Bleeding and exhausted from battle and travel, Walker and his men, after
an all-night march through the jungle, limped into the port of San Juan
del Sur, and, finding a Costa Rican vessel in the harbor, they seized it
for their own use. Still bearing in mind the necessity of getting
control of the Transit route, Walker gave his men only a few days in
which to recover from their wounds and weariness, and then was off
again, this time for Virgin Bay, the halting-place for passengers going
east or west. Though in the fight which ensued Walker was outnumbered
five to one, his losses were only three natives killed and a few
Americans wounded, while one hundred and fifty of the enemy fell before
the rifles of the filibusters. This disparity of losses emphasizes, as
does nothing else, the deadliness of the American fire.
After the fight at Virgin Bay Walker received from California fifty
recruits, thus bringing the force under his command up to some four
hundred men, about a third of whom were Americans. The Legitimists,
learning that he was planning to again attack Rivas, hastened to
reinforce the garrison of that town by hurrying troops there from their
headquarters at Granada, which was farther up the lake, planning to give
Walker a warm and unexpected reception. But it was Walker who did the
surprising, for, having his own channels of secret information, he no
sooner learned of the weakened condition of Granada than he determined
to direct his efforts against that place, instead of Rivas, and by
capturing it to give the Legitimist cause a solar-plexus blow. Embarking
his men on a small steamer with the announced intention of attacking
Rivas, as soon as night fell he turned in the opposite direction and,
with lights out and fires banked, steamed silently up the lake. Dawn
found him off Granada, the garrison and inhabitants of which were
sleeping off a drunken debauch with which they had celebrated a recent
victory. Even the sentries drowsed at their posts. Unobserved, the
Americans landed in the semi-darkness of the early dawn, and it was not
until they had reached the very outskirts of the town that a sentry
suddenly awakened to their presence and gave the alarm by letting off
his rifle, the shot being instantly answered by a crackle of musketry as
the Americans opened fire. "Charge!" shouted Walker, "Get at 'em! Get at
'em!" and dashed forward at a run, a revolver in each hand, with his
followers, cheering like madmen, close at his heels. "Los Filibusteros!
Los Filibusteros!" screamed the terror-stricken inhabitants, catching
sight of the red shirts and scarlet hat-bands of the Americans. "Run for
your lives!" The demoralized garrison made a brief and ineffective stand
in the Plaza, and then threw down their arms. Walker was master of
Granada. He at once instituted a military government, released over a
hundred political prisoners confined in the local jail, policed the town
as effectually as though it were a New England village, and when he
caught one of his native soldiers in the act of looting, ran him through
with his sword.
Walker was now in a position to dictate his own terms of peace, and,
four months after he and his fifty-seven followers landed in Nicaragua,
an armistice was arranged and the side to which the Americans had lent
their aid was in power. A native named Rivas was made provisional
president, and Walker was appointed commander-in-chief of the army,
which at that time numbered about twelve hundred men. Though
insignificant in numbers when judged by European standards, this was
really a remarkable force, and perhaps the most effective for its size
known to military history. The officers had all seen service under many
flags and in many lands--in Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Algeria,
Italy, Egypt, Russia, India, China--and the men, nearly all of whom had
been recruited in San Francisco, boasted that "California was the pick
of the world, and they were the pick of California." There was scarcely
a man among them who could not flick the ashes from a cigar with his
revolver at a hundred feet, or with his rifle hit a dollar held between
a man's thumb and forefinger at a hundred yards. All the strange, wild
natures for whom even the mining-camps of California had grown too tame
were drawn to Walker's flag as iron filings are drawn to a magnet.
Frederick Townsend Ward, the New England youth who raised, trained, and
led the Ever-Victorious Army, who rose to be an admiral-general of
China, and who performed the astounding exploits for which General
Charles Gordon received the credit, gained much of his military training
under Walker; Joaquin Miller, "the poet of the Sierras," was another of
his devoted followers, while scores of the other men who fought under
the blue-and-white banner with the scarlet star in later years achieved
name and fame in many different lands.
[Illustration: General Walker reviewing troops on the Grand Plaza,
Granada.