of 175

This