Part 10 (2/2)
Spencer and Webster, and the other soldiers of fortune employed by Vanderbilt, closed the route on the Caribbean side, and the man-of-war _St Marys_, commanded by Captain Davis, was ordered to San Juan on the Pacific side The instructions given to Captain Davis were to aid the allies in forcing Walker out of Nicaragua Walker claiiven to Marcy by Vanderbilt and by Marcy to Commodore Mervin, as Marcy's personal friend and who issued them to Davis
Davis claims that he acted only in the interest of humanity to save Walker in spite of himself In any event, the result was the same
Walker, his force cut down by hostile shot and fever and desertion, took refuge in Rivas, where he was besieged by the allied ar on horse and mule meat There was no salt The hospital was filled ounded and those stricken with fever
Captain Davis, in the name of humanity, demanded Walker's surrender to the United States Walker told him he would not surrender, but that if the time came when he found he must fly, he would do so in his own little schooner of war, the _Granada_, which constituted his entire navy, and in her, as a free man, take his forces where he pleased Then Davis informed Walker that the force Walker had sent to recapture the Greytown route had been defeated by the janizaries of Vanderbilt; that the stea him re-enforcements, had also been taken off the line, and finally that it was his ”unalterable and deliberate intention” to seize the _Granada_ On this point his orders left him no choice The _Granada_ was the last means of transportation still left to Walker He had hoped to make a sortie and on board her to escape from the country But with his shi+p taken froe of the allies, he surrendered to the forces of the United States In the agreement drawn up by him and Davis, Walker provided for the care, by Davis, of the sick and wounded, for the protection after his departure of the natives who had fought with him, and for the transportation of himself and officers to the United States
On his arrival in New York he received a welcome such as later was extended to Kossuth, and, in our own day, to Ads and arches; and banquets, fetes, and public s were everywhere held in his honor Walker received these demonstrations modestly, and on every public occasion announced his determination to return to the country of which he was the president, and froton, where he went to present his claiainst Captain Davis was referred to Congress, where it was allowed to die
Within a ain his rights in Nicaragua, and as, in his new constitution for that country, he had annulled the old law abolishi+ng slavery, ah money and recruits to enable him to at once leave the United States With one hundred and fifty men he sailed from New Orleans and landed at San del Norte on the Caribbean side While he formed a camp on the harbor of San Juan, one of his officers, with fiftythe town of Castillo Viejo and four of the Transit steamers, was in a fair way to obtain possession of the entire route At this ate _Wabash_ and Hira, who landed a force of three hundred and fifty blue-jackets with howitzers, and turned the guns of his frigate upon the cael, who presented the terms of surrender to Walker, said to him: ”General, I am sorry to see you here A man like you is worthy to coriainst me, I would show you which of us two commands the better men”
For the third time in his history Walker surrendered to the armed forces of his own country
On his arrival in the United States, in fulfil, Walker at once presented hiton a prisoner of war But President Buchanan, although Paulding had acted exactly as Davis had done, refused to support hiress declared that that officer had corave error and established an unsafe precedent
On the strength of this Walker demanded of the United States Government indemnity for his losses, and that it should furnish him and his followers transportation even to the very camp from which its representatives had torn him This demand, as Walker foresaas not considered seriously, and with a force of about one hundred ain set sail fro to the fact that, to prevent his return, there noere on each side of the Isthmus both American and British ua by land, stopped off at Honduras In his ith the allies the Honduranians had been as savage in their attacks upon hishis old ene, Walker declared for the weaker side and captured the important seaport of Trujillo He no sooner had taken it than the British warshi+p _Icarus_ anchored in the harbor, and her co officer, Captain Salage on the revenues of the port, and that to protect the interests of his Government he intended to take the town
Walker answered that he had made Trujillo a free port, and that Great Britain's claier existed
The British officer replied that if Walker surrendered himself and his men he would carry them as prisoners to the United States, and that if he did not, he would bombard the town At this moment General Alvarez, with seven hundred Honduranians, from the land side surrounded Trujillo, and prepared to attack Against such odds by sea and land Walker was helpless, and he deterht, with seventy men, he left the town and proceeded down the coast toward Nicaragua The _Icarus_, having taken on board Alvarez, started in pursuit The President of Nicaragua was found in a little Indian fishi+ng village, and Salmon sent in his shore-boats and de Trujillo, Walker had been forced to abandon all his ammunition save thirty rounds atwo barrels of bread On the coast of this continent there is no spot lishe they found Walker's seventyin the palht British blue-jackets hom they had no quarrel Walker inquired of Sal him to surrender to the British or to the Honduranian forces, and twice Salmon assured hi to the forces of her Majesty With this understanding Walker and his men laid down their ar at Trujillo, in spite of their protests and demands for trial by a British tribunal, Saleneral What excuse for this is now given by his descendants in the Salmon family I do not know
Probably it is a subject they avoid, and, in history, Saliven, which for him, perhaps, is an injustice But the fact remains that he turned over his white brothers to the es, ere not allies of Great Britain, and in whose quarrels she had no interest And Sal there could be but one end If he did not know it, his stupidity equalled what now appears to be heartless indifference So far as to secure pardon for all except the leader and one faithful follower, Colonel Rudler of the famous Phalanx, Salmon did use his authority, and he offered, if Walker would ask as an American citizen, to intercede for him But Walker, with a distinct sense of loyalty to the country he had conquered, and whose people had honored him with their votes, refused to accept life from the country of his birth, the country that had injured and repudiated him
Even in his extre coral and noisome swamp land, surrounded only by his enemies, he remained true to his ideal
At thirty-seven life is very sweet, s still seem possible, and before hireater conquests, ua canal, a network of busy railroads, great squadrons of unboat the gold-braided youth had but to raise his hand, and Walker again would be a free old-braided one would render this service only on the condition that Walker would appeal to hih that Walker was a hurant
”The President of Nicaragua,” he said, ”is a citizen of Nicaragua”
They led hi the beach, and as the priest held the crucifix in front of hiravely: ”I die a Ro war upon you at the invitation of the people of Ruatan I rong Of your people I ask pardon I accept nation I would like to think ood of society”
From a distance of twenty feet three soldiers fired at hih each shot took effect, Walker was not dead So, a sergeant stooped, and with a pistol killed the man ould have made him one of an eer to exhibit upon the great board of the Civil War his ability as a general, he would, I believe, to-day be ranked as one of A men
And because the people of his own day destroyed him is no reason that we should withhold fronition of his genius
MAJOR BURNHAM, CHIEF OF SCOUTS
AMONG the Soldiers of Fortune whose stories have been told in this book were , ers, and men ere of interest chiefly because in what they attempted they failed
The subject of this article is none of these His adventures are as re behind the barn for buried treasure, or stalk Indians in the orchard But entirely apart from his adventures he obtains our interest because in what he has attempted he has not failed, because he is one of our own people, one of the earliest and best types of A dead and buried, he is at thisfor a buried city For exercise, he is alternately chasing, or being chased by, Yaqui Indians