Says General Charles Frederic Henningsen, the famous English soldier of
fortune who was Walker's second in command: "I have heard two greasy
privates disputing over the correct reading and comparative merits of
AEschylus and Euripides. I have seen a soldier on guard incessantly
scribbling strips of paper, which turned out to be a finely versified
translation of his dog's-eared copy of the _Divina Commedia_." The same
officer, who had fought with distinction under Don Carlos in Spain,
under Schamyl in the Caucasus, and under Kossuth in Hungary, who had
introduced the Minie rifle into the American service, and was a
recognized authority on the use of artillery, and therefore knew whereof
he spoke, also testifies to the heroism and astounding fortitude of
Walker's men. "I have often seen them marching with a broken or a
compound-fractured arm in splints, and using the other to fire the
rifle or revolver. Those with a fractured thigh, or with wounds which
rendered them incapable of removal, often (or rather, in early times,
always) shot themselves, sooner than fall into the hands of the enemy.
Such men do not turn up in the average of every-day life, nor do I ever
expect to see their like again. I was on the Confederate side in many of
the bloodiest battles of the late war, but I aver that if, at the end of
that war I had been allowed to pick five thousand of the bravest
Confederate or Federal soldiers I ever saw, and could resurrect and pit
against them one thousand of such men as lie beneath the orange-trees of
Nicaragua, I feel certain that the thousand would have scattered and
utterly routed the five thousand within an hour. All military science
failed, on a suddenly given field, before assailants who came on at a
run, to close with their revolvers, and who thought little of charging a
battery, pistol in hand." As a matter of fact, at the first battle of
Rivas, ten Americans, all officers of the Phalanx, armed only with
bowie-knives and revolvers, actually did charge and capture a battery
manned by more than a hundred Costa Ricans, half of the little band
being killed in that astounding exploit. Some estimate of the deeds of
these unsung heroes, so many of whom lie in unmarked graves beneath an
alien sky, may be gathered from the surgical reports, which showed that
the proportion of wounds treated was _one hundred and thirty-seven to
every hundred men_.
For several months after the taking of Granada and the establishment of
a provisional government, the dove of peace hovered over Nicaragua as
though desirous of alighting, but in February, 1856, it was driven away,
at least for a time, by a fresh splutter of musketry along the southern
frontier, where Costa Rica, alarmed by Walker's reputed ambition to make
himself master of all Middle America, had begun an invasion with the
expressed purpose of driving the _gringos_ from Central American soil.
After a few months of desperate fighting, in which the Americans fully
maintained their reputation for reckless bravery, the Costa Ricans were
driven across the border, and for a brief time the harassed Nicaraguans
were able to exchange their rifles for their hoes. The country now being
for the moment at peace, Rivas called a presidential election,
announcing himself as the candidate of the Democrats. The Legitimists,
recognizing in Walker the one strong man of the country, had the
political shrewdness to choose him, their former enemy, to head their
ticket. Two other candidates, Ferrer and Salazar, were also in the
field. The election was regular in every respect, the voting being
entirely free from the usual disturbances. According to the Nicaraguan
constitution, every male inhabitant over eighteen years of age,
criminals excepted, is entitled to the suffrage. When the votes were
counted it was found that Rivas had received 867 votes; Salazar, 2,087;
Ferrer, 4,447; and Walker, 15,835. By such an overwhelming majority, and
in an absolutely fair election, was William Walker made President of
Nicaragua--the first and only time an American has ever been chosen
ruler of a foreign and independent state.
In all its troubled history Nicaragua has never been governed so justly
and so wisely as it was by the American soldier of fortune. Had he been
free from foreign interference there is little doubt that he would have
made Nicaragua a progressive, prosperous, and contented country, and
that he would in time have brought under one government and one flag all
the states lying between Yucatan and Panama. But that was precisely what
the peoples of those states were fearful of, so that, a few weeks after
Walker was inaugurated, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, and San
Salvador declared war. This time Walker took the field with three
thousand trained and seasoned veterans, while opposed to him were
twenty-one thousand of the allies. To describe the campaign that ensued
would be as profitless as it would be tedious. The programme was always
the same: the march by night through the silent, steaming jungle, and
the stealthy surrounding of the threatened town in the early dawn; the
warning crack of a startled sentry's rifle; the sudden rush of the
filibusters with their high, shrill yell; the taking of the barracks and
the cathedral in the Plaza, nearly always at the pistol's point; and the
panic-stricken retreat of the little brown men in their uniforms of
soiled white linen. Everywhere the arms of Walker were triumphant, and
had he not at this time deliberately crossed the path of a soldier of
fortune of quite another kind, in a few months more he would have
realized his life-dream and have made himself the ruler of a Central
American empire.
Upon investigating national affairs after his election, Walker found
that the Accessory Transit Company had not lived up to the terms of its
concession from the government of Nicaragua. By the terms of its charter
it had agreed to pay to the Nicaraguan Government ten thousand dollars
annually, and ten per cent of its net profits. The company claimed, and
the government as stoutly denied, that the ten thousand dollars had been
regularly paid, though the concessionaires admitted that the ten per
cent on the profits had not been paid, giving as their excuse that there
had been no profits. Upon an examination of the books it was quickly
discovered that the company had so juggled with the accounts as to make
it appear that there were no profits, when, as a matter of fact, the
enterprise was an enormously profitable one. Upon discovering the fraud
which had been perpetrated upon the government and people of Nicaragua,
Walker demanded back payments to the amount of two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, and upon the company insolently refusing to pay them,
he promptly revoked its charter, and seized its steamboats, wharves, and
warehouses as security for the debt. Though this action was perfectly
justifiable under the circumstances, it was, in view of the instability
of Walker's position, an unwise move, for it made an implacable enemy of
one of the most powerful and perhaps the most unscrupulous of the
financiers of the time.
[Illustration: The programme was always the same: the sudden rush of the
filibusters with their high, shrill yell; the taking of the barracks and
the cathedral in the Plaza.