New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-01-26

m;sht 10 the esr,ory reader seem to DO so-fne
killed ana wounded, the number OF which, either
by accident or desisr. ssens 10 have dropped oas
Of the dispatch, or perhaps TO have been efs blank
Neither is any estimate given OF the number Of
deserters, which appears 10 have been very cOn'd-
cradle. The lOss Of the enemy Henningsen eati-
mates at 6o0-rather arge, considering that hs does
not think they ever had, at any time. more than
1900 or /, 800 men, which he sets down as their
strength % the commencement Of the attack, and
on the day Of the evacuation.
The steamer conveyed henniDgsen's rescued
troops TO San Gorge not far from RiVas, which
vas Immediately evacuated BY the enemy, aud soon
after taken possession Of by Walker, who appears
also to have BEEN at the beginning Of the ye,r still
in possession Of that part of the Transit route
between Virgin Bay aid the Pacific.
Of the capture Of the transit steamers We have
in our San Juan correspondence and from other
sources the following accounts:
A force Of about hundred men descended the
Sarapiqui River, southern tributary Of the San
Juan, on rAhs, and surprised Captain Thompson,
stationed there with force of forty. lone flibusters
all of whom were either killed, drowned or taken.
The Costa Rcsn force then proceeded down the
San Juan and seized four riyer-steamers which
lay at the mouth CT the San Juan, near
Punta Arenas; an American named Spencer,
who appears to have acted as the agent Of
the old Transit Company, directing the opera
ton. The agents Of Morgan Co., who
claim these boats by purchase from Walker. ap.
Piled to Capt Erskine Of the British shp-ot-war
Cossacb, for protection Chere beiog no American
ship in the baIbor), on the ground that they were
private property, aud also Of lien upon them by
their officers and crews for wages; but Capt.
Erskine declined to interfere, both because there
WIS dispute as TO the ownership Of the boats and
the agent Of one of the claimants auth )rized the
seizure, and also because these steamers had been
employed in conveying men and munitions Oh war 70
tie parties with whom the Costa Rcans were car
ryng on hostilties. He did, however, ofcr protec-
ton TO all Americans at Punta Arenas and refused
to allow the landing Of troops either at Greytown
or Punta Arenas.
The captured steamers were carried oil Up the river
about the same time the lake steamer Virgh-of
which Walker had made in his military movements,
end especially in the late rescue of Henungsen, such
effectual use-was sent from Virgin Bay up the San
Juan to the first rapids TO wood. Spencer, it would
appear, had in the mean time captured all the river
steamer, and this boat also, though by wha: par.
tcular operation does not appear, fell into his
hands, At any rate, on the 3Oth OF December he
made his appearance in it with an armed force be-
fore Fort San Carlos situate at the point where the
Ssu Juan passes ont Of the lake, and procured the
surrender of The garrison Of "a men, without any
attempt at resistance.
On the I'd of January the steamer San Carlos,
which had left Virgin Bay the same day, with the
passengers from San Francisco who had arrived
the day before at San Juan del Sur in the Sierra
Nevada, was seized and taken possession of shortly
after passing Fort San Carries; and thus, at the
beginning of the year the Transit route east of Lake
Nicaragua. and the command of the lake itself,
passed into the hands of the Costa Rissns cutting
Walker of from any communication or supplies by
that route.
The passengers by the San Carlos we're all safely
sent down the river to San Juan, IS were also the
| prisoners taken at Fcrt San Carlos. They arrived
there on the 9TH almost simultaneously with the
Texas from New. Orleans, having on board some POO
Il
recruits for Walker. Being without the means OF
| passing up the river, they had established them
| selves at Puna Arenas. and were attempting, but
with lite hopes of success, to repair an old steamer
in which to make their way up the San Juan, aud
TO reopen communication with Walker.
We see nothing in these accounts which demands
any modification in the opinion we have hitherto
expressed of Walkers desperate position. The
recruits brought to him by the Sierra Nevada from
California were less than forty. He had, at the
latest accounts from his camp at Rivas, about
thousand men, Of whom four hundred were sick or
wounded, and the remainder miserably off for
cl.thiug and provisions. This force, if merely
watched and henmed in, will soon dwinde away,
even though not attacked. OF the movements OF
the native forces, beyond their occupation of the
Transit route we have no definite information. 1t
is said CahaF, in command Of the Costa Rlcan
troops hitherto operating in the ne;shborhood Of
Riyas, had withdrawn and Walkers followers were
attempting to console themselves by ruuOrs of dis
seL,iOns among the allies and rising in his favor
in the neighborhood of Leon; but OF the course
taken by the native troops after the e.cspe OF Hen
nipesen from Granada We really know nothing.
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