most of the Nicaraguan troops to the mouth of the Serapiqui, thirty miles up the river San Juan. The force left was wholly inadequate, and offered no resistance to the landing of Walker and his followers. According to the official statement of this worthy, he "landed with Captain Ryder in his gig, the paddle box boats of the Vixen following with marines, soldiers, and militia. Having formed in column, they marched up to the flag-post, and facing round displayed into line with great precision and correctness. The Nicaraguan flag was immediately hauled down. The Mosquito flag was then run up, and a royal salute was fired while the King proceeded from the cutter on shore !" The force then proceded to oust the administrator of customs, who made a formal protest, and "Major George Hodgson, Commodore Little, and Captain Dixon, were severally installed as Governor, Captain of the Port, and Town-Major. Five men of the Bluefields Militia were selected to form a police for maintaining order in the town." On the 4th, the two vessels, with the Mosquito Majesty on board, returned to head quarters at Bluefields.

It was now the turn of the other side to protest, which task was undertaken by Captain Ryder, and performed with a very bad grace. He expressed his belief that "the proceeding would be considered by the military and naval authorities at Jamaica as a declaration of war against the Queen of England and the King of Mosquito." So Captain Ryder set sail for Jamaica to procure counsel and reinforcements, and bearing most urgent letters from Mr. Walker. Captain Ryder made his report, and Captain Loch's ship " Alarm," with the "Vixen," bearing a considerable force, were detailed to return to the theatre of operations. They arrived at Bluefields on the 5th, and on the 8th at San Juan. The Nicaraguan force overpowered by numbers, withdrew to Serapiqui, where, in the dense untenanted forest, unprotected by dwellings of any kind, they had constructed a rude breastwork of earth and logs. The position was a very good one, and in the hands of experienced troops capable of easy defence. Here the Nicaraguans had collected about 120 men, some, former residents

"Being asked in whose writing the note appeared and by whom signed, he said :Mr. W. Scott, Secretary of Mr. Walker, and that "The body of the note is the hand-writing of the signature is in Mr. Walker's hand-writing"

To other inquiries he answered that he had never seen or heard of the notes which had been addressed to the Government of Nicaragua.

Being asked if the occupation of San Juan

On the 10th, a party of troops from the station at Serapiqui came down the river and turned the table on the new authorities, taking the "Governor and Captain of the Port" prisoners, greatly to their bodily fear, but particularly to the terror of the "Governor" whose name, as we have seen, was appended to the impudent letter to the Director of Nicaragua, instructing him to withdraw the establishment at San Juan. It is but just to this worthy, who was but an instrument of Walker, to say, that he after-gone to Jamaica in December of the preceding wards solemnly declared that he never saw this document, and that his name had been forged by Walker."

* The following passages, from the records of Hodgson's examination, read over and attested by him, will afford some insight to the proceedings of Walker and his associates.

had been ordered by the person called “King of Mosquito," he said:

"The King is without the mental capacity to dictate this measure or any other. That Mr. Walker has directed the whole affair; that he had

year, and that, upon his return, had said, that the Governor of Jamaica would send troops to takeSan Juan, but that Bluefields should not be disturbed, and that when he, (Walker) started for San Juan he invited him, (Hodgson) to go along, but not to be alarmed, as it was merely a walk, (i. e. pleasure trip) but if they (Hodgson and his com panions) had known the object they would not have gone.

Mr. Hodgson also testified that he had on se "Being asked if he had signed the note pre-veral occasions been compelled to sign his name sented to him and to which the name of "Geo. Hodgson, senior, counsellor. &c." was appended, dated Bluefields, 25th October, and notifying the Director to withdraw the Nicaraguan establish ment at San Juan, he answered:

to documents presented to him, the nature of which he did not understand. Also that he knew nothing of " British Protection," only so far as he had been instructed by Mr. Walker!

The whole testimony is exceedingly amusing. "He had examined said note and that the sig- This Hodgson was claimed of the Nicaraguan nature of "George Hodgson" was not his, that he Government as a British subject. He was, howwas not in Bluefields at that date, and consequent-ever, the grandson of Robert Hodgson, who, as ly could not have signed it.

we have seen, was Colonel in the Spanish service!

of truce, with communications for the Nicaraguan Government. It is immaterial to notice in detail the correspondence which passed, and which had an overstrained air of civility upon both sides. The Government of Nicaragua declined to make any apology for its proceedings at San Juan, asserting that it had done only what was

the English prisoners, provided on the other hand, the Nicaraguan prisoners were released. It granted also a safe conduct to Captain Loch, to enable him to approach to some of the islands in the neighborhood of Grenada, for the purpose of effecting some pacific arrangement. This, that officer was too glad to accept, for besides the hopelessness of advancing upon the populous side of the lake, sickness had al

of San Juan, and the principal part of the remainder boatmen in the river, who had volunteered their services. There were but six regular soldiers besides one or two officers, who had before been stationed at San Juan, among the entire number. They had one or two rusty cannon, which they did not know how to manage, and a variegated assortment of old muskets and fowl-right and proper, but consenting to deliver ing pieces for arms. A large portion had their Machetes, a kind of long heavy knife in common use in these countries. To dislodge this force, and resent the insult which had been given to Great Britain and Mosquito (!!)" by pulling down the Mosquito flag, the English troops, consisting of 260 picked men, under command of Captain Loch, accompanied by Mr. Walker, embarked on the 11th. On the 12th they reached the point, when after an ir-ready reduced his effective force nearly one regular contest, the English landed, putting the Nicaraguans to flight. The Nicaraguan loss was reported by Captain Loch, at 20 killed and double that number wounded; the English loss, 2 killed and 13 wounded. In the number, however, Captain Loch does not include Mr. Walker and a boon companion, who were reported to have been "accidentally drowned." Mr. Walker's body was found a week or two after, with a bullet hole in the breast, horribly mangled by alligators, and was buried on the spot where it was discovered. Thus terminated the career of one who had been most active in the unworthy scheme of fraud which we are relating; and who, if he ever possessed any sense of honor or rectitude, sacrificed it promptly at the call of men equally reckless with himself, but too cautious or too cowardly to incur the odium of their own measures, men, however, whom history will not fail to consign to the obloquy which they merit.

Having gone through the usual ceremony of demolishing the works he had captured, Captain Loch pressed forward to the ruined fort of San Carlos at the head of the river, of which he took possession, appropriating twelve out of the sixteen houses to him self and his troops, and with true British magnanimity, leaving the remaining four to the inhabitants and prisoners. Here he established himself, sending scouts along the sparsely populated coast to collect provisions. After a time he dispatched a Mr. Martin to the city of Grenada, under a flag

fourth, and his men were compelled to subsist on beef and plantains alone. Still like a true Briton, he assumed the air of a conqueror, and so well that he almost convinced the Nicaraguans that he had them completely in his power. The upshot of the whole matter was the nomination of S'rs Francisco Castellon, Juan Joseè Zavala, and José Ma. Estrada as Commissioners, to settle affairs with Captain Loch. They met at the island of Cuba, when Captain Loch dictated the following extraordinary articles:

1st. That the Nicaraguan Government surrender the persons of two British subjects, Messrs. Little and G. Hodgson, taken prisoners

by the forces of the State of Nicaragua, on the 9th January 1848, from the port of San Juan, and that they shall be delivered over to Captain Granville Gower Loch, in this island of Cuba, within twelve hours from the ratification of this treaty.

2d. That a Mosquito flag and other effects taken on the same day and from the same port, be restored without delay, and that a satisfactory explanation be given by the Nicaraguan Government for the outrage that the commandant of Her Majesty's forces conceives to have been offered to the British flag, in hauling down that of Mosquito under her pro

tection.

Explanation. The Nicaraguan Government were ignorant that the Mosquito flag was so connected with that of England, as that an outrage to it should involve an insult to that of Great Britain. They are

ment were in ecstacies, in consequence of his condescension; treated him to dinners; and, in a paroxysm of joy and wine, the chief, Castro, "regretted that he had not a daughter, so that, after the manner of monarchial Europe, he might firmly cement the union between the reigning houses of Mosquito and Costa Rica !"

gently; and the British Vice Consul, to whom the task of making it was confided, intimated also to the Government of Nicaragua, that if $100,000 was considered any object, he had no doubt it might be obtained by a formal relinquishment of the territory in question, accompanying the intimation with the hint, that the British Government might soon be compelled to insist upon the payment of certain obligations, which it had been alledged the State was under to British subjects.

To understand this subordinate plot fully, it is necessary to mention, that a Mr. Molina, after due consultation with the British agents in Nicaragua and Guatemala, had been Minister from Costa Rica to England. The object of his mission is apparent: Great Britain, desirous of avoiding injuring her influence in Costa Rica, by enforcing her pretensions on behalf of Mosquito, to the eastern coasts of that State, judiciously limited her actual and forcible encroachments to the recognized territories of Nicaragua. She did this, relying upon future intrigues to extinguish the Costa Rican title, and lest Costa Rica should become alarmed, and affiliate with Nicaragua, from which State she had kept aloof in the late contest, as well as for the purpose of diverting the attention of her people from their own objects, the British agents incited the Government of Costa Rica to renew obsolete pretensions to a valuable portion of Nicaraguan territory, promising to pro

The bacchanalian bouts in Costa Rica over, Mr. Christy set out for Nicaragua, where he supposed the majesty of his presence might work magical results. Arrived at Leon, he forthwith addressed a letter to the Government, to which the Government replied, declining to have anything to do with him, and directing their answer to "Mr. Christy, subscribing himself Her Britannic Majesty's Consul-General in Mosquito." To this, Mr. Christy made a long and indignant reply, and returned forthwith to San Juan. In passing through the river, he observed that the forty miles between the Rapids of Machuca, and the Serapiqui (the then proclaimed western limit of Mosquito) were fair and fertile, and he incontinently received new light, in respect to the "territorial rights" of the King of Mosquito, This was forthwith transmitted to the foreign office, and in two months thereafter, it was proclaimed that the "Territory of Mosquito, on the west, extended up the river San Juan, to the Rapids of Machuca !"-forty miles beyond the former limit! A line, drawn from this point, to the claimed point on the river Roman, takes in part of Lake Nicar-tect them from the superior power of this agua, a portion of the inhabited Nicaraguan district of Chontales, besides a number of the richest mines, and some of the largest towns of Segovia, not to mention a number of the ruined forts of the Spaniards on the Rio Segovia, and other streams! This boundary would, therefore, if it could be maintained, greatly promote the "wellbeing of the Mosquito kingdom," to say nothing of British interests!

Previous to this, the Government of Costa Rica had also received new light as to its northern limits, and intimated that its territories extended a hundred miles higher up the Pacific coast than had before been pretended, so as to take in the southern shore of Lake Nicaragua and the south bank of the river San Juan, including the Nicaraguan military station of the Castillo Viejo. This intimation was made

State, in case of necessity. This snug arrangement could not, however, be kept entirely secret. It got out, that Costa Rica was to be placed under British protection. The idea elated Castro, the Chief of Costa Rica, to the highest, who fancied he saw, in this arrangement, an indefinite prolongation of his ill-gotten power, which now appeared to be failing fast. The information reached the United States, and, meantime, Mr. Molina, having arrived in England, Mr. Bancroft was instructed to question him upon this point, and to intimate to him, that the United States could not fail of being interested against any such proceedings on the part of any North American republic. Mr. Molina placed his hand upon his heart, and declared that the idea had never been entertained by his Government, and yet he