81
PAPEns OF MIJlA.BEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR
to the circumstances of the late Revolution which has transpired in Nicaragua IIL the year 1853 Don Fruto· Chamoro was elected President of the Republic, by a large majority over his opponent Don Fran- cesco Caltillon. The democratic party of which the defeated candi- date was the leader claimed that there had been fraud in the elec- tion of Chamoro, and there was consequently much dissatisfaction ex- pressed in the department of Leon, which finally resulted in many of the discontented parties, including Castillon, Generals Jeres, & Pineda and others, being banished from the Country, in February of the same year They proceeded to Honduras, and when favorably received by General Cabanas, the then President of that Republic, who gave them assist- .ance by which they were enabled, in the ensuing April, to return to Nicaragua, with a small body of adherents, to contest their right to live upon the soil of this country. The departments and pueblo, of Leon, in great part, instantly pronounced in their favour, and Chamoro the President, marching to meet them, near Chinendaga, was com- pletely overthrown, and barely escaped with his life to Granada, where he fortified himself and awaited the approach of his - enemy Castilleon having been pronounced President, and Jeres, General in Chief of the Army, the middle of May 1854, found the entire State with the exception of the l~gitimist town of Granada in the possession of the insurgents. This latter place was immedi- ately invested, by about twelve hundred democrats, but such was the fortitud of the besieged added to the strength of their position, that after an eight months siege the entire democratic army retired, in the month of February 1855, to Leon. It was at this time, when the prospects of the Democratic party, were in such a drooping condition, that an American named Byron, H. Cole, appeared, and proposed to bring to the Country a body of Americans to aid the cause of President Castillon. The plan was quickly caught at, and an agreement made between Cole and Castillon, that the for- eign auxiliaries should receive for their services, one hundred dollars per month, 500 acres of land, and added to this priviledges of citi- zenship Cole proceeded at once to San Francisco, and there met Col Wm. Walker who had recently. returned from an unsuccessful ex- pedition against the Mexican department of Sonora. Embracing the proposition of the Nicaraguans, Col Walker sailed from San Fran- cisco on the 4th of May 1855 in the Brig Vesta, with 56 followers, and arrived in Realjo on the 5th. June following. Proceeding to Chi- nendaga the American adventurers were met by the Democratic chiefs and received with great demonstration of joy. The induction into the rights of citizenship was attended with ceremonies of great pomp in the Cathedral of that City and Walker was appointed Colonel in the Army. But the valor of the Leonese who had expected a much larger American reinforcement soon cooled, and they began to think of giv- ing up the cause as lost. But Walker and his followers whose condi- tion could not well have been rendered more desperate insisted upon being allowed to go and meet the enemy, and finaly departed for that purpose accompanied by about one hundred native auzillaries. [sic]
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