Walker returns to the United States--Crabbe's expedition--Renewed
attempts of Walker--The expedition to San Juan del Norte.
Walker's reception in New York, on his return to the United States, was
like that of a conqueror. The city wore a holiday appearance; tens of
thousands of citizens flocked to see the hero; Broadway was decked with
banners as on a national festival. Public meetings were called to give
him welcome and sympathy. Walker received the homage with dignified
modesty, and resolutely avowed his determination to recover his lost
power at the first opportunity. As the lawful President of Nicaragua,
he protested against the action of the United States, to him a foreign
power, in driving him from his country. He went to Washington, to lay
before the State Department his complaint against Commander Davis, and
was received with diplomatic politeness; but the case was referred to
the consideration of Congress, where it was effectually buried under a
mountain of verbiage. Thence he made a journey through the South, being
welcomed and fêted with even more enthusiasm than he had received in
the North. Arriving at New Orleans, he made his first appearance
publicly in a box at one of the theatres. When the audience became
aware of his presence they turned with one impulse from the mimic
romance of the stage to gaze at the living hero whose exploits made
tame the wildest flights of imagination, and cheer upon cheer went up
from pit and gallery. Walker was hailed as a hero and a martyr, and his
bitterest enemies were silenced for the time, when Henningsen, whom
they had expected, from some unknown reason, to villify his commander,
not only disappointed that hope, but lauded everywhere the character
and principles of the great filibuster. He also laid before Secretary
Cass an indignant protest against the outrage inflicted upon a friendly
nation, whose only offence towards the United States lay in the fact
that its president had the misfortune to be by birth an American.
Technically the filibusters had serious reason for complaint. But the
demand for reparation fell upon deaf ears. The President of the United
States cared nothing for the fact that the title of the President of
Nicaragua to his office was in law as good as that of James Buchanan to
his. Buchanan, as Walker soon saw, was not the man to add another
bramble to his already too painful bed of thorns; and the bold
filibuster decided to seek outside the pale of law that redress which
was denied him within it.
While Walker and his men were battling for their lives in Rivas, during
the months of March and April, 1857, another and a bloody scene in the
tragedy of filibusterism was being enacted on the stage which had
witnessed the failures of De Boulbon and Walker. Towards the end of
March one hundred and fifty men from California were led across the
boundary line into the northern part of Sonora by Henry A. Crabbe, a
former friend of Walker, and like him, a man of bold and ambitious
character. He had been one of the most useful agents in organizing the
latter's expedition to Nicaragua, and through him Walker had secured
some of his most efficient officers, Hornsby, Fisher, and De Brissot,
all of whom had been concerned in a contract between Crabbe and Jerez
similar in its terms to that afterwards made between Castellon and
Walker.
Crabbe was an ex-Senator of the State of California; in his party were
seven former members of the legislature and one present senator,
together with the former State treasurer and State comptroller; men who
had outlived their popularity, perhaps, or who had become tired of
humdrum life and sought a new career in Sonora, the graveyard of
adventurers. Nor was the military element lacking. Colonel Watkins, who
had been with Walker in his expedition to the same country, and a
former lieutenant in the regular army, Colonel T. D. Johns,
superintended the military department as the expedition crossed the
line. They marched through the country without hindrance until they
passed Sonoyta and approached Caborca, on the Gulf of California, near
Point Lobos. There for the first time the Mexicans showed a hostile
front. Crabbe had issued an address to the inhabitants, in which he
claimed that his business in the country was peaceable, his object
being the prosecution of a mining scheme in Sonora; and maintained
that, while his party were armed, they had come so only for
self-defence against the Apache Indians. The truth of the matter was
that Crabbe had been invited to Sonora by the partisans of a political
minority, whose leader, Don Ignacio Pesqueira, had meanwhile gained his
political ends without the aid of foreign allies, and was much
disturbed lest the inopportune arrival of the latter should reflect
upon his present loyalty. Crabbe, who had at much cost and labour
organized his immigrants and arranged for the future immigration of
nine hundred more men, was not disposed to abandon his project. He was
allied by marriage with some of the leading families in the State, and
may have cherished hopes of exchanging places with Pesqueira in
Sonorian affairs. If he counted upon the assistance of the native
population he was doomed to a cruel disappointment.
On the 1st of April, when the expeditionists were within six miles of
Caborca, they were fired upon by an ambushed party of natives; at the
same time a strong force appeared in front, drawn up to contest the
road. The filibusters opened fire upon them, killing at the first
volley Colonel Rodriguez, the commander, and driving the Mexicans
before them into the town. The fugitives rallied in the plaza and
fortified themselves in the main church. The assailants occupied the
houses opposite, whereupon the natives, seeing that the church was not
attacked, plucked up courage to garrison the adjacent buildings and
harass the invaders. Crabbe soon perceived his error in allowing the
enemy to assume the offensive, and made one or two futile attempts to
carry the church by assault. The fighting lasted through eight days. On
the last, Crabbe with fifteen men tried to blow up the church by means
of gunpowder, but the enemy kept up such a sharp fire that he was
compelled to desist, with four of his men shot down and himself badly
wounded. He now sent a flag of truce, offering to withdraw his forces,
if they should be allowed to leave the country. The Mexicans had
themselves made such a proposition to him on the second day of the
fight, which he had then rejected, as they now did, their relative
positions having so much changed in the meanwhile. Gabilondo, the
Mexican commander, disposed his force of five hundred men so as to hem
in completely the unfortunate adventurers, until the Mexicans, having
cut through the walls of the intervening houses, fought hand to hand in
the passages and slowly drove the Americans into the last house on the
street.
Night fell upon the scene where fifty-eight surviving filibusters stood
at bay, overcome with hunger, thirst, and hard fighting. They placed
sentries and sought to snatch a few moments' rest, which was rudely
broken by the crackling sound of fire above their heads. An Indian
archer had lodged a flaming arrow in the thatched roof, and soon the
fiery flakes were dropping upon the men within. In this desperate
strait Crabbe sent word to the enemy that he was willing to surrender
as a prisoner of war, on condition that he and his men should be given
a fair trial. Gabilondo replied, accepting the terms of capitulation
and promising to send the prisoners to El Altar for trial. They were
ordered to leave the house one by one, and without their arms, and
then, their hands being bound, they were marched to the barracks.
Crabbe was separated from the rest and brought before the Mexican
commander, who offered to give him his life if he would point out where
he had buried his treasure, some ten thousand dollars. Crabbe,
remembering the bad faith of Pesqueira, and rightly judging that the
possession of the money by Gabilondo would be anything but a guaranty
of the owner's safety, refused, and was sent to his cell. The surrender
had taken place at eleven o'clock in the evening. One hour after
midnight a sergeant entered the barracks and read to the assembled
prisoners their sentence of death by the fusillade at daybreak.
At the appointed hour they were led out on the plaza, where, after the
executioners, with an eye to thrift, had first stripped them of their
valuable articles of clothing, they were shot in cold blood, without
the form of a trial. A boy of twelve was spared to witness the brutal
scene. The bodies were rifled of their rings, and in some cases even
the gold fillings in their teeth, after which they were thrown into a
burial ground where the wild hog and the coyote fattened on them. To
Crabbe was accorded the honour of dying last and alone. He was tied to
a post and riddled with bullets. His head was cut off and exhibited in
a jar of vinegar for several days, a sight which so stimulated the
heroism of the natives that they fell upon a party of sixteen peaceful
travellers a few days afterwards and cut them off to a man, while
another bold band crossed into the American territory and murdered four
sick men, presumed to have been adherents of Crabbe. Of the nine
hundred men who were to have joined Crabbe from California, only some
fifty appeared in the vicinity of Caborca, where being set upon by the
natives they succeeded only with great difficulty in making their way
back across the boundary line.
Mr. Forsyth, the American minister to Mexico, took pains to investigate
the matter, and laid before his own Government and that of Mexico the
results of his inquiry. He pronounced the execution of the prisoners
"legal murder," a conclusion which apparently satisfied both parties,
the Americans because it was "legal," and the Mexicans because it was
"murder," and so the matter was allowed to drop. It ended filibusterism
in that country. The American apostle of liberty no longer heeds the
cry of the oppressed of any faction. Nor is it likely, since the world
was shocked by the execution of the Austrian archduke, that many
Europeans will be found treading the wine-press for what they have been
pleased to term the "regeneration" of Mexico.
With the expulsion of the filibusters terminated for a time the war in
Nicaragua. The Allied states formed a kind of protectorate over the
republic, having first rewarded themselves, after the fashion of
greater powers, by gathering a goodly share of the fruits of victory.
Costa Rica was rewarded by the possession of Guanacaste and a strip of
land bordering along the lake and the southern side of the San Juan
river, a sufficiently small return for her outlay in the war, which had
entailed a loss of so many thousand men, women, and children slain by
cholera. The "Tiger of Honduras" was given material aid in driving from
power at home the partisans of Cabañas. General Martinez, a descendant
of the apocryphal heroine of San Carlos, was appointed President of
Nicaragua, and at once sent a minister to Washington, who was received
without question. Mr. Buchanan thus gave himself a plausible excuse for
declining to recognize the claims of Walker. Señor Yrissari, the new
minister, negotiated a new treaty for the construction of a canal, the
terms of which not being considered favourable to Costa Rica, that
state and Nicaragua were soon again preparing to grapple each other's
throats.
In spite of the vigilance of the United States authorities Walker
continued planning schemes to resume the offensive on Nicaraguan soil.
Being arrested on charge of organizing an unlawful expedition, he was
acquitted, only to renew his preparations. Thirteen days after his
discharge at New Orleans he appeared off the harbour of San Juan del
Norte on board the steamer _Fashion_, but did not stop at that port
until after he had landed Colonel Anderson and fifty men at the mouth
of the river Colorado, a southerly branch of the San Juan. Returning to
the harbour of San Juan, the _Fashion_ boldly came to anchor under the
guns of the United States frigate _Saratoga_, and landed her cargo of
war material and passengers to the number of a hundred and fifty men.
The officers and most of the men were old veterans of Nicaragua,
including the tried soldiers, Hornsby, Von Natzmer, Swingle, Tucker,
Henry, Hoof, Fayssoux, Cook, McMullen, Haskins, Buttrick, and others.
Captain Chatard, of the _Saratoga_, sent a boat on board the _Fashion_,
but the passengers had landed before the lieutenant in command could
prevent them. The only steps which the American officer felt himself
authorized to take were to order the filibusters to respect American
property on the Transit Company's ground, an injunction which Walker
obeyed, after protesting that it was an infringement of his rights as
President of Nicaragua, from and through whom the company held its
privileges.
Walker immediately formed his camp and awaited the reinforcements which
he was daily expecting from the United States. Colonel Anderson, having
ascended the Colorado and San Juan, suddenly appeared before Castillo
Viejo and captured it without difficulty, a feat which the incompetent
Titus and Lockridge had been unable to achieve with eight times his
force. He also captured three or four of the river steamers, and was in
a fair way to obtain supreme control of the Transit route, when the
arrival at San Juan, on December 6th, of Commodore Hiram Paulding and
the U.S. frigate _Wabash_ gave a new turn to affairs.
Captain Chatard, not content with exercising a kind of police
superintendence over the port of San Juan, began a series of petty
annoyances, which, had they been intended to provoke Walker into a
collision with the United States forces, could not have been better
contrived. While the American captain professed to maintain a strict
neutrality, he nevertheless issued orders to the expeditionists, and
sent his boats out to practise firing where the filibusters on duty
were exposed to injury unless they abandoned their posts. His officers
insisted upon landing and entering Walker's camp without a pass; and
when Walker, with more dignity than discretion, threatened to shoot
anybody found trespassing within his lines, Captain Chatard retorted in
a note (which Walker sent to Commodore Paulding,) assuring him that he
would retaliate. "The childish follies," as Walker characterized them,
of Captain Chatard failing to provoke a collision, Commodore Paulding,
on the 7th of December, sent an imperative summons to surrender.
Resistance to such a demand, backed as it was by two frigates and a
complaisant British captain, who volunteered to aid Paulding in
annihilating the American filibusters, would have been madness. On the
next day Commodore Paulding landed a force of three hundred and fifty
men in howitzer barges and formed them in order of battle, while the
broadsides of the _Saratoga_ were sprung to bear on the camp. Captain
Engle proceeded to the tent of General Walker and presented the demand
for surrender, adding, "General, I am sorry to see you here. A man like
you is worthy to command better men." Walker replied briefly that the
virtue of his men would be apparent if their number and equipments were
one half those of his captors.
The flag of the filibusters was then hauled down, and the prisoners
were sent on board the _Saratoga_ for transportation to the United
States. Walker, being offered the choice of returning by way of
Aspinwall, availed himself of the favour and went home at his own
expense. Colonel Anderson, on learning of the capture, surrendered his
command on the river and returned to New Orleans. Arriving at New York,
Walker gave himself up to a United States marshal, in fulfilment of his
parole to Commodore Paulding, and was sent a prisoner of war to
Washington. But President Buchanan was by no means ready to support the
act of his naval subordinate, and absolutely refused to accept the
surrender or to recognize Walker as in the custody of the Government.
In a message to Congress he reviewed at length the action of Commodore
Paulding, which he pronounced unlawful, but cited the approbation of
the _de facto_ government of Nicaragua as justifying the proceedings.
In short, Paulding had infringed the rights of that country by an act
of hostility towards its president and upon its soil; but, reasoned Mr.
Buchanan, inasmuch as the enemies of Walker now in possession of the
government of Nicaragua do not complain, therefore Commodore Paulding's
action was not reprehensible. Nevertheless, it was a grave error and a
dangerous precedent, should it be allowed to go unrebuked. Acting upon
the logical sequence of that opinion, Walker demanded that the
Government of the United States should indemnify him for his losses
and, by granting free transportation to a new expedition, restore the
_status quo ante_. Needless to say, the petition was not granted. He
then instituted civil suits against Paulding, claiming damages for
illegal arrest and detention, suits which lingered in the courts and
never arrived at a decision.
The _Fashion_ was condemned for having sailed from Mobile under a false
clearance, and sold by the United States marshal for two hundred
dollars. Her cargo, which was brought back by the frigates _Saratoga_
and _Wabash_, showed that the filibusters had made ample preparations
for the equipment of a force sufficient to have easily reconquered the
country had they been able to secure a foothold. That their failure
should be caused by the action of their fellow countrymen they had
never dreamed. Walker, before his departure, had satisfied himself
that he should suffer no harm if only he could get away in quiet.
Least of all did he dream of being molested on foreign soil. Proof
came readily, when it was too late to be of any service, that Paulding
had transgressed his powers in breaking up the expedition. The cause of
his enmity was not difficult to fathom. Paulding was an old shipmate
and intimate friend of Walker's enemy, Commander Davis. Fate seems to
rejoice in a certain kind of ironical cruelty, whereby she sends to a
Napoleon the gad-fly, Hudson Lowe, and thwarts the ambition of a Walker
by the pipe-clay petulance of a naval martinet. It is as though Cæsar
had caught a cold, and died of it, in crossing the Rubicon. Paulding
and other petty potentates chose to take offence at the disrespectful
manner in which Walker, a mere uncommissioned adventurer, had dared
speak of Commander Davis. They resented it as an insult to "the
service," and when the subsequent correspondence with Commander Chatard
was laid before the Commodore, his indignation knew no bounds. The man
who would threaten to shoot a naval officer for penetrating his
military lines without a pass could be only a pirate and outlaw. As
such, Paulding had the filibuster arrested, although permitting him,
with charming inconsistency, to go to New York on parole.
But the irreparable mischief was done, and Walker found slight
consolation in having his persecutor suspended from active service, or
in the prosecution of endless civil suits for damages, a species of
vengeance which carries its own punishment.