342 TEAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPOET. 



by various excited personages who had come down 

 from Walker, and been present at one or other of the 

 events of which they were the voluble narrators, and 

 who now found themselves cut off from any possi- 

 bility of return. Regrets for what might have been 

 done were now idle. The curses heaped upon the 

 head of the devoted Spencer but little affected that 

 acute individual, who was now chuckling over his 

 success, and strengthening the defences of the river ; 

 and while I shall leave my quondam friends to devise 

 plans for forcing their way past these, it may be 

 interesting to give some account of the manner in 

 which an operation was effected, calculated so seriously 

 to injure the prospects of General Walker, and to 

 render the work of reopening a communication with 

 him from the Atlantic side one of the utmost danger 

 and difficulty. The following account, taken from 

 the 'Boletin Oficial' of San Jose^ the capital of 

 Costa Rica, is said to be derived from undoubted 

 authority : 



" It appears that the Costa Rica Government, in 

 addition to the army it had sent to co-operate with 

 the allied forces against Walker in Nicaragua, re- 

 solved upon organising an expeditionary force for 

 the purpose of possessing itself of the river San 

 Juan, wisely judging that the efforts made to dis- 

 lodge Walker would be prolonged, if not rendered 

 futile, as long as he possessed facilities for receiving 

 supplies and reinforcements by every steamer from 



