A RUN TO NICARAGUA. 335 



It was a never-ending source of interest to me 

 to hear from their own lips the adventures of 

 men whose whole life had been passed in constant 

 exposure to danger in every form. There were men 

 of every nationality, who had fought in every part 

 of the world. One company was composed entirely 

 of Germans. There were Hungarians who had bled 

 at Segedin ; Italians who had fought at Novara ; 

 Prussians who had gone through the Schleswig- 

 Holstein campaigns ; Frenchmen who had fought in 

 Algeria ; Englishmen who had been in our own 

 artillery in the Crimea ; Americans who had taken 

 part in both the Cuban expeditions, and suffered a 

 year's imprisonment in Spain ; others fresh from 

 Kanzas ; while among the younger ones were those 

 who had not yet fleshed their maiden bowies, and 

 were burning to have some deeds of prowess of their 

 own to relate. Some of the officers had served 

 already in Nicaragua, and were returning from leave 

 of absence ; others had been in the United States 

 army, and were as well-informed, gentlemen-like, and 

 agreeable as the officers in that service usually are. 



"With such an incongruous mixture, it might have 

 been anticipated that to keep order would be no easy 

 task. So far, however, from this being the case, 

 nothing could exceed the orderly behaviour of the 

 men. No spirits of any kind, even on New Year's 

 Day, were allowed to be issued. The roll was called 

 regularly morning and evening, the officers of the day 



