The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1893-04-27

| peace of neighboring State. Tho Ants Slavery
party of the North detained strongly against
Walkers proceedings, while the Vanderbilt Co.
sent cargoes of muskets and ammunition to the
armies opposing him.
| In vain did Walkers friends bring rein
forcements as emigrants from the United
States. The United Central American States
| banded in arms against him, aud forced back
the troops which held possession of the transit
route. They captured the lake and river
steamers and interposed armed posts and gar
| risons TO the passage OF recruits. Thus cut
off from reinforcements and supplies, Walker
wonld have perished with his men had not
friend of his, Capt. Davis, of the .. S. sloop Of
war st. Mary, in the harbor at San Juan del
Sur, seeing his perilOus situation, sought and
obtained for Walker
TERMS OF PEACE.
The President of Nicaragua" thus deposed,
returned to the United States, and Immediately
began arranging an expedition to retrieve his
fortunes and reassert his rights in Central
America. number of vessels were fitted out,
and, filled with armed emigrants, sailed from
different ports of the United States for Mica
ragua. At Point Arenas, Commodore Pauld-
ing, of the United States Navy, overhauled
these vessels, detained Walker, caused his force
to be disbanded and himself to give personal
guaranty that he would mako no further at
tempt Of the kind.
This promise he Immediately and directly
violated by fitting out vessel at Mobile for
c0lonlzing some part of Central America. The
cargo consisted of seeds and agricultural i'm
pements above, but principally of arms and
ammunition concealed underneath. Escaping
| the revenue cutter in Mobile Bay, the Susan,
for that was the name of the schooner. sailed
across the Caribbean Sea, and was wrecked on
| Glover's Reef. off the coast Of Honduras, the
emigrants narrowly escaping with their lives.
Thav mic bad hut he Driti ah
lisk, and promptly returned to Mobile.
With indomitable energy Walker immedi-
ately fitted out another expedition, which was
successful in reaching the Central American
coast. He landed with about 200 men at
Truxillo, in Honduras. An army was awaiting
him of probably so to one. Dismissing his
ship,
he LED HIS FORCE AGAINST THE FOE
He had no pass of Thermopyla, no Tyrolese
cliffs, for vantage ground; and III the open
country but one result could be the outcome
of such a contest. After several unsuccessful
engagements, he was prevailed on to surrender
himself to the Captain of an English ship, to
be held subject to the jurisdiction of the Eng
lish court. formal demand being made,
however, on the English Captain by the Hon.
duras authorities Walker was surrendered to
them. A drum head court martial condemned
him to be shot, and without finching, main
tanning his characteristic courage, the man of
destiny" met his death.
The foregoing was taken in part from a per-
sonal account of Hugh Watts, Captain during
the rebellion in the 4th N. Y. Fl. A.. who was
with Walker, as we'll as from the latter's own
history and Doubledsy's narrative. In re-
cent issue of the San Francisco Examiner ap-
pears description of the flag that was borne
in the first attack Rivas. This flag now in
the possession of Barney Woolf esq.,, Secretary
of the California Supreme Court Commission,
who was one of Walkers officers is of blue and
white silk and muslin. 1t was made at Realeio
by Mrs. Alexander Jones, wife of Dr. Jones,
Surgeon to the expedition, assisted by Mrs.
Boley who lived there. 1t measures as by AZ
| inches, and has u single star in the middle,
with the letters w. B., for Walkers Battalion.
If the Filibusters" were not the first to
| notice the advantages of the Nicsraguan route
! for the purposes OF a ship-canal connecting the
| Atlantic aud Pacific Oceans, they were among
| the first to make practical! suggestions to its
! value In the preface TO the revised edition of
| his Nicaragua" issued in 1860, the original
having been published in 1882 E. G. Squiers,
| in speaking of the hapIess Republic ami its in
| vasion, says: 1t has been made the arena of
aimless and not always reputable diplomatic
contests, and of an obstinate and bloody strug-
| gle between q handful of northern adventures
| and an effete and decadent And unless
the future shall strongly betray the indications
of the present, it is destined to pass through a
| succession of still seyerer thrOes in its advance
! to that political status and commercial import
ance insepaIable from its geographical position
| and natural resources. For, in Nicaragua, and
| there alone, has nature combined those requi-
| sites for water commun ication between the
SEAS which has so long been the dream of en-
| thusasts, and which is a desideratum of this
| age as it will be a necessity of the next"
The reports of the "Filibusters," from their
! observations of the natural waterway afforded
| by the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua,
| the safe and commodious inland harbor, the
| saiubrious climate and great natural resources
| of the country-all favorable to the cOnstruc-
| ton of a ship canal-constitnte a single re-
deeming feature of these daring though mis-
| guided ex petitions.