A BUN TO NICARAGUA. 



BY LAURENCE OLIPHANT. 

 [MAG A. MAY 1S57.] 



THE bar-room of the St Charles Hotel at Xew Or- 

 leans, always a scene of stir and bustle, presented 

 a more than usually excited aspect on the morning of 

 the 28th of last December ; a degree of unwonted 

 earnestness might have been observed in the counte- 

 nances of some of the groups collected over cocktails, 

 who, after touching each other's glasses with an air of 

 fierce determination, and disposing of their contents 

 with a defiant toss of the head, separated with so 

 much hearty hand - shaking, and accompanied their 

 parting blessings with so many ejaculations partaking 

 of an exactly opposite character, that their next meet- 

 ing was clearly, in their opinion, a distant and proble- 

 matical event. On that eventful morning I myself 

 had gone through an extensive and varied course of 

 beverages, for I was fortunate enough to possess many 

 friends in New Orleans ; and as I was about to leave 

 them, a number of parting-cups were necessarily in- 



